Eli Caleb - 1!

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The baby grew.

He grew...

and he grew...

and he grew.

He grew until he was one year old, and he crawled all around the house.  He pulled all the books off the shelves.  He pulled all of the dishes out of the cupboards, and, when the back door was open, he crawled across the lawn, looked up at the tomato plants, and picked every green tomato in sight.  Sometimes his mother would say, “This kid is driving me crazy!”

But at night time, when that one-year old was quiet, the mother laid in her bed and she thought and she thought and she thought.  And she wondered how it could be that, though she’d been with the little boy almost every waking moment of his life, she felt as if she’d missed his first year.  And she wondered how it could be that the Lord of heaven and earth had entrusted someone so very special to such a silly and selfish woman as she.*

Eli Caleb, I love you –

From our first bond…

To busy and blonde.

From swaddled bean…

To long and lean.

From baby giggle…

To writhe and wriggle.

From tiny sneezes…

To hugs and squeezes.

From rocking chair…

To climbing stairs.

From nursery rhymes…

To teething time.

From newborn smell

And show-and-tell…

To open doors

And littered floors.

From that first roll…

To upturned bowls.

From tiny toes

And button nose...

To filthy shirts

And eating dirt.
From diaper filler...
To dishwasher spiller.
From "ooo" and "aah"
To "Da-Da-Da!"

From that first sight

And sleepless nights…

To toy tornadoes

And picking tomatoes.

From come whatever…

To forever.

Mom

*Inspired by Robert Munsch’s Love You Forever.