I Conjured You

Georgia turned two this past week. She has been pretty excited about it and loudly sings "Happy Birthday to me!" to anyone interested: in the check-out lane at the grocery store, to her brother, in the car, to herself. We told her the abridged story of her birth and her big brother wanted to hear his birth story too. We looked through photo books and some pictures from her first birthday - I am so glad I wrote those details down because I'd completely forgotten some of the sweet things!

Now that she's such a big girl, she likes to play with her friends Mimi, Mira, Lindsay and Mekael and Baby Fern (whom she calls Baby Wern). She has many more friends in her co-op preschool class where she goes with Daddy on Tuesdays and Fridays. I asked Teacher Christi how Georgia, the youngest kid, is doing in class and she responded, "She's doing great. She's definitely a girl who knows what she wants!"

I overheard her "reading" - backwards - through In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak, "Mickey. Kitchen. Snug-gle. Cock-a-doodle-doo! Cake. Milk. Swimming. Moon. Airplane. Up. Up. Up. Mickey. Kitchen. Make it. Mama. Papa. Quiet down there! Snug-gle. All done!"

She likes to "meep," which means specifically to draw with a black pen - no crayons for this girl. My Uncle Jim, an artist himself, watched her intently drawing, looked at her finished piece and exclaimed, "Just like Cy Twombly!"

A few more endearing things about her at the moment:

• When I give her kissy-tickles, she says, "More-again!"
• She calls her big brother Xavier, "Babier"
• She can be very demanding, saying, "I want mommy milky right now!"
• She requests oatmeal, hot and cold, multiple times throughout the day.
• "Mommy, what doing?" or 'Mommy, what talking about?"
• She insists on putting her own shoes on, often on the wrong foot, and also insists on getting in and out of her car seat by herself.
• When we are all getting ready to go somewhere, she asks, "Mommy too? Daddy too? Babier too? Me too?"
• Every time we stop at a red light while driving, she yells from the back seat, "I wanna go!"
• Her favorite PBS Kids show is Bob the Builder. She shouts, "Can we do it? Yes we can!"
• She loves doggies and doggie kisses.
• When we tell her about something, she listens and then sagely says, "Oh."
• She often grabs a lego piece from her brother, pops it into her mouth and runs away.
• Christian built the fence you see above to keep her in as she'll take off by herself to the park to go swinging.
• She likes to play animal charades with her brother and go swimming in the bathtub.
• Her father is worried she's going to be a little hellion.
• She's a hoot.

I wrote this poem a while back for her. I am still amazed that she is here, that she is mine.

I Conjured You

I asked the doll maker

to give you blonde hair

and make you a girl

dressed in shades of blue,

my own best color.

Shall I stitch her name on?

she asked.

Oh yes, please

I did not hesitate

Georgie.

I was barely pregnant

yearning for a little girl

this time.

The doll arrived

in the mail

just perfect.

You arrived months later

exactly as requested

with only a slight

delay.