Bailee and Afton with our Janie-scraggle-muffin.
But is she not the cutest scraggle-muffin you have ever seen?
***
But is she not the cutest scraggle-muffin you have ever seen?
***
A few days ago my niece Bailee, who will soon be turning five, asked me if I was glad that Janie was my baby.
I answered with a smile, "Yes, I'm very glad."
Then, sweetly, she asked, "When Janie is five, will she still be a baby?"
A question asked so simply, but it seemed somehow profound. I considered what Bailee wanted to know and answered, "Well, she will be bigger. But she probably won't be able to walk."
"Will she be able to talk?" was her next question.
I replied that we don't know if she will be able to talk.
"Does she know sign language?" Bai asked.
"Hmm, well, she can do a few signs," I answered. Well, actually, it's more like she can [kind of] do ... one sign. Sign language has been slow, on both our parts.
Bailee crossed her arms over her heart. "You should teach her this sign," she advised with a loving smile.
Once again, her words seem to resonate somewhere inside.
"We should," I nodded in agreement.
And,
as I watched Janie from across the room, I wanted to add,
We do.
With every goodnight kiss and good morning snuggle, with every morning reading session, every singing of her favorite song each time we pass the Temple, every time we decline an evening restaurant invitation because busy restaurants are too unsettling. With every peppermint patty broken into small, sticky pieces, with every refill of her dumped-out buckets of blocks and toys and every retrieval of out-of-reach glitter-filled balls, with all the little things we try to do to make sure she is comfortable, we hope she gets the message that we do.
And,
though it's not in the form of her hands crossed over her heart, Janie has her own signs for love. Her little kisses. Her waves goodbye. Her tolerance as excited little cousins keep stepping on her legs and feet. Her submissive acceptance of wearing restrictive braces each day and night. Her patience when mommy takes too long at the store because she keeps remembering things she forgot to write down on the list, and when mommy has ten more minutes to go on the treadmill, and when mommy has to shower and... she has a good amount of patience for a 3-year-old. That, and it must be a sign: she loves us, too.
Maybe she is getting the message. Because one sign [a real sign language sign!] has finally clicked.
More.
Another simple statement that is profound on so many levels.
More. Love.
So now to figure out how to say:
we will.
