Love You Forever

During my grandmother's funeral Mass one of my uncles read the children's book "Love You Forever" by Robert Munsch.

I don't think there was a dry eye in church as he read through the familiar images of a mother rocking her baby and singing

"I'll love you forever, 
I'll like you for always, 
as long as I'm living, 
my baby you'll be"

through her child's life. And of course as the story goes the one night she doesn't go to her son's house he goes to her house and returns the sentiment to her ... and then starts the tradition anew with his own newborn child.

After the service we gathered for a luncheon and that's where my own version of rocking my baby played out.

Lucas wasn't feeling well - lingering headache from a possible migraine the day before or sinus issues from flying and/or allergies from pollen in a different state affecting him - and I could see the energy drain out of him.

He tried to curl up on that cold, hard, metal chair and let his eyes and his head rest, but I knew he couldn't be comfortable like that.

I've told him before that he's too big to fit in my lap anymore even as he insists he isn't. I tell him there isn't any room for those legs and arms to go when I hold him.

But I also know that the time will come, too soon, when he won't want to sit in my lap, or be held in my arms, and so I relish those moments when they happen.

So I took him in my lap, even though he's all arms and legs now, and let his legs dangle off the sides of mine, and I tried to make him as comfortable as I could while he slept it off.

As I held him I thought of the book my uncle read. I looked down at this face, growing up when I'm not looking, and thought of the verse that parents everywhere have repeated to their kids, thanks to Robert Munsch, and how true the words are:

"I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
as long as I'm living,
my baby you'll be"