Connecting with M

This past Sunday was a great day. It was a lot of fun having Eliacin Rosario-Cruz and family and Mark van Steenwyk visit our meeting (not to mention go to their discussion on liberated spaces in Portland the evening before). We had a nice time going out to lunch at Burgerville with their crew and getting to know them better. When we told L that we were going to Burgerville for lunch she actually did a dance! Emily and I cracked up. Later that evening Emily, M and I left L behind with a babysitter and we went off to hear Rob Bell speak in Portland for his “Drop like Stars” tour. It was great to finally see Bell in person and his overall presentation was pretty good. If I have time in the near future I’ll post thoughts on it. But really one of the best things that happened that day came between these two events. That afternoon, I pulled down my guitar from  it’s wall mount and brought it downstairs to play music. L was napping and M and I were hanging out on the floor. I started playing a slow, gentle song and improvised some lyrics about M as she laid there staring up at me with a huge grin. She laid there, cooing as though she was trying to sing  along with me. I’ve been worried that I connecting with her would be more difficult because not only am I working full-time now and am not the stay-at-home parent as I was with L, but L is around and requires a lot of attention that would otherwise go to M. Sitting there on Sunday afternoon with M’s beautiful smile shining up really made me feel happy to have had that chance to connect with her in a way she seemed to enjoy as well.