October 16, 2006

Hello one year later. I had a baby, am back at work, no big deal really, except that life is completely, utterly different. A wee nursling lives in my house and laugh-cries when I get home from work, calming only in my arms. She's so excited for mama milk. I take her to the dressing room and place her down on her dotted mat to play with her stuffed sheep while I unsuit. She doesn't sit still but crawls around, climbing into my closet and waving the dry-cleaning plastic around.

In sweats, I carry her to bed and she nurses while I kiss her little hands and stroke her red head. Some days she's ravenous and slurps audibly, others she just sips for a few minutes and then looks up at me, smiling. After the milk, the giggling begins. She's in the mood to laugh. We heckle at each other. I tickle her belly, chase her and she runs away, though she knows she can't get very far. She respects the edge of the bed now, after that nasty fall she had smack on her nose. Daddy heard it from one floor above and rushed downstairs. Her nose was bleeding a bit, but we all recovered, healed by a bit of nursing.