The Making of a Woman Intensivist: Age 2

 / by Dr Margaret Aranda /

Image 1. Awakening. There was no 'gradual' awakening.  

Photo CreditMasopasi/iStock/Getty Images

Her eyes opened, wide awake in a microsecond. Darting them about, "Oh boy!" ...it dawned on her like a firecracker that today wa...."OH! I wanna go out and play all the whole day away!"

She woke up more, immediately with another quick flash.  "Oh!" Determination was sharply set on her smooth face and her lips perked up, straightened. Wide awake, the little two-year old toddler hurriedly threw the soft cuddly blankets back, sun-drenched room bright, smile in flight. Her orange night-light was still on, for some reason, and the lavender fragrance sheets spoke of things colored and flowery.  

Since her blue gray pajamas were all knitted with dreams of cloud-watching, that was the last thing on her mind. It was the long zipper from neck to ankle and the yellow feet that did it. For they were pleated and padded on the bottom with that sticky pad kind of stuff. And she wanted out of bed now. 

Rolling over on her stomach, she positioned her body perpendicular to the needless bed.  She meticulously laid her head on the middle of the bed, then scooted her legs so they flipped over the edge.  This was the challenge of the day: to get past the edge of the bed. To get to greater things that were unseen. She had to do it! Her lips pursed once again as she breathed out of her nose. She laid on her belly, then grabbed onto the bedsheets with her little hands tightly clenched. Her knuckles were indented with that baby fat we all love, chunky wrists with folds of laughter and kisses to behold.  

At first, her feet dangled over the edge, she let herself slowly fall down in a controlled way. Now her knees were on the edge.  One hand loosened grip and moved closer to the edge, too.  Her hips pushed on the edge of the bed. Now both fists were white at the knuckles.  Slowly, ever so slowly, she let gravity pull her down.  The edge of the bed was at her belly now. Her feet swung from the bed, and they inched down.

"Uh!  Uh!"  She grunted as her eyes looked backwards.  She looked backwards so hard that her eyes hurt.  It was morning again and she just had to do it!  "Uh!"  She couldn't wait!  She had to get out of this bed!
"Bam!"  Her feet hit the floor, and she went tumbling overboard. "Uh!"  Her body was going upward now, picking herself up.  She was glad to be off the bed, at least.  This was progress. She wasn't hurt at all!

Quickly, she picked herself up and started running.  Ahh!  But she was still awkward and didn't quite catch all her balance first, so she fell again.  She had been in forward motion, and her body lost control and pitched forward.  "BOOM!" 

"Uh!"  She was sprawled out with her hands before her, elbows down.  She struggled a bit.  "Uh!" Wiggling this way and that, she grunted as she lifted herself again, until at last, she was on her yellow padded feet. WHEW!

"Mama!  Where?"  Her eyes searched left and right, right and left as she made her way out of the sun-soaked room.  Into the hallway she went, scrunching her eyes to adjust to the dark hallway. She looked under the bookcase.  She peered under the chair.  She searched.  She pouted.  Nothing was there.

Then she had a thought.  "Outside!"

She toddled over to the back door, hands smearing another set of handprints on the glass window. "Oh boy!" She smiled. Relief! Bliss!  Now she could play! 

Image 2. Her Two Kittens in a Bucket. Her eyes widened as she saw them together.  She thought they were little people stuck inside of a cat's body. One was Fluffy, and one was Mattie.  Today she would put them in her duckie bucket, then put them on her slide.  They would slide down the slide, and she would laugh the day away! Awe! She would do this over and over again, just like yesterday.

Her laughter and giggles would fill the air, just like her naturally curly hair that turned from brown to blonde in the smiles of the sunlight. Just then, her little hands picked up one furry friend, and then the other, as if they were her babies. Real ones. They jumped and played, they got belligerent and tried to run away; they behaved, and then they misbehaved. And she loved the unexpected playfulness they had, and she pretended to scold them when actually, actually, she wasn't mad at all. For some reason, she just liked to point her finger at their faces, and lecture them here and there. It just felt right. She was the teacher, and they were talking in class. Or they were in church, and one must be quiet for Mass. Humph.Yup. 

She loved to curl them up to her cheeks, feeling her soft fur on their skin. It was as if the textures mixed into one, life breathing newness into the waking world. They re-animated her 'space' like foreigners from another land, and they counted on her for food, water, and poo-poo sand! She watched them lap up their meals after playing in the hot sun, and never understood why they didn't like to join her in the blow-up swimming pool. She thought they should want to cool down; she just never understood! But there was one thing that she certainly knew...

There was nothing else that she wanted to do.

That's all she wanted; that's what the whole day just was. Playing with her babies, taking care of her babies, laughing with them and laughing at them! Keeping them 'in control' was quite the job! After swimming pool time, she was ready for a great nap. No complaining, no resistance, no whining, no saying, "No!" like a two-year old. She was pleasantly pooped, and beginning to get cold. So she was tucked in for a nap, together with her cats, and slept until dinner was ready for munch.

That's it.

So simple it was, for her furry friends to be her companions in real life. She loved every moment of being with them. She never thought about growing up. Not once. She never thought that today and tomorrow would fade away. No.  She just did the things she liked, the things that she was used to doing ~ being a mommy, feeding her babies, and playing with them. She didn't even have to work very hard at getting them to behave. They were just so naturally cute and cuddly!

And after dinner, she would brush her teeth and go to bed. 
And when she woke up in the morning, her first thought would be that of her babies. She would nurture them, spend time with them, talk to them, love them, and make sure that they knew of her love.

Each morning, this was her routine: she balanced 'just so' on the edge of the bed, and let gravity pull her down with no dread. 

Eventually, her feet touched the floor. 

And tomorrow she would be back to do it much more!

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The End

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