The biggest part of this year has been a rollercoaster ride of sorts. Kwezi seems to be growing a little bit faster and with her growth come my own expectations.

Kwezi turned two in January; it was the beginning of a new year for her. While most made their resolutions, I was busy counting down to the day that Kwezi would start talking. After all, ‘everyone’ was at the time telling me that it ‘shouldn’t be long before she starts talking’.

Two months after her birthday, nothing was happening.

Not many mothers will admit this but we of course all wish that our toddlers can learn how to talk but we also secretly wish that the first word that they say is ‘mummy’.

Three months after her birthday, the word ‘mummy’ was unheard of.

I was not happy. Her cousin and housemate Jasmine, who is four months younger than her was already saying the ‘word’.

When Jasmine learnt another word, and another, and nothing was coming from Kwezi, I started to panic. Looking back now, I realise how ridiculous and misplaced my anxiety was.

The more pressure I put on myself, the more Kwezi seemed to not be in a hurry. I just couldn’t relax. I seemed to be looking for some sort of validation that indeed, I was someone’s mummy. And here I was, looking for a child.

At some point, I was fed up so I decided to let nature take its course.  Not long after that, Kwezi entered the ‘world of speech’, and the word mummy was her first. Well, kind of. It came in the form of ‘Yayi’. I was thankful but a little bit disappointed because I guess I was obsessed with the word itself.

Children are really interesting. When it comes to raising one, time really does fly. If its words that I needed her to come up with, God sent them in abundance. I sometimes don’t understand what language she is speaking but there are also words and lines that she articulates very well. I will give you some examples.

Kwezi is obsessed with my laptop so she doesn’t mind following me around saying ‘mummy, taptop, taptop”. She loves biscuits too but we have settled for ‘bikit’, when she wants a slice of bread, it’s sometimes pronounced the right way or it can be ‘bled’. She loves flowers, so flower is pronounced perfectly. Interestingly though, she pronounces ‘thank you’ in a way that I can’t manage to write but she says ‘You are welcome’ perfectly. Please has been replaced with ‘peas’ and she can say, ‘cover me’, ‘good night’ but she can’t pronounce the name Bosco, so we are stuck with ‘Boko’ and her nanny Maureen is stuck at ‘Mono’ or sometimes ‘Mowi’.

This journey is as I have always told you, a constant teacher. To enjoy your child’s milestones better, it’s best that you let them take their own path. The moral of the story is that this is her journey and I just can’t rush her.