G is for Girl

From Delicious Nugget...



To Juicy Hambone.



Swirling Cwinderella...



To One Beat Chick.



When I first found out I had a Cakers in the oven,I was more than a little anxious. There wasn't just the health considerations for both me and the babe (I was 42) there were also significant lifestyle changes to ponder.*

Sometimes I would nervously joke with friends and family that back in the days of cavemen, a woman my age would be dead by now. And maybe there was a reason for that. To a person, the response would be, "Oh, she'll keep you young."

Hmmm.

This girl of mine is very hard to describe in font. You really have to experience Cakers to know what I'm talking about. She's sensitive and bullheaded and vulnerable and brave and logical and magical and has an otherwise indescribable essence the likes of which most people have never known, and often feel compelled to comment on.

Yesterday I was talking to a neighbor mom in the yard, while several neighborhood kids (including mine) played around us. A four year old neighbor girl had been begging and whining (and whining and begging) about something that none of the adults or children could do anything about. It was obvious that this girl was not going to let up, and I suspect she was enjoying our ever increasing frustration with her interruptions and impossible demands.

Along comes Cakers, who gets off her bike, puts her hand on the girl's shoulder and in a very sensitive, caring voice says "You'll feel a lot better if you just stop thinking about it."

To all the people who told me "She'll keep you young," you were a little off the mark. She doesn't keep me young. She keeps me amazed. Every day.

*There were more complicated cognitions and emotions I experienced as an old pregnant lady, including an odd sense of loneliness. But this is a story of celebration and awe. The other part of the story can wait another day.