Life With Ferris: My Baby, Azalea

My baby, Azalea. That’s what my brother calls the newest member of our family. Her name is Azalea Hoskinini Robinson, and she was born on a snowy Easter Sunday in Flagstaff, Az.

We’ve only seen her one time, over one weekend, but we got to hold her for hours every single day. She was already two months old when we went, but by then her eyes were open and she had glimmers of a smile. We drove along the Vermillion Cliffs to visit my daughter-in-law’s uncle because he wanted to meet us, and my husband and I sat in the back seat, my-baby-Azalea sandwiched between us.

The drive was long for a drop-in visit, but I kept my opinion to myself. As our friend Mike Taylor pointed out, in northern Arizona folks drive five hours just to get a cup of coffee. Azalea had just nursed, so I thought she would fall asleep in the car, and I was a little apprehensive about how the ride would go if she didn’t nod off.

She didn’t. She locked eyes with me and stared me down … for exactly 90 minutes. If she blinked, I didn’t see it, and I was watching.

My mother said I did the exact same thing when they brought me to her after I was born. All swaddled and tucked in a blanket, she said I looked at her intently, my eyes narrowed and serious, like I was sizing her up. Trying to decide if she would do.

On the other side of Azalea, my husband waved his hands every now and then to get her attention, but she kept her gaze fixed on me.

Azalea reminded me of that story my mother tells, the way she looked right at me, right through me, and I had a sense of deja vu.

I know it will be a challenge to be a part of her life when she is almost 2,000 miles away. But Linda Deffenbaugh’s book, “Reading Nights,” gives me hope. She began reading out loud to her far-away grandsons when they were infants, and, now in college, they still connect on a regular basis for their story. She managed to build strong, lasting relationships with them page by page.

I started with singing. I sang “Wheels on the Bus” over and over to Azalea. She has yet to crack a smile at me, but she never looked away.

I guess the drive actually wasn’t nearly long enough, because those 90 minutes, those profound, holy seconds of time, were over in a flash. Before I even blinked.

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Ferris Robinson is the author of three children’s books, “The Queen Who Banished Bugs,” “The Queen Who Accidentally Banished Birds,” and “Call Me Arthropod” in her pollinator series “If Bugs Are Banished.” “Making Arrangements” is her first novel. “Dogs and Love - Stories of Fidelity” is a collection of true tales about man’s best friend. Her website is ferrisrobinson.com and you can download a free pollinator poster there. She is the editor of The Lookout Mountain Mirror and The Signal Mountain Mirror.