Friday, August 17, 2007

Sensual

I have often found motherhood to be a sensual, which is not to say sexual, experience. There's the nursing, of course. Ada and I spent a lot of time side-lying, with her latched onto my nipple while kicking me lovingly with a sharp foot. Beyond that obvious example, I love the indescribable softness of baby skin, with its underlying baby fat. I love the smell of baby head and milk-fed baby breath. I love the sound of funny baby noises: squeaks and snorts and giggles. I love the look of an innocent baby face sleeping, and the lights in a laughing baby's eyes.

A lot of the same wonders apply to toddlers, too. I love the smell of my toddler's breath, the sight of her sweet face, relaxed and trusting in sleep, or lighting up at the sight of me, arms opened wide, shouting, "Mommy!" I love hearing, "I love you." I love the funny little things she does with language. I love the way she caresses me with her beautiful hands. I love seeing scrapes and bumps and bruises on her skin whose origins are mysterious to me; I love her emerging independence.

Ellie just woke up, with a dry diaper, because she needed to potty. Then she went right back to sleep uncomplainingly. Despite a very long, no-nap day, I am flush with love for my daughters.

A funny anecdote, then, to cut through the syrupy feeling in here.

I was lying on my bed with Ada later this afternoon, who was waking from the short nursing nap she'd taken while Ellie had her snack in front of Curious George. Ellie stopped by Paul's bedside table before climbing up into bed with Ada and me. She brought up our little Homedics massagers. We hadn't had these out in a few months, and the girls enjoyed playing with them. Ellie enjoyed games like, "Put the massager on your . . . elbow! Foot! Chin!" Ada loved the colorful glow and the weird sensation of pressing the vibrating plastic against her mouth (she's working on her 6th tooth).

After a while, Ellie disappeared 'round Paul's side of the bed again and resurfaced with these massager things my mom got Paul for Christmas a couple of years ago. They're plastic sticks with what look like racket balls on the ends for wacking your loved one on the back. Feels great, and I taught Ellie how to hit mommy - gently, and just on the back, no, not on your sister's head!

Ellie disappeared and resurfaced again, this time with these two things.

I shut daddy's bedside table and decided we'd had enough of that game for the afternoon!

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Thank you for the HUGE belly laugh this morning! I can say that one of my fears with our new bedroom furniture is that we no longer had good hiding places for adult materials, and I'm afraid we're going to be having that embarrassing moment much sooner than we'd like to! :)

Orange said...

Hah!

How's that lube? Astroglide's also good stuff.

OneTiredEma said...

:-)


Oh, we've had some interesting moments with the K-Y. (Luckily it was the fliptop lid that was fascinating.)

Michele Boselli said...

ciao, nice liberal blog! if you like mine, we can exchange links :)

ccw said...

LOL!

BriteLady said...

After a similar episode, we installed a medicine cabinet in our bathroom--just a few steps away from the nightstand. It doesn't lock, but luckily it hasn't yet occurred to Charlotte to climb up and check it out....