Every Little Bit

He turns his head from side to side as he wakes himself out of slumber. He scratches the fabric on his crib mattress, testing the texture with his fingers. His cheeks are rosy from the warmth of his skin. He moves his feet, flexing his legs, as he adjusts from his belly position, readying to lay on his side. He begins to hum and make bubble sounds as he absorbs his surroundings, looking up for a familiar face.

He finds one. He smiles as I talk to him gently, as I ask him if he's had a good shnootz.

He goes back to stretching his legs and begins to work his way onto his back for a better view.
I watch his every move as I take in his attempts to learn this new body movement, rolling, which could give him even more options if he knew how to get back to where he started.

Sometimes in the process, I hear him grunt with his efforts as he works different gross and fine muscle groups to determine what will work best to get him in the preferred position. Sometimes the move he makes is satisfying. Sometimes it's frustrating with the inability to change back and forth, a skill he has yet to master.

I tell him he's such a big boy, able to roll into those positions for a better view. He'll learn how to get back to where he started in time. And the time moves so very quickly.

Before he knows it, he'll be crawling at high speed and then walking from one room to another.

Learning a new skill takes patience, endurance, and even a little faith in yourself, believing and expecting your skills to increase and grow as you make the effort to learn whatever is necessary to get where you want to go.

We can't expect to learn new skills overnight. Practice, observation, and even learning from someone else who has been there can go a long way toward helping us achieve our goal.

It can also be helpful to take a breather from our efforts, knowing we've put our time in, getting better and stronger with each attempt.

Every little bit helps; every step we put forth gets us further along the path we travel.

He's not in any hurry as he tries these new steps toward new skills and, eventually, independence. But he doesn't give up either. He keeps at it until something changes: he masters the movement. Then he smiles wide as if to say, "I'm proud of myself!"

And he knows I'll be there cheering him on.
And sometimes, that's really all that matters.

© 2012 by Dawn Herring