"Can't do it."

As a first time parent, you delight excessively with every new experience, every new achievement, every new word your little person comes out with.  It's exciting and thrilling to see this little being of yours grow from a tiny helpless babe into a running, jumping, chatty little person.  Each and every day their character becomes more and more defined and I love watching my little boy become the person God has created him to be.

But today was a little different for me.

It amazes me how little ones learn to talk and speak in sentences without having to be 'taught'.  How they just come out with stuff and you think "where on earth did you hear that?" and "how do you even know what that means?".  Today was one of those days.  "Can't do it" has suddenly entered Jonah's vocabulary, and, in an attempt to practice his new found phrase, it was used A LOT today - and it broke my heart every time I heard it.  My innocent little boy is beginning learn and understand his limitations and it makes me somewhat sad.  I realize it's important to know one's limitations, but sometimes I wonder just how much that knowledge actually holds us back in life.  Imagine if we all had an "I can do anything I put my mind to" attitude instead of just settling on "I can't do it."  Would you have got that job?  Would you have lost those 20 pounds?  Would you have run a marathon?  Would you have started your own business?  Would you have saved enough for that vacation you've always dreamed of?  Would you have gone back to school to do what you always wanted to do?  Sometimes, "I can't do it," is more of an easy way out than a limitation.  It gives us a reason not to attempt something that would put us outside of our comfort zone.

I hope that tomorrow, Jonah's stubborn "No, Mommy, I do it" attitude resurfaces.  The attitude that had been driving me nuts for months now.  Maybe his determinedness is not so bad afterall.