Lies they tell on TV

[la_rainette]

It seems it was just yesterday that the midwife put her, all slippery and tiny and exhausted and wet, on my chest.

I remember what I thought then, "OMG so tiny!", right before the Great Big Wave of Maternal Love swept over me and I knew my world would never quite be the same. I felt the shift, I felt it when my world somehow keeled over and changed and started revolving around that delicate, perfect, brand new being.

I had been told that she would be ugly. You see, I was a very ugly new-born, my mom liked to tell me (always the diplomat, my mom. Well, she did say I became a pretty baby, MUCH LATER, too), but she loved me nevertheless. So I was prepared; I knew that most new-borns actually look like a reduced model of Winston Churchill.

I wasn't ready for her to be beautiful.

I looked at her once, twice, turned to Husband and whispered "She's so pretty", and he turned his eyes away from her just long enough to look at me and confirm with awe "Yes. She is. She's so, so pretty." I will never forget the look on his face as he took his new-born daughter in his arms for the first time.

Neither am I likely to forget the first time we tried to dress her in those awkward newborn clothes, and couldn't figure out how they worked.

And she was tiny. My, was she ever tiny.

Until that moment, all my experience with new-borns had been what they show on TV or in movies: an enormous woman screams all the way into the hospital, delivers (discreetly, off screen where you cannot hear her yell), and leaves the clinic 5 minutes later with a miraculously flat stomach and an enormous baby in her arms.

It doesn't quite happen that way in life, you know. For one, you take 9 months to inflate. Nine months. It doesn't quite deflate overnight, unless you are twenty and normally boast the six-pack of a professional body-builder. And then, the baby is tiny. None of the clothes we'd bought for her fit her. See, we'd skipped the new-born size altogether, going for the 3-months size. Wrong. Oh how wrong. She'd wiggle her way out of her pajamas and end up with both feet in the same leg. And the diapers were too big and leaked (and you do not want to know the details).

And then she grew.

And grew.

And grew.

She's 5 1/2 today and I still can't believe it entirely, and it is such a big moment in her life I thought I'd share it with you: tomorrow, Froglet will be going to her friend Caroline's for her first sleep-over. It is the first night in her life that she will spend away from us.

Wow. What a big girl she is.

And you know what? She's still the prettiest baby ever.

Comments

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

[swoons]

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

She's gone now, wah! I hope she has a good time...

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

Oh, how lovely.
You do not hear a loud ticking, and I do not have a biological clock....

*sniffles*

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

you will be such a wonderful parent. *hugs*

[darthrami.livejournal.com]

And now I am sitting here, sniffling.

*hugs you lots and lots*

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

*hugs you lots too* you'll be such wonderful parents.

[miscellanny.livejournal.com]

Just reading your posts makes me happy. Give her an extra tight hug. I miss the days when my little sister was still young enough that 'firsts' came along every day- first party, first sleep over, first tooth lost... now it's things like first boyfriend (at thirteen!) and I hate that I'm in another country and I have to miss it. I spend my life telling everyone I'm never having kids, it's a ridiculous idea, it'll never happen, and then I spent much of last night dancing to John Lee Hooker with a one-and-a-half year old giggling on my hip, and I really don't think that opinion's gonna last. *g*

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

:D yes, that's an opinion that may very well change. *g* To be honest, I didn't consider having kids until I hit my early thirties (although I always knew I would want to have kids some day). The good thing about that is, I had a very interesting and active youth. :D By the time Froglet arrived, I was fully ready to devote my life to her, without ever thinking I was missing out on anything.

[friede.livejournal.com]

*beams*

Happy 5.5, Froglet!

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

Thank you :D The half is very important to her.

No news is good news, she's at Caroline's now, and I hope she's having a great time.

[dramawench.livejournal.com]

Aaawwww, that was beautiful! She is so lucky to have a mom like you :D

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

Thank you! *hugs* I love her very, very much.

She's a lovely little girl, full of life and love for her friends, always ready to share. Last year her teacher called her "the champion of friendship" :D

[notions.livejournal.com]

That's just awwww, and so...I don't know how to say it. Babies are just the craziest cool little things, they start so tiny, but are still so strong, and I'm not half as eloquent as you, but just...YES. <3

Good luck to Froglet on her adventure!

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

:D Thank you! Yes, babies are amazing -- and they grow so fast! All of a sudden, they start walking all over the place, and try to take control of their surroundings, and start to understand the world, and it is such fun to share the pleasure of their first times with them.

Oh, and I spleam, too. Sharing the I spleam pleasure with kids: priceless. :D

[notions.livejournal.com]

I spleam, of course. Your icon is wonderful!

[muffytaj.livejournal.com]

d'aaaw

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

:D Heeeee! (*checks watch* still no news, she's be gone for 3 hours and 22 minutes now. I hope she's having fun.)

[muffytaj.livejournal.com]

Such an anxious mother :p

[terrylj.livejournal.com]

And now I'm crying. *sniffs furiously*

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

*hands tissue* Ah, the first times! I bet you were just as emotional when Danae went to her first sleep-over. (3 hours and 23 minutes now. I hope she's having fun. She took her stuffed winnie-the-pooh, and photos of us, cos she said she would miss her goodnight kiss... *sniffles* wah.)

[terrylj.livejournal.com]

Hee. Danae went on her first sleep-over when she was two months old...she's never looked back since. If you look up "outgoing", "sociable", and "extrovert" in the dictionary, you will find her picture. We've had kids sleep over at our house who cried and wanted to go home in the middle of the night, and Danae just looked at them in bewilderment because she has no concept of that at all.

[terrylj.livejournal.com]

Forgot to say: and because she was two months old, I probably would have gotten all emotional, except that I was asleep before our friends who were keeping her got out of the driveway. :)

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

Wow! That's amazing! Well, Froglet is a sociable kid too, but the goodnight kiss is sacred (and I half-expected to get a phonecall from her at bed time); I am pleased to say that it is morning now, and we haven't heard from her. She must be having a grand time.

I would have been unable to let go of any of them when they were 2 months old (so unable that I spend night in hospital with them when needed, including 2 in the pedriatric ward from Hell, on a ridiculously thin mattress thrown on the floor.)

[mischief-wa.livejournal.com]

Awww. Now I'm feeling all mooshy and stuff.

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

:D Well. You're on your way, too. Those moments, the first contact with your child in the outside world: priceless. Unforgettable.

Lucky you. *hugs*

[bookwench31.livejournal.com]

*looks around* No I'm not crying, what are you talking about?

I say I don't want kids, that I get enough kid contact with my job, but then I talk to you and start to think, "hmmm maybe it wouldn't be so bad"
Give Froglet a hug for me. She's turning into such a big girl.

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

I will :D She's at her friend's now, with pictures of me and Husband and Tadpole, cos she said she would miss her good-night kiss too much otherwise (now she can kiss the pictures). I hope she's having fun.

Kids are fun, but your own are really, truly, wonderfully special.