I caught her smiling
Giving birth to my daughter and watching her grow has been a joyous and blissful moment for me. Every milestone has been extremely great and this is the joy of every parent. Watching your child grow from one stage to another without any difficulty is one feeling that we cannot equate at all. When my daughter started crawling I was so happy. I would bring out my phone to record her doing her thing. It made me laugh and sometimes, it made me cry out of joy.
From crawling, she started standing and then I knew it was almost time for her to start walking. I was always looking forward to her throwing her first step. I remember telling my husband that the day she will take her first step, I will make sure I record it and throw a little get together to celebrate. My husband laughed and told me that most times, we may not even see her throw her very first step. We may just notice it later. I countered him and told him that I will be alert to watch her throw her first step.
When we went for her 9months immunization, I noticed that some babies her age had started walking. I felt so bad that period. I called my mother that day to complain to her of what I saw and I started crying because my daughter was not walking yet. My mum laughed at me that day. She told me that children are different and they can choose to walk anytime they like. What is important is that my child is healthy and strong. She asked me to relax that my baby will walk at her own time.
Those words from her didn't sit down well with me. my baby must walk by fire by force. I started holding her hands to walk. My baby refused to walk on her own. Instead she would walk while holding something. I gave up trying and told her to do whatever she liked. She clocked 11 months and still no sign of walking without a support. It broke me emotionally.
One morning, my husband woke up and removed the centre table we kept in the sitting room. He explained that he saw her in his dream walking from one end to another after he had shifted the centre table one side. One thing I know is that most of the time my husband dreams, it comes to pass. So i did not argue with him. Instead, what I did was to pray in my heart that she would walk.
Lo and behold that same day, we were so surprised when my baby walked from one end to another without holding anything. It was my husband that noticed it at first. He quietly tapped me to watch our daughter. I almost jumped off my skin that day. what? My baby just walked. Oh my God. I was so filled with joy. I didn't know when those hot tears ran down my cheeks. I quickly called my mum, my mum in-law, my sisters in-law, my friends and even some of my neighbours to come and celebrate with me.
It is funny now but that day it wasn't. That feeling was so genuine that everyone felt around me that period felt it. Later in the evening, I ran to the nearest baby shop to buy her some walkabout shoes so that she can be moving around. But since her legs weren't strong then, she would walk and fall. Even though sometimes, she would trip and hurt herself, I didn't mind. I would still encourage her to keep trying until her legs were strong enough.
Today, my daughter has turned to the Queen of walking about. It is now my turn to beg her to stop walking around the house because anywhere she goes, be rest assured that she would drag anything she sees(table has turned indeed).
Babies are innocently precious. And I am grateful to God for giving me the opportunity to groom and nurture a child and watch every great milestone she takes.
Thank you for reading
This is my reaction to #hivelearners feature post. You can check out the details here to participate.
All pictures are mine