Wednesday, January 13, 2010

The Next Thing

This entry is about my daughter, Monica. She is 14 now, but she was a newborn yesterday.

Monica cried. Monica screamed. Monica was NEVER silent, unless she was sleeping. She cried between feedings, and she cried during feedings. She cried during her bath and cried after her bath. We walked the floors with her every night.

Except Wednesday nights. She went home with Mom on Wednesday nights, and Mom gave us a chance to sleep. That kid cried all the time. But, we figured out WHY she was crying. She wanted The Next Thing. She always wanted to do more.

She stopped screaming when she learned to sit up on her own. Yup, she was happy. For about a week. Then, the screaming returned. She never crawled, but we had hard wood floors and she learned to scoot, pulling herself along with her heels. She was happy. Yup, she was happy. For about a week.

Finally, that screaming child learned to walk. This opened a new world to her, in which she could do The Next Thing forever, and she was happy. And then she stayed happy. Still, she's lived her life looking for The Next Thing.

What brought this to mind was her actions tonight. She walked in and announced that she's learned a new song on the guitar. She pulled the song up on YouTube and played along. That's what she does: She finds a song that moves her and plays the guitar until she learns it. It's cool. I get this treat several times per week.

I love watching her, set upon learning The Next Thing. She stubborn, and it's working for her. It makes me look back fondly at that screaming baby. She was born wanting more. That could mean big things for her future. Never satisfied is a good way to move forward, don't you think?

2 comments:

Donna. W said...

Yep. Of course, she got bonus points from me when she knew me the first time our eyes met.

Pamela said...

You are right...she will do well in life.