my tiny little baby

Nearly all this week Sophie has been running around naked or half-naked. It suits her character, and it facilitates potty-training nicely. She hardly ever gets cold because she's constantly moving, jumping, yelling, running as fast as she can (which is getting faster).

She wraps her baby up in her quilt, carefully lays her on the bed, and closes the door, whispering "shhhh" with her finger up to her lips. She hears the dogs barking on the carport roof (they can jump up there from the enormous pile of snow in the back yard) and says "Doggie! Foof! Hush!" What do doggies say? "Wuf!" (she growls as she says it). What do kitties say? "Wow-eee."

Before she goes to bed we read two books, How Many Kisses Goodnight and Goodnight Moon. She insists now that she reads the first one, How Many Kisses Goodnight, herself. She holds the book, I read the words, she tells her own story and points out things of interest in the pictures (doggies, babies, and fish, mostly), and she turns the pages in the order that she wants to. Then I'm allowed to read Goodnight Moon to her, although she has to stop and kiss each page before I turn it. She notices the blankie at the end of the bunny's bed, and she thinks the "little toy house" is a dog house. She points at the fireplace and says "Bapa!" (Grandpa). Yes, Grandpa does like fires, doesn't he.

She's too busy to stop and take a nap anymore, except on days like this - when I pick her up to dance to a song on the radio, and within seconds she is sleeping (and drooling on my arm).



I put a diaper on her, grabbed a quilt, and settled onto the couch to read...



And knit...



And kiss her head, which still has the same sleeping-smell it had when she was just a tiny little baby, when we would spend hours like this, her head tucked under my chin where I could smell her and kiss her as much as I wanted to.

She weighs more now on my shoulders, and these moments are shorter and come less often. She'll be two years old in two short months.

But she's still my baby.