My perfect may not be yours

You see this little girl? She is perfect. From the tips of her little sausage toes to the top of her springy curls. Perfect.

She is a full-blown two year old. She is testing every boundary, pushing every button, and stretching every limit. She is demanding one minute and the sweetest little love the next. She is becoming quite familiar with time out and with asking for snuggles. She is perfect.

She has been in speech therapy for almost a year. She has made amazing strides. She still has a long way to go. It's incredibly frustrating for her to know what she wants to say and not be able to do it in a way that we can always understand. She is perfect.

We recently had her evaluated for some worrisome things that we were seeing. She has some sensory processing issues and self-regulation issues. She will need some short-term occupational therapy and possibly more intensive play therapy. She is perfect.

The older she gets the more we see the effects of her difficult and drug-exposed pregnancy. The more milestones she approaches, the more we notice that she sometimes has a different path to them than expected. And that she sometimes needs help to get there. The older she gets who knows what else we'll have to face. But whatever it is, she will always be perfect to me.