A proud, post-Mother's Day post (intertwined with my Catholic Cavan)

I am a mother that tries not to brag about my child to other parents. If friends or other people ask me about Cavan and her antics specifically, I am happy to go into detail, but I am not one to unsolicitously announce, "Guess what great thing my kid is doing now!" I don't want to imply that my kid is somehow better than your kid or that I am somehow a better parent than you. But a wonderful Mother's Day reminds me how lucky I am to be Cavan's mommy and why I love her so much. And how proud she makes me on a regular basis. So I am going to expound on Cavan's recent accomplishments; it's your choice to read further, but please don't assume that I am somehow making a comparison between me and anyone else.

I started adding bedtime prayers to Cavan's nighttime routine. After she lays down in bed, we say the Hail Mary and the Our Father; I say a line or phrase, and she repeats it back. Afterward, we thank Jesus for our family and everything he has given us and then add any specific intentions, which I'll expand on in a sec. Two days ago, instead of waiting for me to finish a phrase for her to repeat, she started saying the lines of both prayers with me. And she now knows most of them, albiet a few mispronounced words and some prompting here or there.

Therefore, proud mommy moment #1: Cavan's use of language. I don't know what is typical or not for a two and a half year old; all I have is my own experience with my daughter. But Cavan picks up language so fast! She will repeat a word until she says it just like I do, especially multi-syllabic words like "circulation" and "hippopotamus." And she is speaking in full sentences on a regular basis, with "because phrases" and transitions like "actually" used in the correct context. Being able to coherently converse with Cavan about concepts as well as the literal is impressive to me as the mommy. I have a hard time remembering the year and a half, essentially, that all communication was conducted through the nuances of tonal sounds. And knowing that I'll be again entering the realm of deciphering a newborn's cries makes me appreciative, even more, Cavan's knack with language.

Similarly, proud mommy moment #2: Cavan loves books. This is extremely exciting for the English teacher mommy! I was worried for the first nine months of her life because she was not interested, in the least, in listening to a book. She would fuss or pull the book out of my hands. She did not want to even look at the pictures. But somehow, through offering her reading time every day and having an infinite number of baby books on shelves at her level, she has developed a desire to look at books and listen to stories.  And by me reading them to her time and again, and asking her questions about the pictures, she has gained the skills to enjoy and understand the books when she "reads" them alone. She even reads them aloud to her dollies! While I don't want her to grow up any faster than she is already, I look forward to the day where I can read aloud with her Harry Potter or The Adventures of Tom Sawyer instead of Curious George over and over again.

Getting back to the prayers, proud mommy moment #3: Cavan's empathy. When it is time for our specific intentions, Cavan asks me, "Who are we going to pray for today?" For the last week, we have been saying prayers specifically for a friend whose baby is in the hospital. Cavan is very concerned about this, not because she can contemplate the critical nature, but she understands that a baby is very sick and the doctors are trying to help him. Her empathy is so pure: her world is so small--she knows only handfuls of people and has only had handfuls of experiences. But yet, she values everything she understands and loves all the people that she knows, without question. She understands what it means to be sad and absorbs and processes that emotion when she comes in contact with emotional situations. She can read people (or character's) emotions well and reacts to them with genuine concern. I never intentionally set out to teach her empathy, but she seems to have a caring heart innately.

When I tell Cavan that I'm proud of her, like when she is being a good listener or when she carefully climbs down the stairs, her whole face lights up. One day I hope she can recognize that my face lights up just because she is my daughter.