Yesterday, I lay down to nurse my 15-month-old daughter who I thought should be ready for a nap. (Ha!) As we settled in and got comfortable, she latched on and I reached for my phone to check email and Facebook.
But then I stopped.
I tucked the phone under a pillow, thinking I could wait a couple of minutes before I did that. Instead, I bent my head down to meet my daughter’s head, to connect with her.
She’s really not a baby anymore – she’s a toddler. There’s often a certain acrobatic quality to her nursing now, kicking those flexible legs around, being squirmy – if you’ve ever nursed a mobile child, you know exactly what I’m talking about.
She kicked her leg up toward the ceiling and let it fall to the bed. She did it again. So I lifted my leg toward the ceiling and brought it back down to the bed. She noticed. She held her leg high again, waiting to see what I’d do, and again I copied her. She giggled. Soon, we were both having so much fun being silly, moving our legs up and then dropping them on the bed or over onto each other, eventually laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes. She laughed so hard she actually let go of the nipple a couple of times, and she’s usually pretty good at hanging on! 🙂
It was really fun. It was silly and spontaneous. It was so good to hear her belly laugh. It felt good for me to laugh. It was sweet and joyful. It reminded me of what it’s all about.
And to think I almost missed that moment…
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