Love & gratitude: these seem to be crossing in my milk-muddled mind of late. I find myself making lists of the little things that are wholy unique to Sugarplum and universal to my babies. While I can’t remember which side I last nursed on a couple of hours ago, I will look down and be suddenly struck with an instance of the other girl’s babyhood that I so don’t want to lose. Within hours of her birth in the hospital I started this list of the little extraordinary baby ordinaries that were fascinating us as we started our newest adventure. Lovey and I were both struck by her uniqueness and her instant familiarity.
1. the white frosted tips of her dark brown hair
2. that she started growing her eyelashes before we met her
3. her white eyebrows and underlay of hair
4. the dark swirl of hair at the back of her head that looks suspiciously like the eye of a hurricane
5. the baby quivering lip
6. the baby cross-eyes when she learns to focus
7. that she can already hold her head up in the first week
8. her watchful deep blue eyes when she tracks during little alert periods, particularly during feeding
9. what a champion chomper she is from day one
10. her little kitten mews, puppy snorts and odd squeaks
11. the new baby smells that I so wish I could bottle for later
12. her LOUD protests when you guess wrong
13. how her cries sound just like the Quail’s and confuse me into calling her by the Quail’s name
14. how her face is the perfect blend of her stisters- she is Zuzu from the nose on up and the Quail from the cheeks on down
15. that she’s my hungry lil catepillar- on the first day she ate 1 side and she was stillllll hungry
16. her loving to root-root-root at any opportunity- including rootin cotton
17. that I heard her cry
neh 3 times on her first afternoon
18. The little bean shape of her tightly curled body that she maintains when I pick her up
19.how I couldn’t picture what she would look like or who she would be for all these months, and now each day I look down, smile and think of course it’s her
20.her tiny looking self after months of being told she was a small giant
21. how much it suddenly feels like this happy little family has always been here
1. hearing the Quail make little words
Ordinary Afters... 