I was looking at my daughter today with a mixture of happiness and melancholy. She has turned into such a little girl already - determined, full of life, of hope and spirit.
She already has very strong opinions for an almost 17 mth old. There are 2 words that first come out of her mouth from the moment she wakes up: shoes and baby. We must wear our shoes and we must always have our baby along with an assortment of stuffed toys. We must have "gooey" every morning.(code name for yogurt) We must watch "Mambo" several times a week (although we are currently on Mambo detox - Mambo is Happy Feet the movie.) We are addicted to cheese and feeding the kitty, which mostly consists of feeding the floor. We like wearing summer hats but hate our winter one. We love shoes but dislike boots. We sing Twinkle Twinkle little star and can now identify a roster of animals, like elephant which we pronounce "ananas" which means pineapple in French. We completely understand the meaning of "Uh oh", words that are often followed by an "oh no" by Mummy. We also understand when Dada's away on a plane and have become quite adept at talking to Dada on Skype. All in all it's amazing to watch her.
And we are heavier and taller and I no longer carry a baby in my arms. I now pick up a little girl. And it seems like just yesterday that I was staring at that pink stick announcing her soon-to-be arrival. Yesterday that this tiny little being started sucking on me for sustenance and I thought "whoa, this feels very strange". And that feeling was quickly replaced by a feeling that I was home; that together we were home. As the expression goes "home is where the heart is". And my heart is most certainly with her, Ashiah, my daughter. Wow. I am now the mother of a little girl. :)
