someday

i have a new favorite book. and i think harper is slowly starting to enjoy it as well. i tear up every time i read it to her, as we rock in the chair in her room before she goes to sleep.

someday by alison mcghee and peter h. reynolds

one day i counted your fingers and kissed each one.
one day the first snowflakes fell, and i held you up and watched them melt on your baby skin.one day we crossed the street, and you held my hand tight.
then, you were my baby, and now you are my child.
sometimes, when you sleep, i watch you dream, and i dream too.
that someday you will dive into the cool, clear water of a lake.
someday you will walk into a deep wood.
someday your eyes will be filled with a joy so deep that they shine.
someday you will run so fast and so far your heart will feel like fire.
someday you will swing high-so high, higher than you ever dared to swing.someday you will hear something so sad that you will fold up with sorrow.
someday you will call a song to the wind, and the wind will carry your song away.
someday i will stand on this porch and watch your arms waving to me until i no longer see you.
someday you will look at this house and wonder how something that feels so big can look so small.
someday you will feel a small weight against your strong back.
someday i will watch you brushing your child's hair.
someday, a long time from now, your own hair will glow silver in the sun.
and when that day comes, love, you will remember me.

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michael and i watched the movie whip it the other night. i loved it. i even said to michael halfway through the movie, when the mother wants nothing more for her daughter than beauty pageants and the daughter wants nothing more than to play roller derby, harper can play roller derby if she wants to. you want everything for your child when you become a parent. you want to give her the sun and the moon, the stars and the ocean, everything perfect in life and none of the heartache. but i know that isn't possible. but what i can control is my unending love and support for anything she wants to do and anyone she wants to become. i love these days with her, much more than when she was an infant. don't get me wrong- snuggling and kissing and loving on her sweet baby-ness was heaven, but watching her blossom into the independent and beautiful little girl she is has been amazing. i am so looking forward to her growing up, to seeing what she'll be like when she's in high school, to see who she will fall in love with, to see what kind of stages she'll go through as she's trying to find herself and coming into her own. i'm looking forward to celebrating the daughter that i have.

*************

and another favorite book of ours...

i bought this when harper was only a few months old because i enjoyed reading it when i first picked it up. we only recently started reading it with her and it's quickly become a bedtime favorite. the way harper recalls the days of the week and the colors of candy, screams "again, again" when papa bounces little pea in the air, and her loud exclamation of "spinach" when little pea is served dessert like it's something that she just adores herself.

it's just adorable.

the book and the girl.

~e