I am so blessed to be Maddie's Mama. Today was probably my favorite time I've spent with her to date. We spent time reading, playing in the pool, playing with our kitties, and playing in the bath. I can't quite do justice to our experience, but I'll do my best.
Maddie loves her baths. Every night before bed, I turn on the bath water in our master bathroom. As soon as Maddie hears the water crashing, she comes crawling over with a silly grin on her face. She's almost too excited, as she stands up at the edge of the tub, trying to crawl in. Since the tub is taller than she is, Maddie just grabs everything on the edge that she can and squeals with delight.
Tonight was no different; Maddie was exhausted from our busy day but thrilled for her bath time, nonetheless. We got into the tub, and I gave Maddie a couple of her bath toys. Rather than play with her purple octopus or her little orange whale, Maddie just splashed. She splashed herself, she splashed me, she splashed her toys, and she splashed the bathtub.
After we'd been playing for about ten minutes, I gave Maddie her favorite toy of all, the red, plastic, disposable picnic cup. This cup is literally Maddie's favorite. She crinkles it and gets a great sound from it. She fills it up with water and then pours it out. She chews on the cup. She introduces the cup to her other bath friends. She loves this cup. Maddie took a bit of time to reacquaint herself and the cup, and then she did the most amazing thing. She shared it. Maddie would chew on her precious cup for a few seconds, and then she put it in my mouth so I could chew on it with her. We took turns for a good five or ten minutes. Nothing made her happier than to see me enjoying her cup as much as she did. The whole time she was "feeding" me, her eyes were filled with joy and mine were filled with tears and pride. I can't believe that I am blessed with such an amazing little girl. When we got bored of chewing on the cup, Maddie figured out how to play peekaboo with it. All of a sudden, Maddie put her face into the cup as far as she could. In fact, she was so fascinated with the inside of the cup, she went a bit cross eyed. She looked around for me, and realized she couldn't see me, so she quickly pushed the cup away from her face, and I giggled and screeched, "Peekaboo"! Well, Maddie caught on immediately, and we played peekaboo for the rest of the bath! If I didn't respond with appropriate enthusiasm, she would give me this, "Come on mom, you can do better" look, and of course, I did.
It's so strange to me that something so seemingly small can create this rush of emotion. My heart is overflowing with pride, happiness, love, and awe. I can't believe that my little girl isn't just a baby anymore. I can't believe what an intelligent, fun, outgoing, and BUSY little girl I have. I'm so grateful that I had today. I can't wait to see what tomorrow holds for her.
No comments:
Post a Comment