Still My Baby

Phew, such a busy weekend that it has taken me 2 days to post this. Why so busy? Well, my baby, my baby turned 4. At 9:23 am Saturday morning it was official. Not a baby anymore, in reality barely ever a baby. Abbey seemed to be born, be a newborn for about a week, and then an infant for about a month. By the time she turned 1 and was walking around she was already a "girl." I should maybe even feel a little jipped, being that it seemed the baby-ness of my "last" baby was so fleeting. But I don't. I have just always been in awe of her, of her confidence. Her humor. Her intelligence. Her deep well of love and compassion. Her patience. Her immense stubborn streak. Her resilience. Her resourcefulness. So far she has been the easier of my 2. Aside from a month of colickness early on, she just seems to go with the flow. Maybe it is being a girl, or being second born. Her brother's needs always seem to be so URGENT, as much at 6 as they were at 1. Whereas she seems content to wait her turn, wait it out. More often than not if she wants something done or needs something she just does it herself. She always has. She's like me in that way, no point waiting around for someone else to do something that they will probably do wrong anyway.

So Saturday we had a big family party for her, with 40 relatives arriving to shower the princess with gifts and birthday wishes. She wore a special new princess dress from Grammy (Sleeping Beauty, NOT Cinderella which you might think but don't you dare). She had a special pin, "Birthday Princess" and pink streamers and princess balloons everywhere. My mother brought her a gorgeous cake shaped like a carriage with a polly pocket princess and prince in attendance. It was her kind of day. For me the day was super busy, lots of running around but I still managed to eat practically an entire lasagna by myself and a million cookies. Ughghg, think I'll be skipping Un-frump Wednesday this week. Even all the running around I did won't make up for that, and I think I even snapped at my mother (sorry mom, but besides my husband there is no one else I can snap at, and I can only snap at him so much). And all the presents she received, it's almost ridiculous. Dresses and tights, Barbie's and Polly Pockets, a REAL tea set, Play-doh up the wazoo. One of the Barbie's even came with a dog that you can feed and then it poops out the little brown pellets that Barbie can pick up with a pooper scooper, they look like brown Good N' Plenty's! Such a riot. And we can't forget Baby Alive. She was thrilled of course, but this baby really pees (water, not actual urine although there probably is a play baby out there that does that!) She came with little disposable diapers that have to be purchased, although I am trying to dry one out now because she is already on the last one (she only came with 3, which took us 1 day to use up with all the water she has been fed). I found myself holding Baby Alive, christened today as Baby Ella and absentmindedly bouncing her, without even realizing it. Old habits die hard I suppose. But I think I am content to just be a grandma to baby Ella now, even though Jack declared "babies are fun, I wish we had a real baby in the house." Bite your tongue little boy! I am quite enjoying my life with a 6 year old and a 4 year old and have no desire to start over. As we speak Baby Alive is sound asleep in the cradle in Abbey's room, needing absolutely nothing from me! Glorious.

So now she is 4, and she seems more grown up already. Today she got the milk out of the fridge by herself, and twice in the last two days she has answered when asked a question "that's for me to know and you to find out." Where does she get these things? But like her brother she will always be my baby, mine to hug and kiss and tickle, mine to love. And that's just the way I like it.