My Rock-A-Bye

I sometimes forget that my daughter is only 2 ½.

What I mean by that is… she spends everyday watching me hold her baby brother while feeding him (he is 10 months) and rocking him to sleep every night. She is so independent and such a wonderful helper I sometimes forget she too needs to be held.

She gets countless kisses and hugs during the day, I praise her constantly for her help and the wonderful job she does, we play together, laugh together and she is loved.

On this particular night she asked to be “rock-a-byed like Jackson”… so of course I obliged. I held her for an hour, rocking her and singing her nightly lullabies, while stroking her hair and rubbing her back. I missed this- she is my baby girl and I missed holding her…

I felt her breathing get heavy and knew she was sleeping. I gave her a final kiss goodnight and thanked her for asking mommy to rock-a-bye her.

Yes, she is only 2 ½ and I do need to be reminded of that.

After all, I am 30 and while my husband was working nights I would go to my parents, a couple of times a week, with the kids to spend the night. (At the time we were being harassed by a downstairs neighbor, it was worse when my husband was not home. This is another story)… I would go to my parents to seek the comfort of my mom. My dad knew on these nights he would be sleeping on the sofa for his wife, daughter, granddaughter and grandson would be sleeping in the bed (one of the rooms is a nursery & the other a spare). Yes, I too needed the comfort of my mom- why would I expect anything less of my 2 ½ year old.

So tonight I would like to say thank you to my beautiful baby girl for allowing me the comfort of rocking you to sleep- what a wonderful way to end this night…mommy loves you more than any words could ever express.