I know, I know, everyone has a baby somewhere who they adore, a long list of baby nieces or cousins or best-friend’s toddlers or even your own sweet one, but our family has waited a long, a very long time for the arrival of a new baby. It’s been decades. Needless to say, he has swept us all into baby magic with his adorable cuteness. Seriously, it’s impossible not to share our delight for this little sugar baby. Please indulge me, yet again, come along and see for yourself his sweetness!

Of course seeing your baby with their baby is a spectacular feeling, but one that’s hard to put into words. It’s like a giant waterfall of joy, cascading down into an aqua pool of happiness, less corny though, but with as much thundering love as you’d imagine except you don’t have to invent anything because you can hear the big laughter coming from the two of them and when it happens that is all you can hear. Big electric light and love laughter splashing down from above.

Everyone wants to get in on that kind of fun when there is a giggling baby involved. Everyone wants in on those games, with all the silly stuff you can cook up, for play rules the daytime hours. When you’re tagged you’re it and that honor is gold.

You can’t always depend on a baby napping during a stroll, but you can hope for one. The best part is no one wants to miss all that walk and talk, especially because our time together these last years has been rare and fleeting. So on this corner, when we stopped to acknowledge this precious moment, this momma beamed and baby floated away in that transcendent tableau like a star basking in the velvet navy sky.

I can’t go any further without cheering this baby’s generous momma. She lets his Auntie & me steal him away with an easy smile cause family is her gold too. That’s how lucky we got with this lady and her charmer babe. Both their grins are contagious and one falls into comfort like a warm slipper in their midst. Just solidly in the present even while hummingbirds dart among the bamboo, the best feels.

There were hours of swinging and singing, cuddles and naps spent in our arms, messy meal time and ba-ba bottles and splashy baths, and this one Itsy Bitsy Spider book on repeat. (Whoever invented the indestructible book is a baby genius, for sure.) Laps were plentiful with multiple adults on deck, circulating through the glory days together like a Bruce Springsteen level anthem filling the shared happy space.

One by one people popped off back into their grind and the core got tighter. But we don’t say goodbye anymore. Only, see you soon, knowing that day will always follow night. There will always be time carved out for family love. That we know for sure.

**This post is dedicated to my dear friend and avid Nine Cent Girl reader who sadly passed last week. Bliss was everything I strive to be, wholeheartedly herself, smart and caring, who loved family as much as they loved her. Her twin grandchildren called her Joy-Joy, which sums her up better than anything I could write about her grand self. Bliss leaves behind a large gap that will be felt by all who knew her.

Rest in peace my friend, I’m certain I’ll find you out in the garden, xxoo