“Come ‘ere, baby girl. Come ‘ere, little flower.” Carthen, arms extended with fingers wiggling, beamed at the little girl standing shakily on two chubby legs and gripping the seat of a chair. The baby giggled at the sight and stamped her feet. Her father continued beckoning, “Come on, Inayat, come to daddy.”
The little Inayat shuffled along, holding the edge of the chair as far as it went to keep her up. With her father’s encouragement, she stepped out, letting go with first one hand, then the other. Every step was a balancing act. She wobbled and stumbled her way across the short expanse to be lifted in the waiting arms. “Look how far you went today!” Carthen exclaimed, hoisting her high in the air, singing her praises. Her squeals and laughter came in waves as she was tossed up and gave way to giggles as her father pretended to eat her face off.
Setting her on her feet again, he pointed her in another direction. She walked confidently though unsteadily toward another pair of outstretched arms and a beaming face framed with long, blonde hair. “You can do it, my flower,” Amelthia encouraged, slowly backing up as the child advanced, slowing the rate at which the gap was closed between them; however, closed it was, and two peals of joyous laughter erupted from the pair as Inayat took flight again before her mother Mel rested her on her hip. “Pretty soon, you’ll be all over the place, now won’t ya? Hm? Hmmmm?” she cooed, nuzzling her daughter’s nose with hers.
As she pulled her face away, she stopped with a soft “ouch,” pausing to extract a lock of her hair from the little redhead’s tiny fingers before brushing it out of the reach of those grabbing hands. Mother and daughter bounced slightly as they circled the room. The child gurgled and cooed, forming all kinds of sounds in her own little language, Mel responding with words of affirmation. “Why yes, I know…Oh, is that so?” she would say. Carthen watched the pair with a content smile.
“You know this means we’ll have to work twice as hard to keep track of her now, right?” he teased. Mel didn’t take her eyes from Inayat’s. “I’ll just take this as a victory; we’ve definitely done something right.”
Her husband chuckled. “I just hope the rest comes just as easy.”
