My Granddaughter

 My granddaughter was born this week on Tuesday, January 12, 2021, just four days ago.  I held her when she was two days old.  I had forgotten how small a two day old child feels against you as you hold her close.  To be honest, I was a little nervous.

My granddaughter looked at me and wrinkled her eyes and stared, trying to figure me out.  I guess the whole world is a strange place to her, especially the people.   She cries when she has her diaper changed.  Being exposed to the light and the air is strange to her.  She loves to snuggle and be swaddled in blankets, things that make her feel like she is back in the familiar safety of the womb.

She also loves to eat and she does so with great enthusiasm until all of the bottle is sucked dry.  It is funny that she was born knowing how to do this, especially since she was fed through her navel for her whole life in the womb.  But just as surprising is that my daughter became a mother overnight.  She knows what to do and how to do it and holds her child like an old pro.  I watch her go about the business of caring for her daughter and I am amazed.  

Isn’t this the little girl who made her younger brother climb the stairs ahead of her, using him for monster bait?  Isn’t this the little girl who would come down the stairs after a hard night’s sleep with chewing gum stuck in her hair?  Isn’t this the little girl that stood on a stool in front of the bathroom mirror watching me shampoo her hair and laughing as I turned her soapy hair into crazy sculptures?

She is a mother now.  And I have a wonderful granddaughter, whose hair I will one day sculpt as she laughs in the mirror.

And all is well in this world.