Today i will count rocks

Everyone was smiling and laughing at the sweetness through our whole breakfast as we went through our usual banter.

'Hi baby guy!' She says to the little boy sitting next to our booth.
'Here Ryot, take a bite.'
'No silly mommy, all done'
'Oh OK, are you ready to go?'
'No, I want to dance.'

Well OK then. She grabs my purse and starts dance-walking towards the door. She trips over it twice but just gets right back up and keeps walking. As I'm paying for the meal, she has taken the booster seat off of a high chair in the corner and crawled in it. She is swinging her legs and so proudly exclaims 'mommy, i did it! Look!' She is smiling at the people smiling at her and one lady says 'she's fearless'. She stands up and I put her back on the ground.

'Uh oh, shoe off'

She starts running to the door and then runs back to me to put her shoe on. As we are leaving a lady says 'this is a great age to be curious. She is so well mannered. Good job, mom'

You see, I don't care if Ryot sits in her chair for the duration of the meal. I don't care if she is peeking around the booth to smile at the baby next to us. It doesn't bother me for her to trip over my purse and to trip again. I'm not annoyed that it took us twice as long to leave because she wanted to open the door for me and make sure it was closed behind me. This IS the time for her to be curious and I love every second of it.

This whole parenting thing is a learning process. And just when I think I have it down, we enter a new stage of curiosity and emotions. I am learning how not to compare to other parents and more importantly how not to care if they don't approve of what I'm doing. Its hard to get the scoffing look from the family in corner. Their son is sitting in the high chair eating everything on his plate and mine is standing right outside of the booth dancing. But I love that she loves to dance. I love that she looked at the lights above us and giggled as she shouted 'its the moon!'. I love that she had to say bye to every person that she walked by. I love that she doesn't care what other people think because she hasn't been taught that mentality. I hope she never learns it.

See, I want to raise a warrior. I want to raise someone who will logically question the boundaries with no fear of rejection or judgment. I want to raise her to say hello and bye to everyone she meets. I want to raise her to take risks. I want to raise her to not care about the little things but be worry-free in her passions. I want to raise a little girl who knows that she is loved and cherished at all times.

Right now, we are building her foundation. I want to give her as much reinforcement of love and passion  so that she can be released in the world and share that love with other people!

Right now she wants me to come outside so she can sit in my lap and count rocks. Or as she says 'sit in yap and rocks 1, 2, 2, 2!'

So today, I will count rocks so that in her tomorrows she can move mountains.