(Part one of a two part series on Collin and Lilah)As most readers know, our daughter, despite having very small fingers, has many adults wrapped tightly around them. Here is her biography.
Lilah Paige Claycomb has a story behind her name. Were she one of two girls, her name would have been Lilah Grace or Paige Emily. She got the best of both of those names: Lilah is from a song that her parents love:
"Oh Lilah, to sleep like a baby--
To open the window and feel the fair wind
Oh Lilah to sleep like a baby again."
We heard that song together at a Don Henley concert (It is not one of his hits, but it was one of Ann's favorite songs). After the concert I said, "We could name a baby 'Lilah.'" It stuck.
Paige, while it is not musical, does honor the first source of our daughter's parents' love and respect for one another. We once considered the name Schuyler Paige ("Schuyler" being Dutch for "Scholar")--thus tagging our child with our professions as scholars of the page. We thought that might be going too far, but wishing our daughter to be a reader was something we felt comfortable with. "Paige" therefore honors our love of knowledge, of books, of reading, and the mutual love for those things that brought Ann and I together.
We were going to call her "Paige:" publicized it and everything, months before the birth. Suddenly though, we had a baby girl who looked more like a Lilah than a Paige. Who knew?
Here's what we know about Lilah: She has her mother's skin tone, which means even though she has lots of pink, she looks best in purple, and also dark green. She is chagrined abouth the dearth of dark green baby clothes. She looks rather poor in red.
Her eyes are blue for now. She has an "angel kiss" over her right eyelid, but this should be fading soon. In some photos, whe looks remarkably like baby pictures of her Mom-Mom Claycomb. Perhaps a side-by-side comparison soon will illustrate.
She is bigger than her brother and has stronger lungs, which makes her seem angry when sometimes she is just exercising. She has a strong sucking reflex, which means that sometimes, the only thing that calms her down is her Daddy's pinky finger.
She has a remarkable habit of generating powerful grunts for no apparent reason. Over the baby monitor, it is difficult to distinguish them from adult grunts. I sometimes expect to go back to the bedroom to find the furniture rearranged. She is sometimes known as our little rhino for this feature. She is also our our angel, angel baby, stinky angel baby, or angel biscuit, depending on the mood and diaper status.
Her eyesight is developing remarkably, and she tracks faces well--especially those wearing glasses, which makes all of her grandparents happy. She also likes to stare in wonder at bright shiny objects like the origami mobile crafted for her by Gramps.
When she sleeps, she makes my chest feel too full; her loveliness is overwhelming. When she cries, her voice is loud, strong and clear. May it always be so. We are so glad to have her with us.
