In the evening
when I sit alone a dreaming
of days gone by, love,
to me so dear ...

When my babies were babies, stores like Babies-R-Us and Toys-R-Us did not exist.  I'm rather overwhelmed today at these phenomenal spaces and other specialty stores for babies, including Children's Place, Gymboree, and Baby Gap.  The list is much longer, especially if I were to include several large baby departments in stores such as Old Navy and Mervyn's.  Each one seems to have a Triple A rating.  Astounding!  Amazing!  Awesome!
Addie Sue is barely three months old now, and yet she has visited all of the above ... more than once ... with her Mama Jenny and Grandma Sue. 

There's a picture
that in fancy oft appearing
brings back the time, love,
when you were near ...

The tiny outfits are so teasingly cute and colorful that Jenny and I can seldom walk by the marquee without a purchase ... or two ... or three.  During our last recent visit to the Mall of America, Addie Sue went home with three new hats to protect her from the sun as we make plans to head into the lazy hazy days of summer.  Matching various and sundry threads is an imperative more than a prerogative in my life.  Now the matching gene is being wound around and passed on to yet another generation.

It is then I wonder
where you are, my darling,
and if your heart to me
is still the same ...

Addie Sue smiles at us, knowingly.  Just like her ten tiny fingers and ten teeny toes are totally present today, all of her intellect and intuition are totally present today, and they keep growing and peeking out at us the more they are nourished.  She has our attention completely at the malls, just as she does anywhere else that we go together.  We are aware of each other's attention.  The three of us are in sync as we steer to elevators and nursing stations and diaper changes.  In her comfortable baby seat, that doubles as her car seat, perched atop her buggy that is destined to become her stroller, Addie Sue winks and blinks and nods.  Her bright eyes and beautiful little head turn from one side to the next so as not to miss a thing.  She hears and sees more than we do.  Flickering lights and other visuals are scarcely noticed by some of us big people.  Oh, to see again through the eyes of a child when everything under the sun seems new.

For the sighing wind
and nightingale a singing
are breathing only
your own sweet name ...

When Addie squeals and squirms, she is saying, "Tend to me, Mommy."  And so Jenny tends to her.  All those benches in all those long halls at the malls are marvelous places for Jenny to rest a moment and tend to her baby daughter.  Prior to Addie Sue, I had never sat for even a moment at any mall.  Malls meant business to me, the business of snatching up a couple shirts or pants or shoes and heading home before rush hour traffic.  But now malls have come to mean anything but business to me.  Now they give social occasions and times for me to spend with Jennifer and Adeline.  They give meeting points and lunch spots halfway between here and there.

Sweet Adeline,
my Adeline,
at night, dear heart,
for you I pine ....

And how she changes with every visit.  One day her main focus was her right hand, newly discovered and held in front of her face so her eyes crossed.  The next week she found her voice and learned it can do more than cry.  It can coo and caw and catch her unawares.  While Jenny sings the alphabet to her, Addie Sue hits every note in the scale, all in vowel sounds.  Last week Jenny said she caught the traces of her first consonant.  It was a "d."  Is it imitation?  Yes, of course.  And so Jenny and I talk once again about monkey see and monkey do.  Seems humanity is always monkeyin' around in one way or another.

In all my dreams
your fair face beams,
you're the flower
of my heart, sweet Adeline ...

One day she has Jenny's eyes and Christopher's lips.  The very next day she has Jenny's lips and Christopher's eyes.  I tell Jenny this will go on for the rest of her life.  We are always wanting to know who we are and where we come from and where we might be going.  We want to see ourselves in others.  We want to be connected in this human family.  So we get out baby pictures from days gone by.  Every picture seems to reveal another facet that was sifted down the line.  "Look here, Mommy," exclaims Jenny.  "She's me!"  I cannot help but agree.  Yes, indeed, babies are us.

You're the flower
of my heart, sweet Adeline.                        ~Sue