One of my biggest worries in adopting an almost three-year old back in 2005 was that I would mourn missing out on so many firsts: first words, crawling, walking, etc. I do sometimes get sad when Tootle asks me a question about when she was a baby and I'm not able to give her nearly as much detail as I can Doodle, but I don't really mourn the lost firsts as much as I expected. I quickly learned to shift my perspective and celebrate the firsts that I still get to experience through her eyes. For example, I'm pretty sure that Tootle had never had a band aid before I met her. The wonder with which she beheld her first band aid was something to see.
Last week on vacation we had two new firsts: Tootle's first fishing experience (she LOVED it) and another one that I expected to check off the list at a far younger age: Tootle let me sing her to sleep for the first time. I always sang Doodle to sleep when she was a baby and still do so when she is having a tough time falling asleep. Our go-to song is one I sorta made up, and any time that I have tried to sing it to Tootle, she has quickly told me to stop. On vacation one night both girls were still awake at 10 p.m. because they hadn't processed the sugary goodness of their toasted marshmallows yet, and Doodle asked me to sing. I knew that I couldn't sing the old standard because Tootle would protest, so I sang our No. 2 song, Edelweiss. Surprisingly, Tootle loved it and asked me to sing it again and again. In a short time both girls were asleep. I don't know why I've never tried to sing Edelweiss to Tootle before, but I'm glad that the opportunity finally arose. It was sweet to be able to sing her to sleep, and since we've been home, she has asked me to do it two more times.
The picture is of Edelweiss. I've always loved this song from The Sound of Music that waxes so poetically about a flower, and now it will be even more special to me.
2 comments:
awww how sweet. what a great gift you have given them of singing them to sleep of tootle's gift of letting you.
that is really sweet. I used to sing both of my kids to sleep when they were younger too. It makes me teary eyes to think of it now :-)
I love Sound of Music and that is also one of my fav songs. :-)
Even though my kids were babies when they came home, I still try and remember to treasure all of their firsts now too. You are a great mommy! Never forget that!
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