Minute by Minute

It has been another long week. I read somewhere that for stay-at-home parents the years fly by in the blink of an eye, but the days, they tick away minute by agonizing minute. That is how this week has been - a long progression of very slow minutes.

Ella is some fierce little girl now that she is steady on her feet. She has decided that she can do everything by herself. Some things she can indeed do by herself, and it's great to have her do them. Brushing her teeth, for example. I am more than happy to let her scrounge around her own mouth with the toothbrush, because that means I don't have to do it.

There are some things, however, that she simply cannot do by herself, like putting on her clothes. I would love to have her dress herself if she was physically able to, but she just can't coordinate her movements enough to get the clothes on. Her determination is much bigger than her body. And so I have to fight her to the ground amid much screaming and scratching in order to get her dressed.

It truly did happen in the blink of an eye: Ella became a toddler. Why so soon?