Talia Biel is a member at Crossroads Church. She is a sincere Jesus follower with a gift for connecting her faith to real life, and for sharing that through her writing. Check out her blog “Holding On To Faith.
Please note: I have parental permission to use this child’s name and photo for this particular post*
A child can bring so much warmth and laughter to your soul if you let them. It all started when little miss Ava started my room at only 7 months old. On her first day, she looked away from her mother and entered the environment of which she would spend most of her days at. Carefully crawling to the toy shelf, the book centre, and to the Elmo riding toy (which is her favourite toy). Ava wanted to explore each and every area of the room. She occasionally looked back at her mother for a reassuring smile, and continued to explore.
As the days grew on, Ava became only more curious of the world around her and more independent.
She would crawl, pull things off the shelf, and point to things she wanted.
She ate like a bottomless pit, and she would move her head to one side often, and give a funny smile.
Ava acted like a tomboy most days. As much as her mom would try and dress her up, Ava just wanted nothing to do with hats, and shoes, or clothes for that matter.
She wanted to play rough. She would trip, fall, bang her head and nothing would seem to faze her. She would get up and continue playing and I had to keep up with all her accident reports. Ava quickly mastered skills such as eye-hand coordination, and gross motor such as throwing a ball. Ava soon after started walking at 11 months old, and became even more of a busy bee. She loved playing outdoors and going on our nature walks.
Ava and I had a great, strange relationship that nobody else had in the room. When she would cry because she was tired, or not feeling good, she only wanted me to pick her up and hold her. When she got dropped off in the morning, she only wanted to jump into my arms. When I would sit on the floor playing with other children, she would come up to me putting her arms around my neck tightly and give me a kiss. She’s all over my photos in my phone, and I constantly observed and documented the words she would say for her portfolio. Her favourite right now are “puppy, bottle, mama” (still working on getting her to say Talia)
Ava was indeed my little butterfly.
I’ll never forget the time Ava stopped breathing in my arms, and at that moment I wanted to do anything and everything to protect her. It was the scariest moment in Ava’s mom’s life, and mine for that matter.
The reason I talk about Ava in the past tense is because today Ava reached yet another milestone. Ava moved up the toddler room at only 15 months old! She is more ready than ever. Part of me feels separation anxiety as I watch Ava engage with the other children as a smile beams on her face. I know she is more than ready for this room and needs the change in order for her to continue growing. I look up for a second and I see her across the hall, and as she waves at me, and blows me kisses, I know that my little butterfly is ready to fly away.
– Talia
