Unconditional Love

I’m the nursing the baby in the soft light of morning while my 5-year-old stands close by, watching the two of us.

She reaches over and gently touches the sucking cheeks of her little sister. “She’s the most ‘beautifulest,’ cutest, most wonderful baby there ever was, isn’t she?”

After a brief pause, my older daughter crinkles her nose and says, “Except when she poops. Then she’s gross.”

I’m pretty sure she’s thinking of a recent diaper calamity that involved Mom busily writing Christmas thank you notes and being completely oblivious to a crawling, pooping baby, a leaky diaper, and stinky stains all over our living room carpet. It was the 5-year-old who discovered the crime scene and the guilty party happily clapping her poop-clad hands. And it was very gross.

“But,” my daughter adds, touching her sister again, “We love her anyway.”