Miss Delight
She’s a DELIGHT - my Amani!
In all of 16 months on this planet, she’s garnered more nick names than I have had my entire life; Ama, Baby girl, Bubbles, Juju (say it fast, as if you are stammering to say juice). “Juju” rules courtesy of big brother Mich. He tells us it means cute in her language.
She communicates with sentences too complex for me to decipher but her brother assures us that he knows her codes, so I worry not.
When she is hungry, she might push me towards the kitchen or stand near the fridge. On the occasion that I’m engrossed in other duties, she will cry inconsolably as if to say “this is too much! I can’t take it anymore!”
Once I was preoccupied, (it must have been facebook or some such evil) when she begun to cry.
“Yes Amani, what is it?”
“ nyaaaaaa”
“Are you tired?”
“nyaaaaa”
“Do you want to go outside?”
“nyaaaa nyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa”
“Oh! You must be hungry!”
She switched to a lower pitch and I got it.
I put her in the feeding chair and whipped something up.
When I put the plate in front of her, she clapped her chubby little fingers and said “googa!”
Her version of “good girl!”
I nearly rolled on the floor in a feat of laughter. She is funny like that.
She likes people with the exception of Uncle Edward, he was too energetic on their first encounter, he raised his voice in excitement and that brought her to tears. She isn’t fully aware of the impact she has on people.
Jeshiah (4 years old) calls her a “cute little baby” but mostly “juju”. His prayer one night was “Dear Jesus, please help Amani to start talking so that we can go to Hollywood and sing”, his mom and I barely made it to the end of that prayer.
Mich rushes in from school - breathless, “Where’s Amani? Where’s Amani?” When he sees her, they both light up, he shouts “Amaniiii!!!” She starts to run towards him then turns away as if she just realized he’s a mirage.
“How are you juju?” she totally ignores him and attempts to walk off when he grabs her and envelops her in hugs and kisses. She’s learnt to “hold her horses” quite early.
She enjoys rolling around with the boys, getting right in the middle of their games. They love it! They love her!
But as with every relationship there are times she is simply messing things up, that’s when you’ll hear “Amaaniii!! Stoooop! Go away!”
She loves to cuddle, to snuggle her head in the warmest corner of my neck – it fits perfectly.
Her laugh is sensational! Her chuckle is contagious. She rolls up into a ball and covers her face as though she were afraid to laugh with abandon.
Her mouth! That is where it all happens. Everything is vetted in there; papers, sponges, shoes… everything! Well except insects. Any tiny creature that’s got a life of its own freaks her out. She is a girl alright!
Her hunger for soap in its various foams is yet to be quenched. She will take a huge bite out of a bar or suck on a bottle of shampoo as if her life depended on it. Left to her own devices, bubbles would gently froth out her ears.
She is very strong! She rips things apart. She loves to flip through books. On occasion you’ll hear that dreaded sound “shhhriip!!” as she passionately turns the pages. She’ll look up suddenly with a surprised expression as if to say “what just happened?”
She is fascinated with little openings, any space into which she can wiggle her finger. I’m talking sockets, holes, ears and stuff. Speaking of fingers, she still sucks her middle and ring finger – her perfect comfort. Apparently finger sucking is hereditary – her dad was onto those 2 back in the day.
She lights up when things disappear – the now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t kind of disappear. She is so proud when she throws something in the dustbin; cups, spoons, pens, books, all in the dustbin! It’s like magic to her - a fascinating abyss. Her attention however is shifting towards the toilet bowl and flashing “We’ve got our eyes on you baby girl!”
She is such a copy cat, do something once and she’s on it - waving, clapping, dancing… Lately she’s been pouting and saying “ow” as though she were speaking French. I suspect that’s her imitation of the way we talk.
She loves music! She loves to sing and dance! Her favorite songs are “baby Jesus”, “Yes Jesus loves me”, “Twinkle twinkle little star” and Barney’s theme song “I love you”. She belts out her lines a tad late but oh! So passionately loud.
She loves anything that writes; pens, pencils, markers, crayons, name it! she attempts to use them everywhere. In time we might get notes from Mich’s teacher reading something like this, “It’s unacceptable to have your little sister writing your homework!”. If Mich had his way, he would not touch a pen or pencil with a javelin. He's never taken interest in writing period; Amani on the other hand is a force to reckon with – any paper or book left lying around will have her signature doodle.
She is comfortable with routine, even preempts it when mom and dad slacken.
She is cheeky. She is gaining awareness of what she shouldn’t do but loves mums reaction, so she does it and attempts to run away. Now, she covers her face with her palms when she is being rebuked.
With all this, it’s clear that she has quite a personality. Regarding her physical features, she looks a bit like her aunt Carol, her grand aunt Lydia and her cousin Genevieve. Her fingers look like her grandma's. She walks like her great grand ma, not in entirity but it's there – it’s crazy I know! But you’ve got to see to believe. And finally because she loves to eat, when asked to sit down, she immediatle drops down on the softest spot closest to you (Uncle Enock knows more about this behavior).
In all of 16 months on this planet, she’s garnered more nick names than I have had my entire life; Ama, Baby girl, Bubbles, Juju (say it fast, as if you are stammering to say juice). “Juju” rules courtesy of big brother Mich. He tells us it means cute in her language.
