The Mothering Instinct

I love it when we have the rare occasion to have all of our adult kids in the same town. We are greatly missing Shane!

It’s June of 2018, and we are all anxiously awaiting the arrival of baby boy Skinner, Audrey and Ben’s first baby, and we’re so ready to meet him!

 

Tony, Adele, and her daughter Amelia made it safely to Haviland from Indiana to wait for baby boy Skinner to arrive.

I was reminded recently of the strong DNA within many women to hold, nurture, and love on a baby as I observed it in Amelia who is five. Let me tell you about our week:

I decided to make some cookies for us to snack on while we waited for this baby to be born. Amelia helped me measure sugar and flour and mix the dough to make chocolate chip cookies. Ben and Audrey came over last night to join us for dinner—vegetable stew with rice—, and we played Trivial Pursuit. I don’t need to mention who won (cough, cough). It’s all about the fellowship, anyway!

One of the questions I was asked in the game was how many dalmation puppies are there in the movie 101 Dalmations? It’s kind of a trick question because you have to subtract two for the parents.

We all went to breakfast in Pratt at Donald’s Servateria, and then Adele wanted to go with Audrey and Ben for her doctor’s appointment with Dr. Cannatta to hear the baby’s heart beat. I had gone with Audrey the previous week and needed to buy groceries now. While they went to the doctor’s appointment we went to Walmart.

Amelia had overheard me talking to Tony, making plans to go into Pratt to get some food at Walmart Yes, when you live in a small town, those are “plans.”  (We lived in a small town of 700 people in Haviland, Kansas at the time.) She asked me, “Gigi can you buy me a toy that I can take home with me?” This sweet child’s love language is a new toy!

Last time she was here she wanted to take some of our toys home with her, and I had to explain to her that if she takes all of them home every time she comes then we won’t have any here for her to play with. That made sense to her, but she was still attached to them and wanted to take some home. I told her my typical wise answer that I learned through blood, sweat, and tears while raising her mom and aunt and uncle: “We’ll see.”

So, today, Amelia asked me again on the way to eat breakfast, “Gigi, can I get a toy that I can keep and take home with me?” Again I told her,”We’ll see.” After we ate breakfast, Adele, Audrey, and Ben left in their truck to go the the doctor, and we went in our car to Walmart. When we got in the store I told Amelia, let’s get all of our food and then we’ll go look at the toys, okay?”

She agreed and we took a while going through the fruits and vegetables, to the frozen food, to the breads, to the canned foods, to the dairy products, to the back of the store to the soda and eggs and then the soap and paper products. Amelia patiently helped me get food and never asked to go see the toys.

“Okay,” I said, “let’s go to the toys.” Then we went by the baby clothes. I remembered Audrey had said they were on sale. I told Amelia I forgot I wanted to look at these on the way to the toys. Amelia was super patient and helped me pick out some cute, tiny baby clothes for baby boy Skinner. Finally it was time to go get her toy. Tony was on the phone with Shane, who stayed in Indiana to hold down the fort there. Amelia and I left the cart with grandpa and looked over all of the girl toys. She chose a sweet baby set with a baby doll and stroller and clothes, and we checked out and left. “I’m going to name my baby Emma!” The mothering gene to hold and protect a child is strong in this girl, and is soon to be strong in Audrey, too. All the way home Isaac and Amelia played. Uncle Isaac is undoubtedly one of her favorite people in the whole world to be with!

When we got home Amelia wanted to change out of her dress and get comfortable to play. She put on a comfy pink t-shirt that Tony and I bought her at the airport in London. Now we’re sitting in our living room watching 101 Dalmations on Netflix, a movie set in London, and she’s got Emma in the stroller having fun and playing—and when she leaves she will get to take it all home with her. Soon her Aunt Audrey will get to take home a baby, too: A real live baby who she’s waited to meet and hold for a very long time. Life seems to be a little interrelated and surreal right now. Really we’re all just waiting for that phone call from Aunt Audrey. . . . She won’t be having 99 babies. Only one tiny baby boy.