Rockabye Baby

Tonight something old became something new for us.

Thanks to my brother and sister-in-law, we have a new piece of furniture.  I used their gliding rocking chair during each of the six summers I babysat for them and have so many memories of feeding and rocking my niece and nephews to sleep in this comfy chair over the years.  This was the chair I sat in as we read from the "special saint book".  It's the chair that Clark accidentally bumped his head on when he took a tumble near it.  Another time Braden hid behind it when we were playing Hide and Seek and since the children didn't think to look there for him, it was a favorite hiding spot of his one summer.  Other times the chair became the source of releasing frustration or stress when a child needed to take a break to regain his/her emotions.  Baby Nick and I spent a lot of time watching his older siblings play from our seat when he was only days old.  The area between the arm and my left side was where Mason liked to tuck herself into as she snuggled next to me when it was her turn for the bedtime story after patiently listening to her younger brothers' stories. There were also many mornings of sitting with the children in this same chair as they played at my feet that were raised on the foot stool and/or listened as stories were told or read.  One rainy day, we even built a fort around the chair and foot stool and put puzzles together under the blanket ceiling of our "tent" that streched from the stool to the back of the chair.  These were just some of the memories and reasons why I was excited when my parents brought us the chair from my brother and his wife last weekend.

Well, tonight after putting Charlotte down for the evening, I moved the chair from the basement upstairs to our living room and rearranged a bit including moving some of the pictures that are hanging on our wall.  A half hour later, with the living room put back together, the chair had found its new spot in our home.  Since Charlotte slept the whole night through last night, I didn't expect her to awaken tonight and figured the initial trial of the chair would wait until tomorrow.  Charlotte had other plans though.  Just 3.5 hours after putting her down, she woke again at midnight.  However, I didn't mind since I was excited to feed her in the new old chair in our living room!

She was very content in my arms as we slowly glided/rocked back and forth and she seemed to enjoy looking at the shadows and hall light beind us as this was a new vantage point for her before drifting off to sleep an hour later.  It was different for me too since I am not accustomed to the new view of the living room either.  However, what was the same was the sweet sensation of cradling a child in the soft and comfortable chair as I hummed the same song I sang to my niece and nephews on so many other in the middle of the night summer nights like this one.  I love those kiddos so much that I didn't think it possible to hold any more love in my heart yet little Charlotte Ann has captivated another piece of me that I didn't even know existed until she entered our world 90 days ago.

Many thanks to Brian and Alisha for lending us their kiddos' chair.  I look forward to many  more tender moments in this familiar (to me) yet new to our house piece of furniture and hope Charlotte and Adam derive as much comfort and happiness as I do when sitting in it!