Mason 365: Day 3

It's a Nice Day for a Good Friday

Since she climbed out of her crib and came downstairs all by herself this morning for only the second time ever (the first time being naptime yesterday when she decided it definitely was not nap time after all) and since she just so happened to have picked up a crown somewhere along the way (my little princesses refer to all headbands as crowns,) I thought for a little change of pace, Good Friday might be just the day to feature my precious baby girl, Corinne.
She's getting so big so fast and she has so much coming up behind her that I sometimes struggle with the fact that she's not even two yet. I want to make her older than she is. I want her to know what the older kids know and do what the older kids do and behave like she's two or four years ahead of herself.
But she can't. And if I turn on my fool brain and think about it for just half a second, I realize that I really don't want her to anyway.

I snapped this photo of her right after she surprised us this morning, doing two of her favorite baby things:
sucking her two fingers (the nurses first caught her doing this in the hospital nursery right after she was born; they said it probably started in the womb) and holding her pink elephant blankie. It has Mommy Loves Me embroidered on the front and it's absolutely filthy, but I can hardly ever slip it away from her long enough to get it through the endless wash cycle. She can't sleep without it and, even though it's supposed to "nap" in the crib during her waking hours (she sets it down so sweetly on her pillow when I come to get her and says "Elphunt. Nap," she brought along during the Great Crib Escape this morning. She was calling it "Elle" for a while, but she's recently upgraded to "Elphunt."
She's wearing her sister's Dora pajamas. We can't exactly figure out why, but the two of them wear almost the exact same size and we swap out their clothes so frequently I've seriously been considering just combining them into one big giant girly dresser. Another thing I love about this picture is that you can see they're still a tad too long.
*sniff* I can remember when they were a tad too long on Julianne.

Reflecting on Good Friday, this year in particular, has caused me to focus a little more on Jesus' mother, Mary, and on how quickly our children grow and start to follow their own paths. They may not all teach scholars in the temple at the age of 12, but they start to go their own ways, expand their own networks, show their talents and follow through with their passions so young.
She knew which two fingers were her favorite even before Day 1 of her post-uterine lifetime. What important decisions will she make in two more years? Or 10? Where will she be when she's my age?
I can't wait to hear the stories she'll tell about my grandchildren...
But for now, it's a good day. It's a good Friday.
Every day with my babies is a blessing.

Lord, help me to love every one of them in the way that they need,
To appreciate them in the way they deserve,
and to know when and how to let go with grace.
Amen.