 |
| Day 6 of 31 at TWT! |
"Mmmmm! He wants to snuggle!" Her big eyes peer into mine and she grins, switching from her already high, already sugary to the even higher, even sugarier falsetto she uses for a toy's voice: "Snuggle! Mmmm!" Her little hand shoves Nutbrown Hare at me, smushing him against my face and then my neck. Her little hips wiggle sideways on my lap in her patented intentional-snuggle move.
Finally, she plops her head onto my shoulder and mumbles, "sing a song." This is more like it!
"What song do you want?" I kiss her hair, and she requests a favorite Laurie song that usually settles her down pretty well. However, she proceeds to spend most of it singing along, aggressively snuggling me, twirling her hair around a chubby finger, and changing positions every two seconds. Ok, still not really ready to go down...
I make up a couple of extra verses, and while she stops singing, she's still wiggling too much, flopping Nutbrown Hare from one side of her head to another. I give up and finish the song with the last real verse.
"'Nother song."
"How about Rainbow?" I suggest, afraid that if I let her choose, she'll pick a more exciting song that won't get us any closer to our goal.
"Yeh-uh" she mumbles quietly and settles in more calmly, one little hand holding Nutbrown Hare above her head and the other at the back of her head, smooth brown hair entwined in her tiny fingers mid-twirl.
"You're the end of the rainbow, the star on the tree," I start to sing my old lullaby* the way my parents sung it to me. "...the Easter Bunny to your daddy and me. / You're sugar and spice, and everything nice. / You're your daddy's..." I break into a whisper like my mom always did, "and mommy's," then sing the big girl ending since she's always declaring she's a big girl now: "big girl!"
After just a few repetitions, her breathing slows and her head starts to lean floppily. I stop singing and slow the rocking chair to a stop. How does she go from active to asleep so fast? I could put her down right away, but I poke my head past Nutbrown Hare's outstretched arm to breathe in the smell of her hair and kiss her head, trying to freeze the feeling of her little self snuggled against me.
 |
| <3 <3 <3 |
Eventually, I gather her up in a floppy bundle, stand up, and lay her gently on her back in her crib. Her little hand vaguely reaches for Nutbrown Hare when he starts to fall out, and she rolls over to curl up on her front like she almost always does now, legs tucked up and little feet crossed at the ankles, just like we saw at her 18-wk ultrasound before we ever met her. She's so mostly-asleep that I stand for a minute, just gazing at her. What a little miracle.
*Apparently, my old lullaby is a modification of song from the 60's called "Daddy's Little Girl": the tune is the same as in this video, but my parents only ever sung it the way I wrote it above, as just one verse which seems to be a combination of a couple verses of the real song.
This was such a sweet capture. You do such a beautiful job of setting the scene. You're right that I very much appreciated your post from 2015 about the skies!! The vastness - so important to remember. I feel the way you mother viscerally. TY so much for sharing (both)! XX
ReplyDeleteSavor these moments, time passes too quickly. Then all you have are the memories.
ReplyDeleteI love this captured memory. These are things that stick with our children long after they are small enough to rock in our laps. Thank you for sharing it with us.
ReplyDeleteYou commented on my blog over a week ago about this slice. I’ve been drowning in life but wanted to find my way over here to read about your beautiful lullaby.