This little Light of Mine- Amy is growing!

How can you begin to explain the joy that Amy brings. She is so funny. She is all the softness and all the adorableness that babyhood can bring.

We sing with all our devotions. We sing any number of Bible songs. We like to add hand motions where they would seem necessary or helpful for the children.

Our signature song that starts the entire devotional time is “This Little Light of Mine.” Aaron sits there and looks at all the kiddies and slowly raises his pointer finger and starts the song…”this little light of mine……

Moses, Mary, Susie, and Nathan all sit on the couch and wave their pointer fingers to the music and sing. Amy sits on the floor. She has for months been watching in some kind of baby wonderment at the song. She would giggle and stick out her brand new baby teeth (three of them appeared all together this past half month). We all would smile back at the angel in the floor.

Then came the night when Aaron asked. “are ya ready?” and he raised his finger…and as he did, he stopped and said. “Jennifer…look!” and there in her little Pjs was Amy with her little hand raised in the needed position. She smiled and looked from her Daddy to her Mommy…like she was hoping we would notice her involvement. We grinned at our darling.

We sang. And as we sang she smiled and waved her hand. You could almost see the little pointer finger extended.

She has been participating in the songs now for a few weeks. She is so sweet.

There is another side of Amy though. She is a screamer. She hasn’t really gotten whiney like the other girls but she has shown signs of it coming. She likes to make a few token whimpers and then “AHHHHHHH”. It is enough for you to lose your mind!

“Amy!” You find yourself spitting out at your precious baby.

She loves to throw this look back into your face that is a throw back to the days of Gomer and Goober. Her jaw juts out a mile and she squints her eyes. And then hisses air in and out of her mouth. You can almost hear the “Judy, Judy, Judy” come from the little pinched face.

It always makes us laugh at her.

Amy is so much like the others, and especially like her mommy, when it comes to teasing. She loves to tease. She somehow has acquired the necessary DNA for pestering. Nathan has a good size dose of this too. They both know how to push the buttons of the older siblings. It shows. There is nothing subtle about their tactics.

Amy spends her days in the gentle protection of MAMA. I never intended to have a “baby” of the family. But, we have had almost an entire year pass and I am not expecting. I have had no morning sickness to contend with. I also have had no Preggy-belly to get in the way of reaching for things on the floor, or under the couch or what have you ..life is pretty good. Who is the one who gets to bask in this wealth, Amy. Everyone looks out for Amy. Everyone notices what she is wearing, saying, doing, etc. Do you think I am talking about people in Wal-Mart? No, I am talking about her brothers and sisters. They adore her, I adore her, she is soo precious. But WHOA unto the lad or lass that harms Amy.

In the days of old when I was in the throws of morning sickness once a child reached this age, I was so sick, that I basically took my infant and sent it to Sibling Boot Camp a.k.a. the playroom. The latest small person would wail and look up at their mommy with tear streaked face…I was so sick that the only token of mercy I could give was “Awww. It’s okay.” I would pat the little bruised hand and go back to my “spot” and crash. I don’t know how druggy moms do it. Anyway. NO!!! Hurt Amy? I run in and pick up the babe, and kiss and croon my lullaby into my babies hair…all the while interrogating the older 4. It is usually Nathan, fighting for his previous throne of “baby-hood”.

Aaron and I are aghast that our precious wee one is on the verge of a year!!! I can’t believe it, A mere month and a half we will be singing the age old song “happy birthday”. No doubt Amy will be their clapping her hands and bouncing in her seat, she may even be waving her “little light” for her own, first year.