Dear Lili,
In less than 8 weeks (55 days) you will be one years old. I think that is right. Ask your Dad. He’s good with numbers. Regardless – ack! Where has the time gone! My little girl.
When you were a tiny, tiny baby I would carry you around in a little sling. People would stop me wherever I went and tell me to enjoy the time because it goes so fast. Other more shy but equally sentimental people would lovingly look my way and smile ear to ear with that silent ‘enjoy it’ stare. I can already tell I’ve headed down that road. Just today I turned around to watch a mother and her small little baby in a sling pass me as I pushed you in the stroller. I couldn’t help but get a little emo. I even bent down to give you a kiss. Soon you’ll be old enough to say, “Mom! Ew!” but for now I have you where I want you.
Having long outgrown the sling, your father and I know our days are numbered as far as carrying you around in both the Baby Bjorn and the Ergo carrier. Your Dad has always favored the Bjorn carrier comparing the hippie Ergo to a ‘complicated chick bra’. But now you are long and gangly. Dad had you in the Bjorn over the weekend and you kept kicking your long limbs in the ‘lower regions’ which you might imagine was a tad uncomfortable. When I carry you in the Ergo you seem ok. But more often as of late you squirm around wanting to always face forward, see what it coming your way and not miss a thing. Somehow this is very ‘Lili’.
You and I have a little tradition I thought I’d log here for you before I forget. Each night after a long day – I take you to the park for a short stint and then put you in the Ergo carrier and we stroll slowly down one side of our beautiful long block in Brooklyn and up the other side back to our apartment. On our stroll we look in all the windows. We look at the fall decorations. We listen to the music coming our of the various windows. And we sing the same little song I made up a long time ago in a totally sleep deprived state. Our song is about our street and who lives on it. And despite the song being repetitive in rhythm and lyrics you seem to like it and have even started babbling along these days.
I like our nightly walk because it’s the closest thing I have to being pregnant with you having you pressed so closely to my body. It’s also the only time in the day where for whatever reason (you’re tired?) you manage to remain still and don’t twist about trying to look around as you do other times in the day.
I know my days are numbered for carrying you like this. For now I am cherishing it.
