Watching Helicopters

My little daisy bug is eating so well!

She's gobbling her full feeding amount most every time every three hours now;

That's extremely encouraging to us, 

because that's exactly the goal she had to meet before they let our little birdy fly outta here.

Still, we're left with no answer as to how long she has to prove herself in order to earn her freedom....

So we find our happiness not in daydreams of home,

but in the moments suspended between checkups and stolen naps.

We wiggle and sing old Judy Garland songs.

We play dress-up and charm the nurses.

We paint imaginary pictures in the air as her Baby Einstein music machine serenades us.

I consider the babies down the hall in the NICU pods where we graduated from and I think of all the babies who can't play....who are too small to wear clothes....who can't even be touched.

Some babies never even have a mommy or daddy who visits them.

I press my daughter's chubby cheek to my chest and watch another hospital helicopter touch down.