Freyja: (Fray-uh) Norse goddess of love and beauty.
I wanted a boy.
“Anything but red hair,” I thought.
And I don’t really like chubby babies…. so maybe a little on the petite side.
Enter: Freyja May, fuzzy red hair-ed baby girl with the fattest cheeks I’ve ever met.
I thought I loved her then. That was when she was firt born, when I couldn’t stop crying, now that I finally had her in my arms.
That was 10 months ago.
Now, my love for her can still make me cry. When she’s tucked into bed with me at 4 a.m., curled up with her head under my chin, after a sleepless night. I’m so overwhelmed that she is mine. My Freyja. Freyja Min.
I’m still learning what it means to be a mother to my daughter. I’m learning I will do crazy things for her. Like squirt Burt’s Bees Baby Wash into my eye, just to make sure it really is “tear free”. Let her use my knuckle as a teething ring until it becomes one purple and red bruise. Or taste a bite of her favorite, and pretty repulsive, ”chicken vegetable dinner” to make sure it’s not too hot.
You’d think having a mother of your own would make you understand a mother’s love. Know what it feels like. ”Get” it basically. But nothing could have prepared me for this intense, unconditional, crazy love. Nothing could make me feel this way. Nothing except fat, little, red haired Freyja.
(I’m reading a brand new book called The Tricking of Freya right now, a story about a girl with Icelandic heritage. It makes beautiful use of words, and it’s making me fall even more in love with her name.)
Frejamay is actually looking thinner these days. Did you start her on a diet? I hope not. She has the best temperament of any kid I know and if you starve her it might make her mad.
All I can think of when you call her that is a fridge brand.
She’s so cute. I didn’t think I liked chuncky babies either until there was Freyja. She can make up for the chunk my babies never seem to have.
Cute! She has a mischievous gleam in her eye like she’s waiting for just the right moment to snatch the camera out of your hands.
Why nothing but red hair? I have red hair and I am a beautiful woman, more beautiful in fact than most and I consider myself blessed to have such a rare characteristic. But what Im really proud of is the personality I have that comes along with being a redhead. We make the best mothers, wives and friends you will ever know.