Three-month-old Alice. Rocking the guitar pj's.There is so much to do. The sheer volume of it presses down, makes me feel heavy if I let it. We worked hard this weekend. Yard work. House work. Cleaning. Laundry. Organizing. One closet had been literally bulging at the seams, it being the resting place for a good chunk of baby-related gear (swing, bouncy seat, car seat, walker, boppy - how did we fit all of this in a closet - jammed packed it was). This closet became the focus of our weekend efforts. It was emptied. The contents placed inside those ginormous ziplock bags that are seriously huge-beyond-huge. Alice liked looking through her old stuff. She seemed almost wistful, if a high octane speeding toddler can be wistful.
This is Alice seeing her old carseat/carrier: a bright smile, a squeal, dimpled fingers reaching out and touching the orange fabric we know so well. She lifts her right foot, Kate calls it the climbing foot and I think she's absolutely right. Alice lifts the climbing foot in the air, reaching for purchase on the seat. I lift her in - sit her deep in the cradle shape. She is delighted. She squeals as I rock her. She reaches her hands up to my arm, asking for more.
When we had wrapped each item, Chip took each piece to the garage where we stored them up, way up, up inside the crawl space over the garage. Chip was stationed on the ground, carefully lifting each piece to me as I stood on the ladder. It was sobering to put these things away. To know that they are no longer a part of Alice's life. Too big for swing, too tall for carrier, no need for walker or boppy. She's just not a baby anymore. She's a little girl.
But my girl just the same.
5 comments:
You're a few days ahead of us it seems. Our project for the week was clearing out The Closet and taking the jumperoo and infant car seat down to the storage unit. While I look at them with a bit of nostalgia, I also think the here and now is pretty good too.
If you ever have any good ideas for how to store all of that kind of stuff, be sure to post! I got storing baby clothes figured out... but all of the other stuff, I'm still working on. :)
Alice is so adorable! She was adorable at 3 months and she is adorable now! I just want to snuggle with her every time I see her!
AaagggHhhh!! You're making me wistful for those baby days. On one hand, I'm glad to be free of the rear-facing carseat/carrier. On the other hand, I miss how teeny tiny those babies were coming home from the hospital...
You know what's cool? Taking this stuff out years from now for your Grand children. Then the "parent" sees the stuff again and they still squeal with joy, especially the toys. My 33 year old daughter still plays with the Fisher Price Barnyard along with her 2 year old. This has made it through 6 kids. Of course, replacement people and animals are easily found at thrift stores.
Peace.
Just one more reason that I like you - that baby Alice (so cute!) was wearing a blue, guitar onesie. Something that is supposed to be "boy". I did the same thing when my girl was a wee one and got some comments from strangers about it ("dressing my girl like a boy"), even when the adult making these riveting observations was wearing blue herself.
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