Ella Sue is the epitome of an independent child, when chatting with other parents, I find that no, their children do not play happily by themselves for hours. Or to put it another way, when I read about separation anxiety, I was, well I am ashamed to admit this, elated. Ella Sue is not a cuddler. Sure, she has her moments, she will sit with you right after a nap, but once her motor starts going, she is off. Separation anxiety meant to me that she might, just might, want me to hold her, for longer than 10 minutes. Half the reason I still give Ella a bottle is not because she can not hold it for herself, it is because it means that I will have at least 20 minutes of cuddle time. Separation anxiety, though it did show up, did not produce all that I had been promised. Ella did throw a glance our way, to make sure we were in eyeball distance, and there was a bit of reluctance at being held by people other than Drew and I, but that was it. No cuddling, barely any clinging. Tonight, however Ella Sue did not feel well. And somehow, I was able to trick her into falling asleep on my chest. There I was, head full of my list of things to do and it all go reshuffled because Ella Sue feel asleep on me. It was lovely. And it reminded that nearly a year has gone by since her last nap with me. When she was just a wee one, she would sleep on my chest and then she would fit on my belly. Now she was stretching out almost to my knees. There was baby hair all over her head and her fingers had dimples on them. There has been some serious growing going on in the past whirl of the last year.
My friend Katie took the photo above.
