Dreams For an Ordinary Story

 

When Diana wakes up from her nap, she sits up in her crib and reaches for her favorite pink bunny lovey. She brings her bunny to her mouth as she looks around the room. We turn on the nightlight, and she immediately turns her head towards it. Andrew fills up her Baby Shark water bottle and carries it up the stairs to her bedroom. He knocks and then pushes the stubborn door open, stuck with the summer’s humidity. In the dim light, Diana points to the projector that my father bought her, which sits on the night stand next to the rocking chair - a relic from the early days of daytime and late night feedings. Andrew picks her up from the crib and turns on the projector. They sit on the floor together and watch the stars and nebulas spin slowly around the ceiling. She smiles and points at the red and yellow blossom of star dust when we ask her “where is the Diana star?”

We tell her that we are going to the pool and she responds with “po” and a big grin. She pushes her arms through the sleeves of her rashguard and then we take her downstairs to apply sunscreen. Diana likes to help, so I squeeze some lotion onto her hands so that she can pat it on her legs. Sometimes she prefers to rub the lotion on my legs and face rather than hers, which she does today, slapping the sunscreen onto my thighs and then putting her hands out for more. 

We drive to our neighborhood pool. When we take her out of the car, she starts to coo and kick her legs. She points in the direction of the pool with a triumphant smile. We find a shady spot so that we can put on her swim diaper and swim pants, which she wears because sometimes she falls on the concrete and scratches her legs. She sits patiently as we put on her swim shoes and her sun hat, in part because we have given her a sparkly diving gem and a squeeze ball to hold while she waits. 

We carry her into the big pool, where there is a concrete bench for adults to sit on, and it’s the perfect height for her to stand on and keep half of her body out of the water. From here, she likes to fill up little buckets and pour water into her spinning water tower toy or throw gems into the pool for us to retrieve. Sometimes, she leaps off the bench and we guide her around the pool so that she can kick her legs and blow bubbles. She sees Andrew floating on her back so she tries to flip over in the water so that she can do the same. After some time in the big pool, she climbs up the stairs and walks towards the kiddie pool, where she can sit in the shallow end, walk under the sprinklers, and block the sprinklers with her squeeze ball. 

When we get home, we take Diana up for her bath. She likes to stand at the edge of the bathtub as the water fills up and points at the bubble solution. I blow bubbles for her and she waves her arms to try to catch them. In the tub, she fills up a reusable water balloon and squeezes it so that it squirts out all the water in a vertical burst. During the rinsing process, she purposely moves her face in the direction of the water sprinkling from the spray bottle and laughs. She kisses her rubber ducks and her whale toy goodnight as we drain the water. 

After we put her diaper on, she sits on the floor as we apply her moisturizing lotion. She holds out her hand for lotion and then rubs it onto her legs. We open the bottom drawer so that she can choose her pajamas. Today, she picks her Taylor Swift “Life of a Showgirl” pajamas, even though she is getting bigger and her pajamas are almost a little too small.

Diana’s dinner is always a multi-course affair. We often start with vegetables, but today we start with salmon so that she can get some protein. Today’s vegetable is corn, and she always giggles when we shave the corn from the cob. Diana wants to use her utensils on her own, scooping the corn and the sweet potatoes. She also likes to stick her two fingers into her ears during meal time and she always smiles when she does it. Macaroni and cheese is the big winner after several courses and she ends the meal with grapes. When “All My Love” by Noah Kahan plays on the Amazon Echo, she starts to bounce and dance in her high chair to the beat of the banjo.

We take her to the bathroom sink and set her in her tower so that she can wash her hands. She takes the soap readily in her hands, though we have to remind her to rub her hands together and rinse them under the running water. After she dries her hands on the towel, she likes to crouch and pop up to play peekaboo in the mirror. 

We go upstairs to her bedroom. We change her diaper and then lay her down to brush her teeth. She has never quite warmed up to the experience of getting her teeth brushed, but we are able to calm her down by asking if we can kiss her feet. She lifts her legs up one at a time so that we can kiss her little toes. Then we floss her white teeth and wash her smooth face with a wet washcloth.

There are so many books to choose from. From classics like “The Hungry Caterpillar” to flap books like “Where’s Spot” and “The House with the Little Red Door” and new additions like “Animal Adventures,” a custom and personalized book that features Diana holding and running alongside various animals, Diana prefers to flip through the books on her own at her own pace. She might linger on a page and point from one character to another character and back again like “Papa Pea” and “Lil Pea,” giggling as we name them at her command. 

Tonight, we read a book I created from Artifact Uprising with photographs of Diana and Andrew called “You Were Made for Big.” She lingers on the page where she sits in the hiking backpack with Andrew as we hiked around Jordan Pond in Acadia National Park a few months ago. We read “Taylor Time with Baby” and she moves her finger from smiley face to smiley face on the page that references “Shake it Off.” And when she sees a picture of Daniel praying in the lion’s den in her Bible stories book, she puts her own little hands together.

We ask Diana for goodnight kisses but she shakes her head at first. Begging for kisses is not an irregular occurrence. Of course, she kisses Maxi, her stuffed bunny that stands over three feet tall, and throws her arms around her. I pretend to be Maxi and tell Diana that she should kiss her mom and dad. Diana then turns towards me, kisses my cheek, then kisses Andrew’s cheek, mine again, then Andrew, then me again. We are lucky today.

We ask her what song she wants to sing. After singing the first few bars of “Itsy Bitsy,” she shakes her head vigorously. We try “Hop Little Bunnies,” but she still protests. She throws her hands up in the air so we start singing “Wheels on the Bus.” She waves her arms when the wipers goes swish, claps her hands when the doors open and shut, and throws her arms up when the people go up and down. And finally, we add our own verse at the end where “Diana on the bus goes hiiiiiii.”

We tell Diana that it’s time to pray and she starts to complain again. She knows that we are nearing the time to say goodbye and she wants to party on. We thank God for our sweet daughter and ask him to protect her and heal her and help us love her well. We pick her up and place her in the crib, handing her pink bunny to her. We point to all the animals on her wallpaper and her crib sheets and say “night night owl” and “night night bear” and she always laughs when we get to the squirrels. She says “night night” to us and luckily, it’s with a smile tonight. We kiss her head and turn on the sound machine and turn off the light.

We watch the baby monitor as she holds bunny to her mouth and chews on her. Eventually, she drops to her belly and starts rolling around, babbling and giggling to herself. Sometimes, she says “mamama” or “daddy.” Andrew and I watch her with awe and delight as she falls asleep on the little screen in front of us. 

I wish that this were the only kind of story that we had to tell - a story of splashing around in the summer and a quiet evening at home before she falls asleep peacefully for the night. Stories where all we have are beautiful, ordinary moments watching a little girl grow up.