One thing I know for sure (to quote Oprah), is that toddlers love predictability. They want to know what’s happening, when it’s happening, and how it’s happening. Enter: reading the same book fifty-thousand times, bedtime routines, and the little person pulling on your shirt asking, “what you making, mama?”

But, sometimes plans change. In a flash, something you prepped for and talked about and looked forward to, can be taken away. Hello, Covid – I’m looking at your stupid face.

Granted, I’m only suffering the loss of family get-togethers and a little toddler dance party that would have been worthy of a thousand pictures, but still. It sucks.

We ask children to learn so much about this weird world in a staggeringly short amount of time. Why shouldn’t she demand order? Some sort of predictability? I do, and I have nowhere near her excuse.

I would just prefer if I knew exactly what’s happening, when it’s happening and how it’s happening because I get kind of anxious sometimes.

Every now and then, when I stop picking up toys, or making snacks, or moving her curious fingers away from cords, I just sit and watch her. Amazed. She knows the party isn’t happening. She knows the thing she was most excited about is postponed indefinitely, and somehow that’s okay. She’s okay.

Maybe it’s because she knows we’ll read that book again, and tuck her in just the same, and give her a kiss on her forehead before she goes to sleep…just like we always do.