Bursting With Joy

Wearing your heart outside your body and being a vulnerable mom doesn't always refer to negative emotions (like fear and sadness), but also to the pure, unadulterated joy that comes with witnessing the development of a life. Hannah, my 4 1/2 month old, is definitely going through another development spurt. Recently, she has "found her hands" and has been using them much more purposefully, first grabbing things, and then over the last week or two sucking her thumb a lot. She is definitely our "paci baby", but seems to like her thumb as well, so it will be interesting to see if there is a conversion or not.

Two of the cutest things happened today to bring me joy! First, at Rachel's dance class, my friends said, "Awww..", and I looked down to see Hannah sucking her thumb again. The heart squeezing part was that she was doing just what I had predicted earlier - wrapping those cute little fingers around her nose while sucking her thumb-I just LOVE that!

Then, tonight, we realized that she was really starting to get ahold of things and bring them to her mouth. She seemed to be craving this (I think her teeth are moving up), and I had given her one of Rachel's toys to suck on. Rachel thought this was funny and handed her a pretend biscuit which Hannah of course began to lick and suck on. It occurred to me that this was a perfect opportunity for the kids to interact, so I suggested that Rachel get her play food and "serve" it to Hannah (something Rachel loves to do and is not quite as much fun for us "old people" :>). Well, she jumped at the chance, and Justin got involved as well, and before I knew it, I had 3 happy kids. We all really started to laugh when Justin handed her the fake Dairy Queen ice cream cone and Hannah held it and licked it-of course, the camera wasn't handy, but we will probably try for some photos tomorrow. It was one of those great family moments that I hope we never forget.