She's turned a corner

Maybe all of you parents out there have experienced this. Did you ever turn around one day and realize that your baby is well, no longer a baby? I wonder how this felt for you. It hit me today like a ton of bricks.

Rob has been saying for weeks now that Benentt has turned a corner. He means that all of a sudden, out of nowhere, she is acting far more like a 2 year old than a 1 year old even though she is right in between. She just seems..... older.

It's hard having two kids under 2 so I let Bennett help me with chores or else I wouldn't get anything done. She always helps me with laundry. I hand her clothes out of the washing machine and she "shakes, shakes shakes" them and puts them in the dryer. We high five when we're done. She helps me cook as well. She puts on her apron and stirs pretend soup while I cook. And she helps me dust. This is her favorite. I hand her a rag and she "dusts" everything. It also helps teach her objects. She knows so many household words and will yell their names as she dusts. Clock! Chair! Door! Keys! And of course she dusts things that don't need dusting. She will run her rag over towels and yell "TOWEL!" Clearly the towel does not need to be dusted, but whatever keeps her occupied is fine by me. Kirby gets dusted, flowers get dusted, and of course poor Will gets dusted.

Anyway, today she was dusting and was running all over the house dusting stairs, dusting me, and dusting the table (Yay!) and then Will sneezed. She turned to him and said, "Bess yooo, Wuh." What? When did she learn that? When did she start putting names with phrases? Who taught her that? How did she know how to say piano as she was dusting it? Why is she helping me with laundry? Shouldn't she still be a baby cuddling with me? I got tears in my eyes and realized that Rob was right. She has turned a corner. And am I going to blink and have Will right beside her doing the same things? Time needs to slow down and corners need to be turned a lot more slowly.