go on and grow slow

I love her bedhead hair in the morning. It curls up over her ears, makes a fuzzy nest on the top of her head. Her skin is like the sweetest peach. I think I could eat her up, bit by bit. It would have to be nibbles since she is so busy. We have run-ins all the day long.

She is getting big. She has always been big. My baby, never so much a baby. I marvel at how almost 2 years could have whisked right by me. Surely I was in the room when this all happened. She's so long...so tall. Over 100% on the charts. I watch her sisters struggle to carry her on their hips. She is two-thirds the size of her brother who has 5 years on her. But yet she is just a babe, full of babble and chatter and nonsense that she takes quite seriously.

She reads her books like a proclamation! Most of the time, it's a thick chapter book, upside down, turned open to the middle. And her little face will come up every once in a while, to see whom she might be entertaining. And if an audience is near, she will give a quick smirk and plunge back into the black and white pages.

She loves to move. She loves to be free. She loves to do what she wants to do; go where she wants to go. She was meant for wide open spaces and pleasant boundary lines. She was made for momentum and play and for work that keeps the hands and body busy. And she will find rest just as she does now, in the moments in between; in the moments you blink; in the moments you sit a spell only to be back about it all before too long. She was born for great things...for God things.

How she has already tasted and seen that He is good. Her appetite is good, and for good things. She craves real food and is brave and eats anything and everything. She takes great delight in her meal times. If she is walking about with a snack she really enjoys, she will dance as she eats it. She lives life to the fullest!

She is a little mama, if I ever did see one. Her babies are most precious to her. She holds them close, thumb in her mouth. A baby with a baby. She finds comfort, she gives comfort. And kisses. So many kisses she gives freely to her babies. But, mama has to beg for one of those. She likes to tease me, holding out her affections, making me work hard, barter with her. And she knows exactly what she is doing, sneaky grin on the side of her face, her eyes all slanted and twinkling. When she is ready to give it up, only then will I get a sacred kiss. She is not easily moved unless she WANTS to move. A strong will, indeed.

And shoes...she's an honest girl with her shoe fascination. Any size, any type, just as long as they make a loud clunky sound as she steps. She loves to announce her coming in and going out.  Makeup is a wide-eyed temptation for her and if she gets hold of my blush brush or facial sponges, it's just a matter of time before I feel my toes getting a makeover. So silly.

Peek-a-boo, is simply, "BEE!" and requires little hiding but LOTS of vocal projecting. "Wuuun, doooooo..." will never be followed by three because that's our job. Her cup is a 'bobby' and mom is, 'mommy' and now sisters have become, 'didthy' and it all makes my heart melt, every single time.

Pouty lips and cheeks and she looks like her daddy. Mouth wide open, eyes glistening, she is her mother made over. I see flashes of us and yet she is her very own person with her very own faces and mannerism. She shuffles and swings her one arm just like her Mimi. She makes you work hard for giggles and affections, just like Teniel. She will get louder than you, if need be, just like Tess and she will wander around endlessly like her fellow dreamer, Taryn. She'll wrestle Teague down in a heartbeat and only let him up for more. She is quite a precious package, already. She if full, full, full. And we get to enjoy the overflow.

I don't want to forget...so grow slow my great big little one. Grow slow so I can remember and capture it all.