Every evening (to the utter amazement of many of our Venezuelan aquaintences who are aghast at the thought that we bathe you at night) when we put you in your tub for one of your favorite rituals of the day I am reminded of a poem I loved when I was a child and when I read it to your Mom and your uncle. If we take a little liberty with the words it suits you to a T -
I have a little shadow
Who goes up and down with me,
And what can be the use of her
Is more than I can see.
She is very, very like me
From my heels up to my head
And she always jumps before me
When I jump into my ....bath.
She's been sharing bath time with you since you came home to Savanna from the hospial. You have come to expect the company of this "baby in the mirror" and smile and coo at her all through your bath. I think perhaps a good part of the complaint that we suffer each time your bath ends is due to the fact that we are taking you away from your "shadow".
I can't wait until you're ready for the rest of A Child's Garden of Verses. Few people have captured the reality of childhood as RLS did in those poems.
Just who are you going to look like, child? You're changing your hair (losing is perhaps a better word). Your eyes haven't defined themselves yet (the doctor says by 6 months we should know what color they will be). Your face gets fatter, then thinner - and every day I see shades of someone else in you. I guess you are just a happy mixture of shadows of us all and we will just have to wait and see how they blend together as you grow.
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