Last night Addison removed the bins on the two bottom shelves of a family room bookcase for the sole purpose of making room to scale said bookcase in an attempt to retrieve the bin three “stories” up. This, of course, almost resulted in the entire thing tipping over on her and made me about lose my dinner even though I was only a foot away. I realize many kids do the bookshelf scaling thing at a much earlier age and thank goodness Addison hadn’t considered it before last night. I stopped her in time and she was stunned by my very sudden reaction which I hope means she will not attempt it again.

She rubbed away her dejected tears and skipped off to go get a chair to push over instead. She never even considered asking me to get the bin for her because why would she ask for help when “Addy-Mai do it!”. Just another reminder that we might be done baby proofing but toddler proofing has only just begun. Medicine, heavy bookcases, outlets….these are all Addy’s playground. And the girl is full of some ingenuity and eager to prove me wrong.

A few weeks ago Addy took out a little toy mirror and looked at herself approvingly like only a totally self-centered 2 year old can do. Then she tried to see me by turning it around to face me. Stupidly, I told her “You can only see yourself in a mirror!” and that was the challenge she needed to prove me wrong.

Ever since, she has obsessively gone around from object to object carefully holding the mirror at just the right angle so that she could see other things in her mirror, sometimes contorting herself underneath objects but never EVER giving up on her endless plight to prove me wrong.

She will find the smallest tiny speck of dust and get a perfect reflection going before adamantly letting me know. I’m not sure how many times she has to do it before she figures she’s made her point. Apparently several days is not enough!! She’ll study the drops of water on the window, the body parts of her various dolls and stuffed animals, the pets, her various body parts and of course, me. She can find just the right angle to see them and prove me wrong. That girl is hard-headed and determined. I’m afraid of how she will be at age 3!

On another note, I just want to say that I am not intentionally trying to brag about my kid at every turn. I don’t actually feel like my posts are brags as much as that I am stunned so often by my own kid and want to note those things for when she’s bigger so she and I can both read back about them. I’m sorry if my ridiculous tirades about my girl are annoying. I think I’d be a little annoyed if I was a reader As a parent I tend to have naturally high expectations. Recently I realized that Addison consistently overshoots my expectations and I’m always amazed by her determination and abilities. I should know better by now but I can’t seem to align my own expectations of her in a way that meets her own abilities so she just keeps surprising me. I’m actually worried about this as a parent because what if I don’t challenge her enough? What if I don’t give her opportunities she could handle or deserves because they aren’t age-appropriate or I don’t think she’s ready? These are challenges I have never before faced as a parent and I’m not sure what to do with them at this point.