Sweet Victory

If you would have asked me in high school what I thought a great achievement for my 4 year-old would be, I probably would have said reading chapter books or playing hymns on the piano or something crazy like that.  Back then, I had zero idea that a lot of my biggest victories would be ones that I never would have thought of as an accomplishment at all.

We reached a big milestone this week with Lily.

It was a typical night.  I made dinner.  We ate dinner.  I took Skyler up for his bath.  Then it was Lily's turn for her bath.  She sat in the water and looked up at the shower head.  I could tell she was thinking about something.  Then she said, "Can you turn on the shower?"

Whaaaat??????

This is the girl who is still scared of any loud noise.  She is scared of vacuums, blow dryers, and fire works -- basically anything with a few too many decibels (excluding her and her brother of course.  But there are many days when I feel like they produce more decibels than fire works...)  For this reason, she has been scared of the shower.  But since she asked, I was thrilled and emptied the tub right away.  She backed up against the shower wall and covered her ears with a grimace on her face, completely terrified by her choice.

Then the water came on.  The biggest grin spread across her face and she bounced right in.  "It's just like playing in the rain, Mom!"  She danced around in it for a second before she shut the curtain on my face and told me to "give her space."

As the air pushed on the shower curtain, I watched as her little feet jumped around the shower floor and I pictured her reenacting that scene in Singing in the Rain.  Lily's famous cackles echoed through the bathroom and I couldn't help but feel the victory of something so little yet so huge.

When she was done she ran downstairs to share her awesome news.  Skyler was intrigued.  Needless to say, he now loves showers, too.  

This is the girl who eats spicy food regularly without breaking a sweat, who can be flipped through the air while asking for more, who gets hit by a rock in between her eyes and shrugs it off even though her nose is swollen up.  She's a tough one, but she still has so many fears.  When she was bracing herself for the shower to come on, I know there was some 4 year-old version of "I can do hard things" going through her mind.  And I think that this is just another step on the road of progression.

Victory is sweet, no matter its size.