Learning About Myself

This post is not what you might expect. Yes, I have learned significant things about myself in being Bridget's mom and getting to experience life with her.

I've also learned some little details about myself that I didn't see before my little girl began playing them back to me, repeating what she sees me doing and saying.

Apparently, I say "yep" all the time (thank goodness it's not #@!*). When Bridget first started pretending to talk on the phone, she would answer, "Hehwo?" then throw her head back and laugh. She'd listen intently for a minute and respond, "yeah....yep". I thought, I wonder where she got that? Do I laugh like that? I'm sure I don't say "yep". But according to Bridget and everyone else who knows me...I do. (Now that she's walking everywhere, she also walks and talks while on the phone--which I definitely do.)

I also didn't realize that I often walk around with a flour sack dish towel slung over my shoulder (pretty). Bridget noticed. And she does it, too.

When she finds one of my hair pins, she puts it between her teeth, pulls her hair back with both hands and then takes one hand off to retrieve the pin and to fasten her hair up off her neck. I honestly had no idea that it was my routine. My family says they see me do this all the time, but if you asked me last year whether or not I put my hair up this way, I'd have said, "maybe?"

So Bridget has obviously picked up on some of my mannerisms and habits. She has a distinct personality and many aspects of it are pure Bridget, but it is also scary how much she is like I was at her age. Some of it must be in the genes.

My parents say I "was busy" and "kept them on their toes" when I was little. That's a nice way of saying I gave them a run for their money. I talked. And gestured. A lot. When I was two and wanted my mom's attention while she was talking to the other moms, I would turn her face to mine just when she was mid-sentence and say, "Don't bisit with the ladies!" I made goofy faces, and lots of them. I always used my hands when I talked and bounced rather than walked. I danced and danced and danced...and loved to sing into the microphone on my dad's tape recorder. Words my parents use to describe me as a toddler: expressive, determined, aware, loved, secure.

And thirty-some years later, here comes Miss Bridget, who I'd describe in much the same way. She climbs into my lap, takes my face in her hands and says, "Mom! Mom!" when I am watching t.v., trying to talk to Chris, or having a meeting with her Early Intervention team. She's imitated singing since she was about five months old (she is our American Idol fan), grooves whenever she hears music (complete with shoulder shimmy), and makes more faces than anyone I know. She gestures wildly while she "talks" (it's more like jabbering at this point, and she jabbers. A lot.) She is busy, busy, busy, and keeps me busy, busy, busy. If I had a dime for every time my mom giggles when I tell her how Bridget is wearing me out, I'd be a rich lady. She says I'm getting paid back :). I say...in spades!

I know, I'd better watch what I say and do. Bridget is watching...