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Moments to Make Mommy Laugh

Thursday, September 10, 2009

All three of my newborns have been spitters. Only Joshua did the whole projectile thing, but Lucy did her share of spitting up and it's not an infrequent occurrence to find me mopping up the floor or my shoulder after Esther's overflow. Today, when I was burping Esther after one of those plentiful morning feedings, Lucy came up to give her a hug.

"Careful, Lucy, Esther might spit up on you," I warned.

Lucy quickly backed up.

I continued patting the sweet, innocent baby's back and Lucy watched from a safe distance. No spit up manifested itself so Lucy's love of her sister overcame her desire to stay clear of the danger zone and she decided to risk it.

The moment she got close, Esther burped and a warm, wet, white trickle started at Lucy's shoulder and flowed all the way down the front of her nightgown. The look on her face was priceless! Of course she started crying but I couldn't help laughing as I cleaned it up. A few minutes later Esther spit up again and Lucy jumped back, anxiously examining her clothes.

Motherhood is a messy, earthy job. I spend my day (a big part of it, anyway) wiping bottoms, washing faces, kissing owies, and mopping up spit up. Certain ancient philosophers (and some who aren't so ancient) would have me believe that none of this matters. They would have me look forward to the day when I can fly away to some spiritual paradise where my soul will be free from all this yucky stuff. But Jesus Christ, the Word who from the beginning was with God and was God, came down here to Earth and lived among us. He took on one of these unclean bodies and kept it when He was raised from the dead and ascended to His eternal throne. I think this job that involves so many different bodily fluids is somehow a holy one. This stuff I do does matter and my hope for eternity is not to be free from flesh but to finally find out how it matters. In the mean time, I thank God that the bottoms are cute and the faces smile back at me. And I'm especially thankful when there's humor to be found in the midst of it all.

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