Baby??? What Baby????

A has decided that she is a big girl. Whenever C says something along the lines of "A can't do that yet, she's just a baby" A frantically shakes her head and screams "No! No baby!" At playgroup, she has no interest in playing with the children her own age but instead tags along after the soon to be 5 year old girl, who apparently tried to insist that A be invited to her birthday party as she was one of her best friends.

And, in fact, A can keep up with the big kids most of the time. She will tackle any piece of playground apparatus she sees without hesitation. She has learned to put on her own shoes, and chooses her outfit every morning (and it is almost always color coordinated). She uses a fork and spoon better than C does, and is much more interested in giving up the sippy cup. I often forget that she is just shy of 18 months, and am surprised when she does something age appropriate like chucking her bowl of peas across the room to signal that she is done with dinner.

Yesterday we did our usual round of errands after dropping C at preschool. When we pulled into Trader Joe's parking lot she started frantically waving her arms and jabbering on about something I couldn't quite figure out. So I did the usual placating "Yes yes A, I see." I grabbed a cart and started to put her in, at which point she burst into tears. "A, what's WRONG?" I asked, afraid I had pinched her finger or scraped her leg. As I began quickly checking her out for boo boos, she wailed "Me baby! Me BAAABBY!" and frantically pointed to the carts that have the infant seat attached. I tried to reason with her "But A, you've NEVER ridden in one of those. Why on earth would you want to do so now? You won't fit sweetie!" "Me baby. Me BABY," A continued to sob as we raced by the carts in search of a balloon to distract.

While I am still unclear why she chose the very dirty, slightly scary infant carrier carts as a way to regress, it helped remind me that as big as A likes to think she is, she still needs some babying now and then. As we snuggled in the rocking chair last night before bed, she patted my head saying "My mama. My mama." And I responded with "My baby, my baby." To which she sat up and glared at me. "Me BIG mama. Me big." Whatever you say sweetheart, whatever you say.