She’s got these eyes that dance, that sparkle, like she’s got some private joke, some source of amusement that the rest of us don’t know about. She loves to laugh, this little one.
She’s always got a lot to tell me, and even though her language is one that I obviously don’t fully understand, she communicates so much. It’s amazing, really, how much babies communicate to us without using a single word, isn’t it? Sometimes, after the boys go to sleep, Ella Grace and I will lie on my bed, a couple feet away from each other, both on our sides, and we’ll just talk to each other. We’ve had to kind of carve out this end-of-day time, her and I. Most days are so busy, with two older brothers who make endless noise. So some nights, when life finally quiets down, Ella and I share a few minutes, just the two of us.
At times during the past six months, I’ve wondered if Ella Grace is somehow missing out by having a Mom that is continually interacting with her older siblings. Sometimes, as she’s being fed or changed or played with in the hub of crazy activity, I’ll look at her knowingly and say “I know, Ella Grace. There’s not a moment of peace or quiet for you, is there?” But then again, there are some benefits to having her big brothers around all the time too. She is played with and spoken to and laughed with from morning until night. Jake and Joshua delight in her beyond anything I could have imagined, and continually speak words of love and adoration into her little life. (Today I heard Jake saying to her that she has “such fancy little diapers, sweetheart.” Um, they’re NoName, but I guess ‘fancy’ is in the eyes of the beholder – in this case, an adoring older brother.)
And now, the lament, that extremely cliché but altogether appropriate question: where does the time go? I know that right now Ella is still so little, and I still have lots of baby life ahead that I can look forward to. My goodness, she’s only six months old. She’s still SO young, right? And yet… and yet… there is already a chapter of life with my baby girl that has drawn to a close, and I know with certainty that the next six months are going to pass just as quickly as these first six have.
As you grow and change in the months and years ahead, I hope that you keep laughing, that your eyes keep dancing, that you keep delighting in the world unfolding around you. We are so thankful, Ella Grace, that you have been entrusted to our care.
