Who Is This

A strange sensation for a few moments as I was feeding my child lunch this afternoon. He's grown quite a bit in the last few weeks, and is large for his age--height and weight are both well above average. Beyond that--people tell me that his facial expression reminds them of an older child. And I had that feeling as I gave him his lunch: that this was an older child; that, in fact, I was sitting in front of a young child, not a baby, not even a toddler. He looked too well-defined, too sure of himself, too wise and experienced, to be a toddler. For a few brief moments, I felt like I was sitting in front of a complete stranger. It was an odd sensation, but not an unpleasant one. I'm sure every mother has moments like this, when this little person we think we know so intimately becomes someone very foreign--and therefore, somehow, even more delightful.