Friday, June 7, 2013

Out of Words

It's hard for me to know what to say about our Baby Jo.  Our sturdy, pudgy, gregarious Joanna lights up our lives every day.  But, unlike writing about her older sister, I can't just quote a bunch of funny things she says or record a few naughty deeds and call it a blog post.


I wrote up a whole post entitled "The Sweet Spot" in which I tried to accurately describe just exactly how delightful Joanna is these days without descending into something boring or trite.  I failed in the description and succeeded in being both boring and trite.
 

In that discarded post, I described the little horizontal jig that Joanna performs when we rescue her from her crib or bouncy seat.


I explained how her hands are in constant motion, wrists rotating, palms flipping from one side to the other; how she examines those two hands like a scientist looking at a slide under a microscope; and how, even when I try to still them as I feed her by giving her my finger as an anchor to grab onto, she still maintains a steady open-shut regimen with her fingers on mine, like she's running on a battery that needs to fully charge before she can stop.



I gushed about her thighs, her dimply knuckles, and the roll of pudge where her forearm meets her hand in a single crease, and I mentioned how she follows Alice's every move with an expression on her face that most people reserve for watching unicorns waltz with angels.



I wrote about how I can make her laugh by bicep curling her up to my face and nuzzling into her neck, and I detailed the way that, when I pick her up and hold her right in front of me, she looks right in my eyes, grabs my face with both hands, and beams as if to say, "You're mine. I'm so glad we're together."


It's all been said or thought by a million parents before.  And that doesn't make any of the things about little babies at this stage any less wonderful, but it does make it hard to try to write them down without cringing.  You may as well write about how delicious chocolate is, how exciting it is to see a rainbow, or how exhilarating it is to run a marathon (I wouldn't know, but I've read it enough times to know I don't want to read about it again).



One of the reasons I keep adding to this blog is so that one day, when the kids are grown up, I can look back on the photos and stories, and they will spark my otherwise terrible memory.  I want to remember just how enchanting this baby is right now and how she makes me feel every time I squeeze her close.


So, rather than feebly describe the details, I'll just leave it at this: we're falling more and more in love with this little girl every day.

5 comments:

  1. Well written! ...and gorgeous pictures, just gorgeous!

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  2. Well, I'm already in love, without yet meeting her! Wonderful description of the pure joy your girls bring to you and Matt. Yay! And, just so you know, you never succeeded in being trite, boring or giving a feeble description. It's just not possible!

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  3. So very precious, Mary! Yes, one day you will go back and re-read all the wonderful posts you had and perhaps shed a little tear or two! Oh, the memories!!!! :) Keep up the blogs! Love reading about you and your family!

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    1. Thanks, Mrs. Mundy! It's nice to hear that you enjoy reading the posts!

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