Little Laika

I just spent four glorious days cuddling my beautiful niece, Laika (LIE-kuh), and if I didn’t have baby fever before, I sure do now! What a treat to not only meet Laika, but to see my brother as a dad, and my sister-in-law as a mom, to see the tenderness and love with which they handle this precious child. I had been unsure going in to this trip – I’d never been in a house for an extended time with a baby and didn’t know what to expect, I’d never been to Texas, and, I realized, I had never spent time with my brother when my parents weren’t a part of the visit. (I decided this means we are really adults now – not the fact that we both just bought houses, or that we’re both married, or that he has a kid and a Very Safe Car now. It’s the fact that we visited with each other on our own, aside from a special event or where our parents were also present.)

But let me go on about sweet Laika. At seven weeks, she’s a good baby. As our pediatrician friend said, “My diagnosis is: perfect!” Apparently she has only just started having quiet awake times, but she had plenty of them. We were able to go out and do some things with Laika in a Boba wrap, and she didn’t make a peep. Though she still sleeps most of the day, I had plenty of time to hold her and cuddle her and sing to her and dance with her. I wandered around their yard with my sweet girl while Luke worked (from home) and Chunzi and her mom did some errands and some things around the house. I learned some tricks to make her stop crying, I discovered which songs she liked better than others (she’s a big fan of Jason Mraz and also MaMuse), and I soaked in every little face movement and expression and sound.

The morning I left, I took the opportunity to take in as much Laika as I could before saying goodbye. First, Luke and I had a jam session with her, with Luke on the ukulele I gave him for Christmas and me singing, and him singing when he was comfortable, and Laika making us look good. She enjoyed that very much! Then just the two of us danced together around the living room to the classical music station. I sang her songs from the musical Michael and I are doing, and practiced the dance steps. We swooped down when the music went down, and up when the music went up. We made up words to the instrumental music. And I sang some of her favorites, including I’m Yours by Jason Mraz. “Look into your heart and you’ll find love love love love. Listen to the music of the moment, people dance and sing. We’re just one big family. And it’s our God [given] right to be loved, loved, loved, loved… There’s no need to complicate, our time is short, this is our fate: I’m yours!” As I sang these words, Laika gazed up at me, and wouldn’t you know it, her little face broke into a smile. And I may have cried a little. If that doesn’t melt you heart, what does?!

At one point I was standing near the ceiling fan and Laika was staring right at it. And because of the angle, when I looked in her eyes, I could see what looked like crosses in her eyes. And I immediately started to pray – holding this child in my arms, seeing her gaze so intently up with her angelic face, how could I not? My prayers didn’t necessarily have words, but they were fervent and sincere. Oh, what love for this child! It was very hard to say goodbye!