Baby to Toddler, Toddler to Kid

Diana was making fun of me today because of something I said on the playground yesterday. This lady's kid kept referring to Olivia as a baby. "No, honey, she's a toddler," the mom corrected her two-year-old. Somewhere deep inside of me a small voice made its way out of my mouth. "No, she's only 15 months old. She's still a baby!" Because she is. The little girl was absolutely correct in calling her a baby. I know she's walking around all toddler-like, and she wears some 24-month clothes, and she tried painting today, and she uses a stool to wash her hands. But when I look at that face, I see my baby girl, the one who, who, who...damnit, I can't even remember what she did when she was a baby, and that makes me a little sad. Letting go of the baby days is harder this time around; on the other hand, the emerging toddler stage is proving to be pretty exciting and fun!

And then there's Collin. No matter how much I want to keep him a toddler, it's time to face the music that those days are SO two years ago. He was watching Rescue Heroes: The Movie this afternoon (think firefighters elevated to superhero status) and commented, "I like this movie because it's a kid show, not a baby show." Wait, what constitutes a baby show? Is he over his old shows? When did this happen? (He's not done with Sesame Street and the like, btw...far from it...but I guess he is noticing a difference in target audiences.) Anyway, as you can see in the picture at the sink above, at 40+ inches he can reach the water without a stool (even more so in the upstairs bathroom where the vanity is shorter). He also took a crack at scissors for the first time today and did a great job! I showed him how to hold the scissors and gave him some brown construction paper to snip away (because who really uses brown construction paper?). Here's a video of him going to town. Note the Jennings tongue working overtime. :)

 The boy even cut out a heart by himself. All I did was guide his hand through a few for practice, giving him a line to follow. The orange one was all him (see pictures below). He is going to cut out more hearts tomorrow, paint them, add stickers, print his name on the back, and call them "valemstimes." His pronunciation couldn't be more appropriate. They won't be fancy, but they will be homemade relics of this moment in time.