She communicates with sentences too complex for me to decipher but her brother assures us that he knows her codes, so I worry not.
When she is hungry, she might push me towards the kitchen or stand near the fridge. On the occasion that I’m engrossed in other duties, she will cry inconsolably as if to say “this is too much! I can’t take it anymore!”
Once I was preoccupied, (it must have been facebook or some such evil) when she begun to cry.
“Yes Amani, what is it?”
“ nyaaaaaa”
“Are you tired?”
“nyaaaaa”
“Do you want to go outside?”
“nyaaaa nyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa”
“Oh! You must be hungry!”
She switched to a lower pitch and I got it.
I put her in the feeding chair and whipped something up.
When I put the plate in front of her, she clapped her chubby little fingers and said “googa!”
Her version of “good girl!”
I nearly rolled on the floor in a feat of laughter. She is funny like that.
She likes people with the exception of Uncle Edward, he was too energetic on their first encounter, he raised his voice in excitement and that brought her to tears. She isn’t fully aware of the impact she has on people.
Jeshiah (4 years old) calls her a “cute little baby” but mostly “juju”. His prayer one night was “Dear Jesus, please help Amani to start talking so that we can go to Hollywood and sing”, his mom and I barely made it to the end of that prayer.
Mich rushes in from school - breathless, “Where’s Amani? Where’s Amani?” When he sees her, they both light up, he shouts “Amaniiii!!!” She starts to run towards him then turns away as if she just realized he’s a mirage.
“How are you juju?” she totally ignores him and attempts to walk off when he grabs her and envelops her in hugs and kisses. She’s learnt to “hold her horses” quite early.
She enjoys rolling around with the boys, getting right in the middle of their games. They love it! They love her!
But as with every relationship there are times she is simply messing things up, that’s when you’ll hear “Amaaniii!! Stoooop! Go away!”
She loves to cuddle, to snuggle her head in the warmest corner of my neck – it fits perfectly.
Her laugh is sensational! Her chuckle is contagious. She rolls up into a ball and covers her face as though she were afraid to laugh with abandon.
Her mouth! That is where it all happens. Everything is vetted in there; papers, sponges, shoes… everything! Well except insects. Any tiny creature that’s got a life of its own freaks her out. She is a girl alright!
Her hunger for soap in its various foams is yet to be quenched. She will take a huge bite out of a bar or suck on a bottle of shampoo as if her life depended on it. Left to her own devices, bubbles would gently froth out her ears.
She is very strong! She rips things apart. She loves to flip through books. On occasion you’ll hear that dreaded sound “shhhriip!!” as she passionately turns the pages. She’ll look up suddenly with a surprised expression as if to say “what just happened?”
She is fascinated with little openings, any space into which she can wiggle her finger. I’m talking sockets, holes, ears and stuff. Speaking of fingers, she still sucks her middle and ring finger – her perfect comfort. Apparently finger sucking is hereditary – her dad was onto those 2 back in the day.
She lights up when things disappear – the now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t kind of disappear. She is so proud when she throws something in the dustbin; cups, spoons, pens, books, all in the dustbin! It’s like magic to her - a fascinating abyss. Her attention however is shifting towards the toilet bowl and flashing “We’ve got our eyes on you baby girl!”
She is such a copy cat, do something once and she’s on it - waving, clapping, dancing… Lately she’s been pouting and saying “ow” as though she were speaking French. I suspect that’s her imitation of the way we talk.
She loves music! She loves to sing and dance! Her favorite songs are “baby Jesus”, “Yes Jesus loves me”, “Twinkle twinkle little star” and Barney’s theme song “I love you”. She belts out her lines a tad late but oh! So passionately loud.
She loves anything that writes; pens, pencils, markers, crayons, name it! she attempts to use them everywhere. In time we might get notes from Mich’s teacher reading something like this, “It’s unacceptable to have your little sister writing your homework!”. If Mich had his way, he would not touch a pen or pencil with a javelin. He's never taken interest in writing period; Amani on the other hand is a force to reckon with – any paper or book left lying around will have her signature doodle.
She is comfortable with routine, even preempts it when mom and dad slacken.
She is cheeky. She is gaining awareness of what she shouldn’t do but loves mums reaction, so she does it and attempts to run away. Now, she covers her face with her palms when she is being rebuked.
With all this, it’s clear that she has quite a personality. Regarding her physical features, she looks a bit like her aunt Carol, her grand aunt Lydia and her cousin Genevieve. Her fingers look like her grandma's. She walks like her great grand ma, not in entirity but it's there – it’s crazy I know! But you’ve got to see to believe. And finally because she loves to eat, when asked to sit down, she immediatle drops down on the softest spot closest to you (Uncle Enock knows more about this behavior).
Ohhh bless, such a delight!! My Son craving for baby right now! Seeing the age gap between your Mitch and Amani consoles me that a connection can still be there even with the age gap!!
ReplyDeleteA happy new year to you!
x Maya
Maya!!! Where art thou? Lovely hearing from you. Yeah! the age gap kind of disappears. May God work things out for you. Updates please.
ReplyDelete