A first time for everything

Jessie has been walking for two to three weeks (which is awesome cos she is only 11 months old) and been babbling for some time now, but today I heard her say “Mama” for the first time.
She stood in her baby bed, grinning from one ear to the other, drooling happily, and suddenly it came. Crystal clear. No wishful thinking.
“Blooblaglooogoooggeeeeggahhhhhhh – MAMA!”
“Did you say Mama?”, dad said. “Now say ‘racial discrimination’!”
And Jessie broke out in the biggest grin.

There was many a first time for her today. A first time for toddling about in the warm summer rain, wondering where the hell all that water came from, picking up pebbles from the path (and neatly returning them), poking a snail’s eye, tasting a pine cone…
A first time for staring at Werner the Bug while happily munching a banana.
And there was a rerun for me, after a few decades. I am so clumsy it is unbelievable. I stumbled on the patio and fell really awkwardly, trying to hold on to the banister, knocking over the barbie, scraping and bruising both my knees and my right biceps (or rather, the place where it should be). My dad said it looked spectacular. I look like an aged 12-year-old now. My biceps (o.r.,t.p.w.i.s.b.) looks like the tattoo of a glorious sunset. Well, that’s not exactly what I had in mind when I tried to reconnect to my inner child, but fair enough, I’ve shut Little Patty up for 15 years, and I can’t really blame her for getting back at me like that.

The rain made Jessie sleepy, and she nodded off in the car on the way back home.
She awoke again when we arrived, and was a bit whiny when we put her back to bed, but then she kneeled down, fell over and stared at an invisible spot, her little butt sticking in the air.
Dad and I yawned and snored at her, and murmured to her monotonously how tired she was, and how heavy her eyelids are, and that she wants to sleeeeeeeeeeep (heh, ever tried hypnotising your baby to sleep?), hoping that would infect her and make her go back to sleep, and it worked… her little eyes rolled beneath heavy eyelids and finally she nodded off.
We had to make coffee when dad and I got back.
All that yawning and suggestive talking had worn us out as well.