We? Are in trouble.

So today about 10:30, Daycare Lady calls me at work.  It seems Ava got a bit tangled up in a toy bin while she was reaching for The Toy That Was Furthest From Her.  When they attempted to extricate her she kind of, well, lost her mind.  We hadn't seen Hulk Baby for a while.   Things have been pretty uneventful.  We're back on a fairly regular sleep schedule that actually involves everybody getting some sleep.  We were lulled into a false sense of security.  We got cocky.

So today, when the batphone rang, it kind of caught me off guard.

She's OK.  Daycare lady called just to let me know that Something had happened, but there didn't seem to be any lingering effects.  She calmed down after maybe 10 minutes (with the help of a bottle and some Cheerios).  She had her normal nap and lunch and snack.  She was a little edgy for the rest of the day, though.  At pick-up, I picked my first battle: Ava doesn't want the coat? Ava does not have to wear the coat.  All righty then.

In the past 11 months (precisely 11 months, in fact...) I have worried about many things where Ava is concerned.  Today, I worry that my kid is going to handle anger and frustration in much the same way as I do.  That is, she's going to explode like a grenade as her first reaction, and when that passes, and it will pass quickly, she'll be over it, she'll be fine, and everyone around her will be like "what the hell was that?!".  I want to make sure she learns how to handle stuff like that in a way that doesn't alienate everyone and perhaps trigger a semi-negative component to a performance review at her job (don't ask.). 

Or, maybe, she's just a toddler and we just have to suck it up for a few years.  It could also be that.

So 11 months ago, to the minute, I had a contraction.  I didn't know it was a contraction.  I thought it was my dinner settling.  Dinner on January 11, 2009, was In & Out Burger, which I am convinced is what put me into labor.  So at 9:30 PM that night, I stood up and stretched and felt something ODD.  Like I was being stabbed by my burger (double-double with onions).  And then nothing happened for probably an hour.  And then everything happened all at once.

It's been 11 months of astonishment.  We know Ava pretty well now.  But she's changing so quickly that sometimes we don't keep up like we should.  I looked at her the other day, and she's not a chubby little baby anymore.  She's a (still somewhat chubby but less so) little girl.  She's about to take off walking (OMG we are doomed) and one day soon the babbling is going to pause and she's going to say a word and mean what that word means (hopefully it's not something she picked up whilst riding with me...).