Morning-faced, waiting for Papa to make breakfast, stretching on the big couch with her sister dog... this is what Biet looks like at the start of the day. This old tufted sofa, which Gaby and I found on 23rd street for $100, was where I laid just after Biet was born. I sank into the cushions, new baby to my breast, while our midwife instructed Gaby how to cut the cord. He proudly and nervously and bravely did, and the midwife fastened a little belly button clip, and my baby was free- free to begin becoming her own person. Now this miraculous little person climbs onto the same sofa, book in hand, and "reads" to herself in the morning while Papa runs the house and Mama sleeps in. Once in a while she'll pull herself up, snuggle back into a corner, and just sit, observing the apartment- her home, her kingdom. And sometimes she'll beckon Nico to join her, patting the cushion excitedly until Nico leaps up and settles in next to her. Yes, this couch has seen a lot. We could have never imagined how this tattered and antiquated sofa would become so important to our family. We just might have to keep it forever.
{Can you imagine a whole row of little ones, and not so little ones, squeezed in next to one another along this old sofa, sitting smallest to biggest? I know baby-crazy Gaby certainly can. For now, I'm imagining two. And I won't have to imagine for long :) }
