Hip Ornament

We are entering the very predictable, and oh-so-annoying phase of separation anxiety with Ella. She has been more clingy than normal for a few weeks now. That's really saying something for her, because she is incredibly cuddly in her normal state.

DeLaynie was a daddy's girl from birth. When she hit the separation anxiety stage, she suddenly cared when I left her in the nursery or we left her with a sitter. Because she had never cared if I was around or not, it was a little enjoyable to see it bother her that I was leaving. She still liked Edwin more, but at least I was felt relatively important to her.

Ella likes me. She always has. I think it has to do with her passionate love of food. Since I was the almost-exclusive provider of food for the first eight months, she got to be pretty fond of me. Now she's just plain annoying about it. When I took her to the church nursery last Sunday night, her feet literally touched the floor, and she broke into a pathetic, crying blob of a baby. She calmed down quickly, once she realized that there was no hope of Mommy's return. She does fine as long as she knows I'm gone, but if I'm anywhere close, she's pretty pitiful.

I went upstairs to do laundry last night, leaving her with Daddy, and she crawled to the gate that keeps our room off-limits, and just stood there, crying. I didn't see it, but Edwin said that it was a thoroughly pathetic sight.

I never understood why other moms seemed so annoyed about it when their children hit this phase. I felt useful when DeLaynie was going through it. Ella, however, is a totally different story. Now I get it. Sometimes, you just want the balanced feeling of baby-free hips. I guess I'll get that pleasure when we get to missionary training, and then I'll miss the baby-laden life, I'm sure.