Day 13
Prompt from Think Kit by SmallBox: Listening - when was the last time you listened to someone, where, why?
Okay, I am a little behind. It is January 17th and I am only on day 13 of the December Think Kit challenge. I was stressing about it for awhile. Until Andy reminded me that this blog is something that I want to do and not an assignment that I am procrastinating in finishing. So, while I did not blog everyday in the December, I may still use the Think Kit days on occasion to get me started...like, for example, the one listed above...
Ramona's vocabulary is growing by the minute. And while Andy and I joke that we might be the only ones who speak the dialect at the moment, she is really amazing in how much she can communicate. It has made me think about how much has changed in four and a half months time.
Before Miles was born at the end of August, all my energy was focused on Ramona. Every activity I selected was custom fit to what she would want to do, and the two of us did everything from naps to outings as a unit. And then she became a big sister and I became a mother of two.
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Ramona came to the hospital with my mom and dad to meet Miles just a couple hours after he was born. Andy went to the waiting room and got her, and she was the first person to meet our little guy. Our thought was that our little family of four would have a moment alone before grandparents, aunts, great grandparents, friends, etc. got in on the fun.
When Ramona walked in, I couldn't believe how big she looked and how heavy she felt when I picked her up. I had just been with her a couple hours earlier, but it seemed like she had transformed from a baby to a kid overnight. She was not very interested with me, Andy, or Miles..we had bought her her first baby doll with a stroller and gave it to her on that first visit. My parents and Andy's parents later confirmed that all she did the three days we were at the hospital was take her "baby" for walks.
At home, Ramona became much more interested in her new brother. She also decided that her "dada" was her parent of choice. She wanted Andy to change her diapers, give her a bath, read her bedtime story. She had very little time for me. It felt like Miles was my kiddo and Ramona was Andy's.
She wasn't the only one who changed though. From our first day home, I found myself saying things like "Ramona, you need to be patient," "Ramona, are you listening?," "Ramona, you need to obey Mama." Patience, listen, obey...concepts that we never discussed prior to Miles that for some reason I thought she should just be able to master overnight.
Okay, maybe I am being too hard on myself...not that I thought she "should be able to master overnight" but concepts that I "needed her to master...and soon."
She, as the independent spirit she is, has responded to this in amazing ways. She has become more independent...wanting to put on her own shoes, pick out her own outfits, walk without holding my hand. She has welcomed Miles into her routines...allowing him to bathe with her, helping change his diapers, reading books on my lap while I nurse him. And she is communicating and sharing her wants, needs, and personality with us through her new found love of words. Sure she sometimes whines or throws little fits, but for the most part she has accepted the challenge that we don't have as much time to guess what is going on with her and she figures out how to get our attention and make herself clear.
She is talking, and I am listening.
