Growing Up

Yesterday at the big gathering of blankets and lawn chairs down by the Salem Wharf, I watched Miranda with her little two year old friends. She imitates them, follows them, gangs up on anyone opening food in a big toddler mass, shyly smiles at strangers until they surrender their little American flags, gets stickers from strangers, plays ball, and rolls in the grass. I was a little stunned to realize that she didn't need me at all. She didn't look back once to see if I was still there in the crowd. At one point I grabbed her into my arms and kissed her, and she told me, "No kissing, Mama." Oh my. How on earth did it happen so suddenly? Miranda was still a baby when we left for China, and in the last four weeks she has turned into such a big girl. It was only when I said to her, "Should we go home and see how Papa and Phoebe are doing?" that she suddenly realized how tired she was, and lapsed back into babyhood, with whines and cries for "Binky!" As we turned the corner to our block, from the stroller I heard, "Go home. Yeah!" I insisted on a quick bath, and then she was too tired to read Green Eggs and Ham even once.

And Phoebe's no better in the growing up fast category. Today she got her first walking shoes. As soon as we arrived back home she followed Miranda right into our neighbor's play house, washing seashells in the toy sink like the big kids. Yesterday Mark said, "Come quick!" to show me that Phoebe has now learned to climb the stairs-- all the way to the top, by herself. She now takes down all the dish towels from the oven handle, opens unlocked cabinets, and tosses every loose item in the bathroom into the tub (the potty, books, clothes, shoes, etc.). I got about four weeks of baby out of Phoebe, and now she's a full-fledged toddler.

Our new nanny starts tomorrow. . .