Isaiah is very attached to me... which is okay, because I know it won't last forever and he is gaining so much information about his world and how to trust and blahblahblah, but it can suck the life outta me sometimes. The fact that it is difficult for him to be more than 11 inches away from my body can put a wrench into simple activities, like going to the bathroom or answering the doorbell. The only place where he will consistently be happy and not be attached to me is when we are outside. I rake the lawn while he supervises me, eating grass and playing with deer poo. Okay, not really playing with the poo but goodness there is an awful lot of it out there. But yesterday, something HUGE happened in two stages.
First, while at the library for story time, he sat happily in my lap for all the stories and songs like he usually does. At the end of the program the leader always blows bubbles. Lots and lots of bubbles. They are small and bountiful and float slowly to the ground. The kids love them and a few weeks ago Isaiah noticed them for the first time... tracking them with his eyes and then trying to catch them in his hands. Yesterday, when bubble-time commenced, Isaiah actually hopped right off my lap and scampered (read "crawled as quickly as he could") to the middle of the room... eight feet away!
He sat there quite contentedly, amongst the other children who threatened to unknowingly trample on his little body, for 5-6 minutes with bubbles flowing all around. He tried to catch them (harder than it looks) and popped the ones that landed on the ground in front of him. After a while he looked around for me. We made eye contact, he smiled, and went back to popping bubbles. When he had enough, he crawled back to me. It was amazing to say the least. This was a giant step for him and I was so pleased to see him make the transition to minor independence so easily and naturally. I knew all this attachment parenting was for a reason.
I thought that would be the highlight of the day, but that actually came later on at home. While sitting on the family room floor, where again he usually has to be in very close proximity to me, he crawled away and spent 30 minutes exploring other parts of the room all by himself. Every now and then he would check back to make sure I was still there, but he never panicked, wasn't stressed out at all about the separation, but was instead quite content to be in his own space. He looked out the windows, played with the door stopper, laughed at the heat vent and then did this...
That took all of about 8 seconds. To see the open cabinet, position himself in good striking distance, and proceed to wipe the shelf clean.
No comment on why cabinet doors aren't up yet.
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