...

[ailbhe]

Does one ever grow accustomed to looking into the eyes of one's baby and seeing a huge great grown-up GIRL? In all her beautiful self-made glory I never knew I would see so much a whole entire person - more entire than I have ever felt - looking out at me from a face I know considerably better than my own, because I've never spent as long looking at my face as I have at hers.

This evening at dinner, I saw the woman Linnea will be. Just for a minute, but there she was, just as the baby is still there, but hard to see all the time.

I am awed.

Comments

[kcobweb.livejournal.com]

I'm currently in the midst of a mad love affair with my girl, who is so enormously big and about to turn 4!!!!! You describe it *perfectly*.

[cherade9.livejournal.com]

Yep. I look at Adam and see this amazing complete human being. I've gotten more and more glimpses of the person he is and is becoming as he gets older. I feel like the luckiest person in the world to get to share the world with him :)

[rosefox]

I don't have children to look at in this way, obviously, but I always loved it in my younger relatives and my students.

[sshi.livejournal.com]

Funny, that's almost exactly what I said when I saw the photo of "Linnea's teeth" that you posted the other day - you can just get a glimpse of the woman that she will be some day :)

[cangetmad.livejournal.com]

I get this sometimes, particularly in the last few months as Gnome's stretched into a lanky little girl. There's hardly any baby left in her. The other day, she was stretched on her front on the floor, chin in hands, and I could see a teenager avoiding summer exam revision in the park.

[biascut.livejournal.com]

Both this and ailbhe's original post are just beautiful.

[hypatia.livejournal.com]

Heh - just wait until you have to look upward at those eyes... I really must try to break the habit of taking their hands when we cross a road together. :-)

I'll get me zimmer frame.

[ailbhe]

What, you mean when Linnea is about eight?

[moonborn.livejournal.com]

This made me giggle!
I'll be doing the same with the Tiny Tyrant at that age, no doubt.

[hypatia.livejournal.com]

I was thinking six myself ;-p

I do try not to take their hands, remind them to do their coats up etc when their friends are around.

Fortunately its well known that all parents hit senility just as their kids become puberts, they just sigh at me indulgently whilst sharing each other's pain.
I believe I can be expected to recover slightly when they hit 30 so I'm hoping for a couple of good years before I go permanantly gaga.

[mrscosmopilite.livejournal.com]

I do try not to take their hands, remind them to do their coats up etc when their friends are around.

you are no fun anymore!

[hypatia.livejournal.com]

you are no fun anymore

Sadly my deteriorating mental state means I forget at times. Especially when they remind me of my deteriorating mental state.

My eternal fear, as I keep telling #1, is that I will forget myself and wipe his face with a hanky at a critical moment. Regular supplies of coffee help my concentration in this respect 0:-)

[barakta]

Just as long as you haven't spat on said hanky first *cringe* which is what my mum always did. AND it was always sticky cos my mum makes everything sticky...

[iuil.livejournal.com]

Given that my six year old is nearly as tall as me (and is now taking a size 1 shoe to my size 4!), that doesn't seem so farfetched to me :-/

[hypatia.livejournal.com]

I'm 5'10" and I'm the midget in my own household.

There is no justice. There is however revenge :)

[mrscosmopilite.livejournal.com]

Does one ever grow accustomed to looking into the eyes of one's baby and seeing a huge great grown-up GIRL?

not yet:-)
I know I look at K* and can't believe how that scrawny thing I brought home from hospital has turned out. Quite astonishing at times.

[flybabydizzy.livejournal.com]

I look at the woman who breezes in now and again, and can still sometimes see my baby.
And I do still want to hold her hand and tell her to put her coat on.

[tiggsybabes.livejournal.com]

I see fleeting glanes of that in Kate, isn't it awe inspiring? Not seen it yet in Holly.

[radegund.livejournal.com]

Whereas I am awwwww'd :-)

Unny is mostly there only when Oisín's asleep, now. The young man is beginning to emerge (as in the first picture here - but not the second).

[ailbhe]

Linnea looks *more* grown-up when she's asleep, a lot of the time. She's so... self-possessed.