Raspberries

You know you're a mom when the best part of your day is your child spitting in your face.  Because that spit in my face today meant success after 30 minutes of hard work.  Success!

When I was changing her diaper this morning Evelyn started doing something funny with her tongue.  Sticking it out, kind of blowing, smiling.  I suddenly realized that she was trying to blow raspberries.  There was absolutely nothing else she could have been doing.  I had no idea where it came from, but went with it because it was so darn cute.  We spent the next 30 minutes practicing.  I would do one, she would stick out her tongue and blow air.  I would show her again, then she would purse her lips and try blowing out some air.  When that didn't work, the tongue would come back out.  I showed her again, she tried again.  And again, and again, and again.  If this is a sign of the personality to come, we have one determined little girl on our hands.  The best part was how excited she got the closer she got.  She wasn't upset when it didn't work, she just tried again.  She was having fun learning how to make it work.  

Finally, I felt the spit on my face.  The sound hasn't come quite yet, but even she knew that she was so close.  And with that, she was ready to be done for the time being.  All the exertion of trying to accomplish this task naturally left her utterly exhausted and I spent the next 15 minutes trying to get her to take a much needed nap, but it was totally worth it.  The utter happiness I felt with such a small accomplishment was a little overwhelming.  I suddenly understood what my mom was talking about all these years.

And naturally when she woke up she had completely forgotten everything she learned, as is often the case at this stage of the game.  So, we will do it all again tomorrow, and it will be as exhilarating to see this skill develop again tomorrow as it was today!