Love and Blankets

     There are times when I watch Mya and it makes my heart completely melt. It's the little moments when it's quiet and I get a chance to actually just sit back and watch her little soul take shape that I love the most.

     She is becoming such a little person...a real little girl with a personality, a mind of her own and a great sense each and every day of everything that is happening around her.

      I love how she is beginning to mimic everything that we do and say, which is a constant reminder for Terry and I that we need to be aware of every move that we make. We are essentially shaping this little girl into the person who she is going to be one day and she is learning from us how to live life, how to treat people, how to be a good person and how to properly handle everything that life will one day throw at her.

     As I sit back and watch this little life in progress, it's the times when she mimics our parenting that tug at my heart the most. To watch your own child act out the way that you treat them, the way that you soothe them and the way that you care for them is an incredible experience.

      One of her favourite things to do is to use blankets, tea towels or anything else that looks remotely like a blanket to mimic our bedtime routine that we do with her each and every night. As I watch her with babies especially, it makes me realize that at her tender little age, she is already learning how to be a mama, which I just love.

     She carefully places her blankets on any willing participant and arranges them just so, "shhhing" them and patting or rubbing their back, trying to put them to sleep.

     I watched carefully the other week as she patted the floor to tell her little friend Ayva to lay down on the carpet. And Ayva complied, trusting Mya, somehow understanding without words what Mya was trying to do. One playing the baby, the other the mama. Melted my heart.

    Terry and I play along so willingly, laying down, closing our eyes and pretending that she is actually putting us to sleep...which thrills her more than anything.

But Meika, our ever-so-patient dog, gets the pleasure of being put to sleep almost daily from our little munchkin.

Whenever Mya finds the dog sleeping anywhere around the house she'll start running towards her, saying "shhh...shhh" while quickly grabbing a blanket, tea towel, dish towel or anything that she can find.

    I watch so carefully as she rubs Meika's back, then brings books over to her and starts flipping the pages 'reading' to her, just as we do each night. And Meika will just lay there, patiently and gently letting her do whatever she wants, somehow understanding that Mya is little and means no harm.

     My heart beats for these moments. These moments that make me realize that our child is learning so much from us. That she is learning how to be gentle, kind, caring and loving...which is all that a mother can really ask for.