Last week, I had trouble thinking about things I love about Baby’s current phase. Not this week. This week I am bubbling over. Maybe it’s the holiday weekend. One whole extra day with Baby means one extra day of memories and discoveries. Maybe it’s that we spent the weekend at my parent’s house. Something about being around people who don’t see Baby very much allows me to see her in a different light. I get to sit back a bit while she runs and plays with her grandparents, aunts, and uncles. And I get to watch the excitement my family experiences every time they hear her say a word, climb up steps, or do anything that she has been doing for months but that they haven’t seen. Before long they say that she is growing up too quickly and I, of course, must agree. But before I get caught up in thinking about all of the ‘before you know its,’ I pull myself back to focus on the here and now and the lovely things about these days.
1. My baby voice
The other day I was at Starbucks, fulfilling my morning ritual and stopping for chai on my way to work. As the cashier handed my card back to me, I thanked her, just as I do every day. But that particular day, I heard something in the way I conveyed my gratitude. It was quick, the ‘you’ slightly higher pitched than the ‘thank’ to end on a cheery sounding note. It sounded exactly like Baby’s ‘thank you.’ And that’s not all. When I catch her about to do something I don’t want her to do, I say ‘No. Uh-uh.’ (I have no idea why I feel the need to add the uh-uh, but now I can’t stop). She now says the same if someone is about to do something she doesn’t like. Her agreement ‘Yeah. Ok.’ also comes directly out of my mouth. She is like a little voice recorder. It cracks me up to hear myself in her voice.
2. One, two, free!
We are making great strides with counting. At the beginning of last week, she could say ‘one.’ By the middle of the week, if I said ‘one,’ she would follow with ‘two.’ Yesterday she added ‘three’ although it sounds like ‘free.’ Lots of activities are counted off: ‘one, two, three, flying!’ for when M and I are each holding a hand as we walk down the street and we pick her up on ‘three.’. ‘One, two, three, spin!’ all weekend as I picked her up and spun her around in my parents’ luxuriously large back yard. Fun is having the baby you are about to tickle, count down to it for you!
3. Spontaneous kisses
I’ve talked about the sad rarity of baby cuddles in my life before. And it’s probably because I beat her to the punch and steal hugs and kisses before she can give them to me. So it is still incredibly special to get a kiss that I did not specifically request. Especially when it comes not only completely out of the blue, but in a room full of people. While at my parent’s house this weekend, I sat on the floor with Baby on my lap. She had been running around but kept ending back with me. Suddenly she turned around, and quickly brought her face towards me, smashing her smiling lips into mine. I can still see the look on her face before it came so close that it was out of focus. The look said happiness and love.
I love my Baby.
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