Underestimating

I don’t know what it is, but lately I feel like I have been underestimating Binker and his ability to learn new skills, or adapt to new situations. Perhaps it’s because a big part of me still sees him as my baby, even though he is now a couple months past his third birthday. I have a feeling that no matter how old he gets, I will always look at him as my first, sweet little boy.

Yet, I know that as much as I may dislike it, time does move on – all too quickly. And with the passing of time, Binker is going to grow and change, and with those changes come big milestones. Recently, Binker has accomplished a number of “big kid” things.

The first was eating with a spoon. Now, to be fair, he began using a spoon to eat quite a while ago, but I wasn’t consistent in having him use it. And I typically only allowed him a spoon at mealtime when it was something thick, like yogurt, which would stick to the spoon, to prevent a lot of spilling.

In the last few months, Binker has taken a liking to Chex cereal for breakfast, and I was having him just eat it with his fingers. But then, I looked at him one day, and it hit me that, he is three now, and should be mastering the spoon – even if it meant I might have a big mess on my hands. That is what learning is all about, right? Trial and error.

Nervously, the next day, I gave Binker a spoon with his bowl of milk and cereal. He got an excited gleam in his eye and dug right in with it. Here we go, I thought, certain that I would be wiping up a huge pile of milk and cereal off the floor in no time.

To my surprise, however, he took right to it. That’s not to say that some milk doesn’t end up on his pajama top, or dribbling down his chin; he is, after all, still a toddler. But when I saw how well he was doing with the spoon, I almost felt bad that I had underestimated his ability for so long. He now eats his cereal with a spoon on a daily basis, and he continues to get better and better.

The next milestone Binker achieved (and a HUGE one, I might add) was transitioning from his crib to a big boy bed. I will be perfectly honest here, I had been putting this process off for as long as possible. I was even considering just keeping him in a bed until about age 15. Okay not really, but pretty close. I just knew it was going to be an enormous headache – Binker had been in a crib tent since he was about 14 months, because as soon as he learned how to climb out of his crib, there was NO keeping him contained. I thought that with the freedom of a big boy bed, we would find ourselves in a huge tug of war every night over trying to get him to fall asleep, and then staying in the bed all night.

And this Mama loves her sleep ya’ll, so I was not exactly looking forward to losing a ton of sleep at night.

We kind of reached a point however, where I just knew we needed to start working on it. I chose a four-week period when Husband was out of town, so that he wouldn’t be bothered by our long, difficult nights that I just knew were to come. The first night, I told Binker to get in bed, and he headed for his crib. I picked him up, placed him on his big boy bed, and said that this was his bed now, no more crib, but he needed to stay in it all night. Even though I spoke seriously to him, in my head I couldn’t help but think, Who am I kidding?

Well, once again, Binker exceeded all of my expectations. He instantly LOVED being in the big boy bed, and played nicely with his toys until he fell asleep.

And then? He stayed asleep. All night.

I seriously could not believe my luck. I assumed it had to be some sort of a fluke, but then, night after night, he stayed in his bed and slept wonderfully for me. And, once again, I couldn’t help but feel like I had underestimated Binker’s ability to learn a new skill; I felt I had been holding him back.

And just this week, Binker tackled a new thing: riding the school bus. His summer preschool class started yesterday, and I was so nervous for how he would do on the bus ride. I didn’t know if he would be scared, being in a new vehicle, or if he would be afraid since no one familiar would be with him. I was sick to my stomach, worrying about him crying all alone on the bus ride. But, when the bus pulled up to our driveway after his first day, and I nervously asked the bus driver how Jacob did, he responded, “Terrific! Didn’t even faze him.”

I looked a few rows back to see my son happily looking out the window of the bus. Then he looked at me and said, “Mommy’s back!”

I couldn’t have been more excited for him, or proud of him for being such a brave, big boy. This morning when the bus came back to pick him up, without a moment’s hesitation, he stepped right on up, and took the very front seat, ready for another day of bus rides and preschool class. 

 Is he not the cutest preschooler ever?!

With all of these changes and milestones that Binker has accomplished in such a short amount of time, I find myself reevaluating a lot of the ways I have been approaching him, and perhaps, even, coddling him. I realize that he is much more capable that I have been giving him credit for, and even though it is somewhat of a bittersweet process, I am so excited to see him learning new things, and to see the pride he feels in himself.

Now, do I dare take on the next big milestone in our path…?