Let me explain. Babies start out "playing" with toys by learning to hold them, bite them, and bang them on other things. Toddlers begin stacking and organizing toys. Today, I observed my daughter creating a story with her toys. She had a little action figure, and a toy horse, and she had the action figure riding the horse, and she was narrating what was happening. And while I watched this I realized, "My little girl...is just that: a little girl. She isn't a baby or a toddler anymore. She's turning into a miniature walking, (intelligibly) talking person." It made me stop and reminisce a little, about how it doesn't seem as though I've been a parent that long, but at the same time, it's as though I've been her mother for forever. I definitely feel as though we're entering a distinctly new phase of our existence together; I'm looking forward to this.
