Tuesday, April 17, 2007

It Finally Dawned on Me

Last week (was it just last week?) in a sleep deprived haze, I wrote about The Squeaker’s eyes looking older and wiser than her years weeks suggested. I attributed it to it some odd warp in the space/time continuum… obviously it had been a low sleep week for me.

As it happens once you catch up on sleep, you have a moment or two of clarity.

I came home from work today and - as has sort of become a habit – I picked up TS from P.Pie (or who ever was holding her at the moment) and we kind of mosey around the house in a hoppy/dancey sort of way.

Anyway, when I picked her up she gave me a sort of crooked smile as she looked at me and then her eyes skip around the room from one item to another and then back to me. Each time she stopped on something, her eyes had a familiar look about them… it was very much like the look she gives me.

This got me to thinking – what, exactly, was this look?

As we waltzed around the room and her eyes continued to light up as her mouth made a bent attempted at a smile, it hit me… it was a look of recognition.

Gone are the days of blank, watery stares; her ciliary muscles have finally strengthened enough that her depth of focus has increased beyond the end of her nose (so to speak).

And, like a month-long, worldwide, life-sized game of I Spy Memory Game, she’s able to say, “Wait, Wait… I know him! I’ve seen him before!”

My little girl is growing up… and I really like (until boys enter the scene and/or she despises me).

[ed. note: I included the above picture because her head doesn't look so much like an orange on a toothpick]