I watched them sit on opposite sides of the bathtub where their 3 week old infant lay in the baby bath chair squirming and making little sounds like a kitten. She was swaddled in a blanket on which clean, temperature measured warm water was gently and lovingly poured. She calmed her wiggling and open-eyed gazed as if she could understand and see the luxury she'd been placed in. With their bare feet in the water her father started to wash her hair while mom lifted the clinging blanket and washed her feet and legs. Each move was repeated while continuing to pour water on the blanket and her head to keep her warm until the bath was finished. The sounds of laughter and joyful expressions of "How cute you are" How beautiful you look." "What a sweet girl!' surrounded the infant along with sounds of running water. The baby gently lifted by her father and placed in a dry hooded towel her mother held, was once again swaddled and lifted to be placed on her parents bed to be diapered and dressed. The two brown and beige collies had been waiting in the bedroom, the youngest, still a puppy was on the king sized bed. The older dog Duke lay obediently on his own bed by the window, tail wagging as he watched the now familiar scene. Lotion soon was massaged on her tiny body and she relaxed into it, her pink tongue moving in and out of her mouth in anticipation of the feeding that would come soon. As her father brought the diaper his daughter predictably peed on the outfit and bed she had been so comfortably laid on. The sounds of laughter again filled the air around her.
"Baby girl, what did you do?" but she only continued the mewling sounds from her bath and quickened the movement of her tongue. All the while her eyes of undefined color yet, were wide open. Her awareness of her family and their love was growing inside. Her parents had named her Sunshine and she would grow up to understand how she lit up their lives.
© Jodi A