Ana is at this special angelic perfect baby stage. She is not really a baby, she is a toddler, I know. But there is something of the Baby Ana yet about her. Her cheeks are sweet and perfect. She tilts her head when she asks in a sweet questioning tone "youdunpapi?" when I finish eating. And then she sort of nods her head encouragingly as if to help reassure me that my answer is yes, I am done. Her vocabulary seems to grow each day. Her annunciation is blurred and creatively enforced with her expressive physical intonations. She likes for me to hold her and love her with little kisses. She likes to do just about everything for herself. She walks and climbs confidently. She smiles a lot and laughs. These are mostly toddler qualities just barely tinged with the last light of true babyness. It's a magical time. I know and expect there to be more magical times ahead but this is definitely one of those special magical times. Enzo is a little boy now; it is a phase of its own type of beauty. I think what makes this stage of Ana's beauty so special right now is that it is among the last phases where there is still identifiable babyness as part of it. There is this last bit of baby mixed in with this confident toddler that is Ana. That mix is gorgeous. Before long she will be that new kind of gorgeous that is completely a little girl. For now, just barely, she is still part baby.
