A sudden revelation
Yesterday, the Munchkin and I paid a visit to my sister and Little Cousin. Since she is so small, I dug up some of the Munchkin’s tiniest baby clothes that she wore for the first few weeks of life, plus The Dress. The Dress is a dainty little white cotton embroidered piece that I received as a baby, and it was worn by me and my sisters at our baby dedications. The Munchkin also wore it, and now Little Cousin will wear it, too. It is now, officially, a family tradition.
As I was bringing out these clothes, I marveled that the Munchkin – now a sturdy 17 month old toddler – ever fit into these doll-like clothes. But it didn’t seem to hit me hard until I saw the two girls side by side. The Munchkin is enamored of Little Cousin, and was sitting next to her while my sister and I took pictures. Little Cousin, swaddled up in a receiving blanket and propped up on a nursing pillow, didn’t look much bigger than the Munchkin’s dolly that she sleeps with every night. The Munchkin leaned over to give hugs and kisses, and was very affectionate to this tiny little creature. And then it smacked me upside the head like a two-by-four. I don’t have a baby girl anymore. Little Cousin is a baby. I have a little girl. Toddler though she may be, potty-trained she is not; she is not a baby any longer.
It is a shock to me, because I still think of her as my baby. With Munchkin #2 arriving, I’m sure that my perspective on her will permanently change. And while the exposure to Little Cousin is good for her, it’s good for me, too. I need to remember and reflect, to recognize just how far the Munchkin has come in the last year and a half. And how far I have come, too. When Munchkin #2 arrives, he will get a much more experienced Mommy. Not that the Munchkin has suffered at all from my mistakes – Grandma was always around to fix them. 🙂
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