Surge of courage and independence

I have those moments.
Ya know, the ones where you look at your kids and it's as if all of a sudden they grew up over night. You look at them and wonder where your baby went. You suddenly see them differently. You become unwantingly aware of the fact that they are older and there is nothing you can do to stop it. I had one of those moments today. Today I had reality slap me across the face, bring me out of "la-la denial mommy land"and back to reality....the reality that Sydaleigh is growing up...

This evening I was outside with the girls watering the flowers when Sydaleigh says to me....
"Mommy, I want to say "hi" to the neighbors".
Our neighbors across the street were outside hanging out in their front yard so I tell her we'll stop and say hello when we go for a walk.
She mentions is a few more times while I finish watering the plants and is very eager to start walking so we can say hello.
As she gets on her bike it was then that I notice she was not referring to the adult neighbors but the little group of girls sitting on the sidewalk playing with dolls.
That made much more sense.
Of course I tell her we can stop and say hello so we cross the street and make our way over to the little cluster of girls.
One girl is roughly Sydaleigh's age but the four others are a few years older. You'd think that would intimidate her; make her more hesitant to approach...or so I thought...
As we approach the group Sydaleigh turns to me and asks if she can play dolls with them...
...then she asks the group of girls if she can play with them.
They all said yes and welcomed her into their doll party.
So, I let Sydaleigh sit on the sidewalk and play dolls across the street from our house while I looked on from our yard on the other side.
I was straight up blown away.
Sydaleigh, at three (almost four) years old was confident enough to approach a group of girls she didn't know and ask if she could play with them.
You know how scary that can be!
I was so proud of her because that's not easy. It's one thing to talk to one kid or two at a time, but this was five. Five girls.
I sat in our yard and watched her play for about 15 minutes, listening to her laugh and talk with the other girls. She looked over and waved and yelled hi to me all of once which no doubt made me feel good. She wasn't so immersed that she totally forgot me.
And when I went back and got her so we could finish our walk she expressed her disapproval in having to leave, but didn't throw a fit, she kept her cool, which I was also very impressed with.
Ya know, I want my girls to be outgoing.
I don't want them to be fearful of approaching a group to be included.
And I was dumbfounded with her forwardness this evening.
Sydaleigh is not usually so forward with kids she doesn't know so this was cool to see.
I was proud of her.
I was proud of her courage.
But, as proud as I was, I could only entertain this for 15 minutes before I had to reel her back in...I mean I can only handle short burst of independence from my three year old before I want to pick her up, cradle her and call her baby again.

and that's where reality steps in....she's not a baby anymore, and this newfound independence is gonna happen more and more...