miracle | tayley

it gets better everyday

Hayley sits cross legged on the bathroom counter facing the mirror, Rowan in her lap while Alf sits patiently behind them, tail wagging. It's early morning, and they are both in oversized t-shirts, their favorite type of pajamas. Hayley watches her daughter observe her closely as she applies her mascara. When she's finished she flutters her lashes, dramatically, and then winks at Rowan's reflection. 

Rowan squints both eyes shut tightly in reply, her slightly uncoordinated version of a wink, and Hayley chuckles in response. Humming to herself, Hayley grabs her makeup brush and applies a miniscule amount of rosy pink powder to it. She smiles knowingly as Rowans eyes light up in response.

"Me do it!" Rowan squeals, happily, bouncing against Hayley's folded calves.

     "You want to do it?" Hayley asks, rhetorically. "Okay, here you go," she says, handing the brush to Rowan who takes it carefully in her not-so-nimble grasp and turns in Hayley's lap to face her.

Hayley closes her eyes and tilts her chin down slightly, awaiting the familiar tickle of the brush against her skin. The soft bristles drag clumsily along her cheekbones for a good thirty seconds before Rowan seems satisfied and announces, "All done!" proudly.  It sounds more like awwdun, but Hayley is fluent in Rowan-talk.

     Hayley assesses the damage in the mirror.  Not too bad, actually, she realizes. "Good job, Ro!" She gushes, admiring her reflection with exaggerated maternal pride.

"You made Mama beautiful. Thank you, baby," she praises, kissing the top of her daughter's head and breathing in that baby-sweet smell that she finds simply divine. "Okay, almost done," she says, grabbing her tinted lip gloss and quickly applying a thin layer to her lips with the built-in wand before puckering up and facing her daughter. Rowan places both of her tiny hands against Hayley's cheeks and leans forward to kiss her mother with a loud, wet smack.

Hayley presses her lips together and releases them with a soft pop, smoothing out her gloss and prompting Rowan to imitate her. She grins and they both face the mirror, heads tilted together, smiling happily at one another's reflection. "All done!"

     Rowan is scrambling off of her lap before she can even take a breath.

     Hayley unfolds her legs gracefully and turns, slipping off of the countertop, careful not to step on Alf, and standing once again on the cold tile. She pivots and places a hand on her daughter's sturdy back, keeping her balanced as she makes her way along the countertop until she reaches the far end and takes her usual seat, back against the wall, feet in the sink. 

     Like mother, like daughter, Hayley thinks.

     Hayley turns the water on low and watches as Rowan splays her chubby, blue toes under the tap, laughing gleefully. Each nail has been dotted carefully by Hayley with light blue polish, per her daughter's request. She can't help but find those chubby toes with their tiny nails completely irresistible. She hands Rowan her toothbrush with a small dot of bubblegum flavored toothpaste on it and then gets to work on her hair while her child is momentarily distracted.

     This is their morning routine. It's been this way since Rowan was a newborn and Hayley would sit indian-style on the counter with her baby lying happily in the cradle of her folded legs as she brushed her teeth and threw on a face mask- she hadn't bothered with make-up back then, still didn't about ninety percent of the time, except for a quick swipe of mascara and some lip gloss.

She knows Rowan loves the process, though, especially any type of blush or powder application. She absolutely loses her mind over eyeshadow, but they can't do that on days where Hayley actually has to leave the house. She often ends up looking slightly deranged after a full make-up session with her child, so they save the full treatment for times when she knows she doesn't have to go out.