Madelynne turns 1 month old in a few days and it is hard to believe that 4 weeks have gone by already. Brad and I constantly look at her and ask ourselves where the time went, as she has developed even more. Everyone told me to take it all in and enjoy each day as she continues to grow, as it will go by fast, so that is what I have been doing.
When she nurses, I examine her little fingers and toes, as her fingers wrap securely around one of mine. I love the smooth, softness of her skin. When she has play time on her little activity mat, she is looking around and examining the world with wide-eye curiousity, fixating on a light, the cats, movement, a picture. When she dreams she does her dad’s infamous half-lip raise quiver, or the Elvis lip as I refer to it, smiles, twitches, frowns, scowls, sucks, breathes deep and rhythmically, moans and grunts, coos…all sorts of emotions that I wonder what exactly she is dreaming about. I mean, she hasn’t been around long enough to engage in experiences that would constitute the dreams we, as adults, have, but I imagine it has something to do with milk and her parents. J
I take in the wide-eye alert time when she looks at me with her big eyes, taking in our facial movements, reactions, and smiling more so, not because of gas anymore, as a means to know that we are there to care, provide, and love her. She is growing longer and her little cheeks are chubbier. She loves the water, enjoys her bathtime, and her mop of hair becomes endless curls when it is wet. My favorite part of my day is our afternoon cuddle time, when I take a break from school work or planning, and she is ready for her 1pm nap, and she snuggles into a position that would make a yoga instructor jealous, on my chest, mouth slightly agape, where she dozes off into dreamland while I either sleep with her or catch up on my course readings.
Then, when bedtime approaches, the last few minutes of our day are engaged in quietness, prayers to our Guardian Angels for simple thankfulness and guarding throughout the night, last minute cuddles and feedings, before she is off into a dreamland until her next feeding.
The advice of enjoying each little moment I have taken on as a challenge to do just that. Despite multi-tasking and trying to get my life in order, Madelynne is a precious gift that has taught me to just enjoy the simplest things and that God will handle the rest. She has taught me to be grateful and to let go of the past and to love, compassionately, deeply. To be wrapped up in life…to be in love. To just embrace each moment that life gives us.
This is beautiful, Melinda.
ReplyDeleteAnne