Titus 2'sday: On Friendship

I have learned many, many new thoughts, ideas, perspectives and practical tips since becoming a mother. Not one has hit me as hard as realizing how precious it is to my mama heart to watch a friend love on my child.  It brings tears of joy to my eyes and fills me to the brim with thankfulness.  It makes me feel loved.  Say something negative or ignore my little one and I'll want to tear you to shreds, but genuinely love my baby and I will rise up and call you blessed all the days of my life.  Seriously.  Am I right, or am I right, Mamas?

Take my post from yesterday about my friends J and B and their dog.  Boy, is Sweet Pea lucky to have such awesome folks who love her so much.  But it doesn't stop there, not by a long shot.

 

 

 

That wonderful gal is my dear friend, the one I met when I was knee-high to a grasshopper (and about as spindly as one) while clapping erasers in fourth grade.  Our many adventures and ramblings included Spy Club, American girl dolls, countless sleepovers (including one that lasted nearly a week during the "Great Freeze" of '94), crafts of every kind, Club Friday rollerskating at the rec center, and lots and lots of letters, phone calls, IMs, and e-mails.  Our friendship lasted through a move to Seattle and another to Virginia, and it became extra-special all over again when we ended up at the same college after the first semester at separate schools.  She stood by me in a teal dress at my wedding and helped me paint the walls yellow in our first home.  How many people can say they have a best friend they've known since they were nine?

And now my daughter adores her and they shower each other with kisses.

How crazy is that?   

We got to head out on an impromptu bike trip on our last day of Thanksgiving break with my lovely friend and her awesome boyfriend.  (You guys, we were serious when we said you're going to be our new bike buddies, and we can't wait to bike to Annapolis with you!)  

 

Please excuse my hair.  I was wearing a helmet, and it shows.

Those are my baby shoes she's wearing!

  

Asleep in the bike cart, wearing my sister's Mickey jacket from when she was a baby

"...oh..um...hey Mama...I'm so sleepy!"

"You're so funny for waking me up, Mama!"

The moral of the story?  You can not bless a woman any more than you can when you love her children.  Seeing my dear friend and my precious baby together like that just melted my heart to a puddle.  The same thing happens constantly with my friends.  The first person Sweet Pea smiled at besides me and her Daddy was my sweet friend K.  There is a posse of adorable little girls at church who fawn all over Sweet Pea and beg to push her in her stroller.  Watching Sweet Pea play so sweetly with baby N and my friend T swells my heart like a water balloon.  

Sweet Pea also adores and is adored by my best friend and roommate of five years S and her husband J.  (We call her "Daisy" because Bean couldn't say her real name when she was really really little, and would say Daisy instead.  Sweet Pea just started calling her "Day-Day" because she can't say Daisy.  Oh, the hilarity.)  Sweet Pea (who has horrible issues with separation anxiety) adores Day-Day and Mr. J, as we call them.  She loves to play at their house, and she even had her first successful babysitting ever with someone who wasn't a grandma recently at their house.  We got back to find the three of them bouncing on the bed in the guest room, with Sweet Pea cracking up and wearing these crazy giant slipper shoes:

Thanks for the awesome pic, John!

 Once again, I was so happy I cried.  Thank you, friends, for helping us shower this little one with love!

What about you?  Who has spoken to your heart by loving your children?

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