The Longest Shortest Time

Burp. Beef. Armpit.

We spend a lot of time at LST talking about the challenging parts of early parenthood—that is our mission, after all. But as I mentioned in a recent post, I thought it would be a good idea to take a moment to dwell a bit on the shortest part of the longest shortest time.

You may remember this scene from my very first post:

When Sasha was about 9 weeks old, I had to take her with me to a dentist appointment. I knew I’d have to feed her there and I was terrified she’d go into Fay Wray mode. The receptionist offered to let me feed her in an exam room. So we sat in the reclining chair, me feeling practically naked without my pillows and swaddling blankets to prop her up. She lay there with her mouth around my nipple but wouldn’t latch. I braced myself. And then Sasha looked up at me. She looked me right in the eye, not at the top of my head, which is where she usually looked. She kind of gave me this smile and she grunted a couple times, like unh, unh. Her first laugh. It made me laugh, which made her laugh more, which made me laugh more. I wondered if the receptionist could hear us cracking up like a couple of maniacs.

Little did I know, this laughing back and forth thing would continue to be the most thrilling aspect of my relationship with Sasha. The differences now are that the grunts have become a full-on belly laugh, deep and infectious, and the thing that gets her going most is language. Words. Words that even I think are funny.

Burp.

Beef. (Which she pronounces “boeuf,” like a little French girl.)

Armpit.

I never know what words are going to set her off. She’ll just hear something for the first time and the hysterics ensue. She repeats the word; I repeat the word; we are dying of laughter. Today we were at the end of our driveway, stomping in puddles and losing our minds over the word “mud,” while the garbage men watched. That’s about as in love as I’ve ever been.

So. Those of you with new babes in your arms. Take note. There are signs your child is giving you *right now*—clues about his or her personality and the fun times waiting for you in the months ahead.

Any new moms out there seen hints of cool traits in your babies? Moms of older kids who can look back and remember seeing traits that developed into who your kid is today? Help give the newbies something to look forward to! (Now that I think of it, episode #1 is about this topic, except at first the trait seemed negative . . . until Jacob grew up and it was clearly as asset. That kind of thing counts, too!)

Illustration: Hillary Frank