with blankets and books and toys and furniture, time stands still. You look around
the room and see things, things, and kind of wonder what they’re all doing here.
Why that blanket? Why that DVD? Why that Eeyore doll? No matter what they
are, right now they are all doing the same thing, waiting, so what is it about those
specific things that earned them a home in this room? The answer is that they all
offer something new for Claire to discover. Same goes for me. At this moment I’m no
different from Eeyore. We’re all waiting to be discovered.
The first connection a baby has to the outside world is sound. With Claire growing
bigger inside Nikol’s belly every day, she can’t see or speak or touch anything. But
she can hear, and she can already discover things that way. By now, she’s already
discovered “The Little Engine That Could” and Frank Ocean. When she’s ready to
come into the world, she’ll come into it having already discovered what English and
a little bit of Spanish sounds like.
I don’t get to watch that discovery, but I’ll get to see all the ones after it. Blankets
will become colors and materials. Books will become stories. Stuffed animals will
become friends. Before Claire understands what something is, she’ll understand
what it represents. People will represent interaction and socialization. Family will
represent close people. Mom and Dad will be the closest people. Labels won’t exist,
only purpose. Function. For her.
The thought of watching her discover things is what excites me most at this point.
Interest turns to curiosity turns to knowledge and understanding – what’s more
beautiful? There’s a whole world out there to discover, but it’s going to all start in
here, probably in this rocking chair surrounded by things hand-picked by friends
and family to help Claire understand the world. Again, that goes for me, too. I’m just
another thing until the day that Claire discovers me as Dad.
Right now, the nursery is filled with things. Claire will fill it with life.