Shelby's Long Lost Friend

Here are a few facts you should know about this story:

1) Shelby is not walking yet. Yes, she is nearly 16 months old. As her pediatrician tells us, Shelby is simply content. She has taken a few crawls, but still prefers to scoot on her tushie.

2) Because she's not walking yet, Shelby still gets carried a lot. Yes, I realize that this is probably why she isn't walking. Not only is she content, but she's a little bit lazy and knows her Mommy will carry her.

3) Most of you have been to our house and you know that our walls are covered with artwork. Bright, colorful artwork that's hard to ignore.

4) Shelby has been carried around in front of this artwork for the past year now and has never paid attention to it.

Well, a few weeks ago I was carrying her down the hallway between our master bedroom and master bath, and all of a sudden she swiveled around in my arms and starting pointing and making agitated noises. I turned around to see what was going on, and she was pointing and chattering away at the picture of Jesus Christ we have there.

This has happened several times now. So now, every time we go down this little hall, she loves to "visit" and say hello to Jesus. And when I'm getting ready with makeup or showering or whatever, I usually put Shelby in this hall and open the storage closet and let her play with the stuff in there. Her particular favorite is my box of...uh...feminine hygiene products.

Anyway, that's neither here nor there. The point is, that lately when she's playing there I put Jesus down to "watch and play" with her. And I discovered that she loves to hold this picture...as a matter of fact, she actually put her cheek next to His and was holding it and swaying back and forth smiling! Naturally I sprinted down the stairs as fast as I could to retrieve my camera (being sure to lock the baby gate, of course!), but when I came back upstairs she wasn't doing that pose anymore. HOWEVER, I got several other good shots:





I should mention that I have caught Shelby actually sitting on the picture a few times, and that she's not always hugging it or dancing with it or looking adoringly at it. But as I tell Shelby, "It's okay, Jesus doesn't mind. He just likes to be with you, sweetie." Even if she's sitting on Jesus and sorting tampons and maxipads. It's all good.

Oh my gosh, I just can't get over how cute and sweet this is!! Maybe there IS something to this religion stuff, huh?!?!