For the first time in over a year, my sweet baby girl fell asleep next to me tonight. Not in hotel rooms, in my arms, or in our bed will Adeline calm herself long enough to drift off to sleep if Mama or Papa is there. But this evening, with a crew of friends in the living room for video game night, Adeline said to me, “Mama lay down too?” Like every time she asks, I give in and smush myself into that little toddler bed. Usually I leave the room moments later after having been frustrated by her wiggling and giggling next to me. But tonight she snuggled in and her breath gradually slowed to soft, rhythmic in and exhalations, and she was out.
Nothing throws me back to Adeline’s infancy quicker than watching her sleep. As I watch her, I half expect her to wake up and give me that brand new baby wail, or maybe she’ll stretch out, root around, and do her “fours” (her trademark four fingered stretch). Instead she speaks in her sleep, “Luboo,Mama” or “Oh, no! Way my tig? (Where’s my pig?)”
She’s an independent little thing, and I’m grateful to her and to God for these sweet little moments when the impossible is possible, and I cradle my newborn two years after her birth.
I love watching my children sleep. Nothing is sweeter.