The feet that will carry her millions of miles over the decades of her life

have always fascinated, tickled and amazed me.  They started out like this:

And my love affair with all the potential and strength that her tiny feet represented to me began.  The boys all had big, beefy, Barney Rubble feet when they were babies.  Solid and brick-like, soft as anything, they looked ready to walk from the start, ready to take on the world, step-by-step.

Almost a year later, those tiny little feet grew and grew.  They endured her creeping, crawling and dragging herself across floors and ground cover of all kinds.  They were no longer the tender, fragile appendages that they were such a short time ago.  They were now the feet of a warrior princess, an explorer, a fighter, a sweetheart, a gentle soul who was growing into a girl with an infinite capacity to love and be loved.  They looked a little more like this by then:

Fast forward another year (and a bit, but who is counting, anyway?) to earlier this week.  For the first time, in a long time, it is just me at home with one baby.  The boys are in school all day so I have been able to hang out and go about my day, my routine and work with only Miranda beside me.  And I love it.  She is so excellent to hang out with (when she’s not digging her heels in and screaming “NOOOOOOOO!” at me, that is ;)).  I love hanging out with all of my kids, but there is something so different in just having ‘Girl Time’ with my daughter that I never realized I was missing out on until now.  But I digress.  Anyway, this week, we were upstairs cleaning and trying to organize the office, and she was so helpful and cooperative and sweet.  I really wanted to do something for her.  Something that would tickle her and make her smile and laugh.  And then it hit me.  It was time for her first pedicure!  I sat her up on my desk, and presto magic, five minutes (and many giggles and much clapping) later, she was done.  And as happy as can be.  And my heart grew is love and size – because of this little girl’s joy in having her toenails painted and the joy I felt being the one to make her smile that huge toothy smile of her and laugh that ridiculous, contagious giggle.  So, almost 28 months to the day she was born, her feet were transformed into this:

Time is flying too quickly.  I wish I could slow it down a bit, to be able savour this short time that I have with her.  To have even a brief reprieve from the stresses and responsibilities of everyday life, to be able to take in every moment and have the time to absorb some of her magic.  I do not know where her feet will carry her, what adventures they will take her on, what boo boos and pain they’ll feel.  I do not know the people they will lead her to.  I only hope the adventures are plentiful and all-fulfilling, that the boo boos and pain are minor and that the people treat her right.  Because Lord help them if they don’t.  She has four older brothers and a father who adore her, that together with the spirit of a warrior ninja princess with a dash of Scarlett O’Hara and a pinch of Bette Davis makes my Miranda a force to be reckoned with and I could not be prouder of her (and her jelly bean toes. ;))