Laowai

For the past several months Bea has preferred sleeping without a nightlight. She’s growing up. For me it feels like a huge change because nearly every night that she has been my daughter I have looked in on her before I went to sleep myself. Now her room is dark and I can’t see her sleeping face. That ritual of peeking in on my sleeping daughter is done. Seeing her sweet sleeping face just before I tuck myself in was something that calmed me. And now at night I go upstairs and wander half into her room not sure what to do with myself there in the dark. It feels so strange. I know we are embarking on an age when she will pull away from me in so many ways. I know that it’s natural, but I’m bracing myself.

Here she is in the Spring of 2011.