Parenting Moments You Can't Anticipate

Both before and while I was pregnant with Little, C and I talked a lot about parenting. We weren't naive enough to think we knew it all, but we felt like we had a pretty good grasp on some basic principles and approaches.

Fast forward 16 weeks (minus a day -- BTW, where has that time gone?), and of course, there are a million moments that we couldn't have anticipated. I'm glad of it, because they have brought us so much joy (as well as frustration, tears, and the occasional desire to sell Little to the Gypsies). One such memorable moment occurred this weekend.

For a couple of weeks now, Little has been fascinated with her feet. It started out with kicking up her hips to stare at them in wonder. Then came grabbing them. Along the way, there seems to have been a process of confirming that yes, those are her feet, whether covered in footie jammies, or socks, or bare. Then came the attempts to stuff them in her mouth (just like everything else she gets her hands on). All normal, developmental stuff (I assume), but we've been fascinated.

Then came Friday afternoon. Eureka! She did it! We were playing on the couch and Little got her squirmy, germy toes in her mouth for a good, old-fashioned foot chewing! C and I cheered so hard and hugged and kissed her so much, you'd think she scored the winning goal, or got a hard-earned A or sat up by herself. C grabbed the camera. We didn't get a good shot on Friday:

Looks like I'm helping!

Not quite there yet!

but got a great one on Saturday!

Tasty tootsies!

Since then, feet in hands (en route to or from mouth) has been a pretty common pose for Little. It definitely has brought some new questions. For example, is it okay to chew feet during Mass?* (We didn't have to decide; she slept through the whole thing for the first time in weeks.)

I find myself constantly in awe of the wonder that God helped us create this beautiful, little human, with all of her quirks and the obscene number of gifts (especially big, gummy grins) she has given us. Then I wonder what lies around the corner next. The one thing I do know is that I'll cheer her on every step of the way.

*Clearly (I hope), this only applies to those who are so far from the age/ability of reason that chewing feet anywhere could ever have the slightest possibility of being socially acceptable. Andplusalso, they need to be flexible enough to actually get their feet in their mouth successfully. I think this adequately limits the population for whom the question need be asked.