Guess which child is at the perfect age right now. I'll give you a hint. It's not Andrew.
Actually, Andrew's not at a terrible age. He is an emotional basket case some of the time, but I do love listening to him figure out the world around him. And being amazed at his little brain...like this morning when he pointed to an advertisement and said, "Look, it's 67 percent." Uh, when did we learn the percent sign?
No, it's my Lillian who is at the perfect age. I've always said that human beings are their most perfect between 6 and 9 months. Playful but not mobile, sleeping a lot still but in a schedule, just happy to be sitting up and interacting. Oh, and so stinking cute, you just want to squeeze and kiss them all the time. Honestly, sometimes newborns are not cute...but I've met very few 8 month-olds who aren't squeezably cute.
There are many moments during the day when I just fall head over heels in love with my little girl. She sits in her high chair after eating, happily watching me clean up the kitchen and playing with her toys. Every time I look over at her, she gives me this big silly grin. Sometimes even a squeal. I build towers of blocks for her, and she grins as she knocks them over, anticipating my mock exclamation of horror that she knocked over my tower. I adore the anticipation of tickles...she sees me creeping towards her and she just wriggles with excitement. I love the furrow of her brow when she is studying a new object or if she hears a new sound. Just figuring everything out. When we try to encourage her to babble with consonants, she just laughs and sticks her tongue out. Always with the tongue hanging out. Not destined to be a socialite with that endearing habit. There's no way you're going to get this girl to do anything she doesn't want to. A mind of her own.
Seriously, Jeff and I have it bad. She'll be sitting somewhere while we get dinner ready and we'll just have to go hug her or touch her or kiss her. We are overwhelmed by her cuteness. We may be prejudiced. I don't care. I enjoy the view from these rose colored glasses.
And Andrew is not excluded from this adoration of Lily. He adores her too...most of the time. Nothing melts my heart like watching him mimic me while playing with Lily. He's seen me creep up and tickle/kiss/eat her up a million times...and now he does it too. She, of course, encourages this behavior from her brother. And he likes nothing better than to make her laugh. So much, that he has a hard time not getting involved if I'm playing with her. HE wants to make her laugh, not me. It's his special thing. So much so that he tells strangers that we meet that Lily loves him and he makes her laugh.
I wish you could all come and hang out with my Lillian. She really is a perfect doll-baby. With attitude. Any doubt that it is impossible to love a 2nd child as much as the 1st has been wiped from my mind. The only thing I wonder now is how my rib cage is going to manage to contain my heart. It just keeps getting bigger and bigger to accommodate these little people.
No comments:
Post a Comment