Saturday, February 26, 2005

terra the orchestra leader, or, night of the bleating geese

terra lays on the floor the conductor, and we, her concert band follow her every whim. one of terra's regular spots is on a blanket on the floor with a portable mobile over her. she is discovering her voice. she hoots and hollers, cackles, peeps, moos, snorts, squeaks and squaks. and whenever that sound comes out of her mouth, her mother and i mimic her.
"unnghhhhhh." "UNNGHHHHHH."
"hoo!" "HOO!"
"ahhhhhllhh uhh.." "AHHHHLLHH UHH.."
we love this little girl and somewhere in one of the countless magazines or books laying around the house on parenting, we read that mimicking may have a positive effect on encouraging terra's speaking abilities. apparently there are possibly even greater implications.
terra will not recall discovering her voice. she won't recall her daily routine of eating every four hours or that she was at the 4.5 month mark when she began skipping the 2:30am feeding in favor of sleeping through the night. (ahhh, but we will. . .) she won't reminisce someday about how she used to eat, burp, play with mama, go to her back on the floor with the mobile, get carried around a bit, swing for 20 minutes, nap, diaper change then back to mama's breast again. this has been her four-hour plan. it is her life today but she won't remember it. we will.
and so our home is strangely wonderful to me right now. terra is healthy and happy and growing. faith and i are learning what it means to be devoted to a family, how difficult it can be to live together and raise a child, and how rewarding it is to feel this elastic band of love which tethers us all to one another.

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