This adorableness has been generously sponsored by Fisher-Price.
“Where are your shoes, Mary?” I ask with an exaggerated lilt.
She looks around and spots one by front door. Putting a little hustle into her waddle, she rushes over to pick it up.
“Unn . . . sue!” she says and beams.
“That’s right, Mary!” I say, my voice registering an impossible level of excitement. “One shoe! But where is the other one? Where is your other shoe?”
That’s right. We are upping the ante now, people, and it’s going to be good.
She looks all around. She squats and tilts her head to one side. She stands up and holds her hands with palms upturned. Her face scrunches up in distress. “Ah gone. Gone!”
“What’s that, baby girl? Your shoe is gone?” I say and then scoop her up into my arms. “It’s all gone?!”
“Ah gone!”
She furrows her brow and looks at me.
“All gone!”
I smile. Then her scowl starts to crack and her little face erupts into a grin. Then she starts to giggle and so do I. She’s laughing now, a big, full-belly chuckle. And I’m laughing too, laughing so hard my heart hurts from the love.
* * *
It kills me sometimes to think how fleeting these moments are. When I think back to when Colum was a baby, I can remember times like these. I remember rolling around on my bed with him, laughing and laughing and laughing at nothing at all. Or I remember that it happened anyway. The sharpness is starting to blur in those older memories, the details of his face and how he sounded are badly faded.
So I’m really happy I managed to capture this video of Mary a couple months ago. (Sorry, Colum.)