Moments, see also: Family, Comfort

Dear Little Man, Today was a day of epic activity, starting from the first moments when you were awakened to me trying to quell Baby Girl's wake-up tears. They are super fantastic, those croco-tears. Your sister is regressing once more, requiring lots of hugs and devotion, and I'm really just so grateful to you for remaining Chill Bill; you seem to understand it's just her shtick for right now.

You and I spent the morning doing many stretches and calisthenics around the house while Baby Girl watched Wonder Pets save the Armadillo. They managed to save that fraidy Armadillo six times. Lynnie, Tuck, and Ming-Ming were 6 for 6 and that's an impressive clearance rate, young.

In the afternoon, we went to a fall festival at a church school. It was mayhem. It made me think that the words pandemonium and auditorium are more closely related than just in suffix. They may also be veritable cousins in significance, as well. But we'll leave the semantics for another day. Suffice it to say that it was a crazy scene, but you were content to be slung around while Baby Girl moonbounced and bean bag tossed and fished for plastic sunglasses in carnival booths. And while I tried to usher us away from the sustenance of Satan, otherwise known as cotton candy.

When we returned home, you tried to nap. It turns out that your sister had plans to jump rope with my brazierre that she pulled from the rag bag, rendering impossible a nap for anyone.

Later, Daddy arrived home from his all-day frisbee tournament looking like a waterlogged gourd that had been trampled by a herd of harry buffalo. So I let him shower and then you and I finally got that nap we'd been pining after all day.

Why I am telling you all this, even though it all seems very pedestrian and silly and fairly unmemorable, is that it led us to this moment you and I shared this evening. Daddy was putting Baby Girl to bed and I was feeding you out on the couch, clearing out the DVR, thinking about all the pesky things I gots to do this week.

I looked down at your sweet face, your deep, syrupy brown eyes and noticed how you were touching my scarf, examining each fiber and rubbing the fringe just so. It reminded me of how I used to hold my woobie blanket, piecing through each yarn stitch. I liked how pensive, how peaceful you were. It occurred to me that you were perfectly at ease, there in my arms, fiddling with your mother's favorite accessory (both festive and functional? Oh yes, my fave). I thought about the privilege of comfort that family affords a person, how when your brother gets a new buzzcut, you can just up and go paw it with your bare hand. Larry in Accounting on the other hand? He might be opposed. It's nice, this trust we have in our family. I'm so glad you are a part of ours. In fact, in many ways, you complete it.

Love, Mama

IMG_4811

5 monther

It ain't easy out here for a boy of 5 months. Sometimes you can feel a little cagey, not yet able to crawl or walk and all.

IMG_4769

At least I've got my books to give me a portal on the world.

IMG_4765

But the real rub comes when I'm all ready for my close-up...

IMG_4791 IMG_4792IMG_4794IMG_4796IMG_4795

and She Who Shall Not Be Named comes and hogs the limelight.

But I'm only five months.  So I guess that's just the bag of nails I've gotta hammer for now....

Mini Van/Mega Fun

I've had several friends purchase mini-vans over the few months and with every purchase came a decree. E-mails circulated with subject lines that rang of "The Swagger Wagon in our driveway? I don't know anything about it." I expect more of these e-mails in the years to come. It's just the chapter they're writing right now, wee little mouths and car seat totals expanding incrementally. My friends have come to grips with what this says about them, but I've only awakened to it all...

Because when you drive a mini-van, when you purchase or lease an honest to goodness space-pod on four wheels, you are reluctantly saying I SURRENDER. I surrender to the fact that what I transport is more important than my vanity. You might also be saying I can no longer masquerade as anything else. I can be a businessperson, a postal worker, a Jenny Craig model, a balloon animal artist, a diamond miner, or a carney. But first and foremost, I drive a mini-van. Orange slices and juiceboxes and whole weekends on the soccer sidelines? Yo. That's MY m.o.

I'm not there yet. But I am comfortable with a small orchard of raisins on the floor of my vehicle, because you can't fight every battle and a box of the Sun-Maid goodness is the perfect peace offering. And my li'l SUV is bigger than my kitchen at home, anyways, so it feels appropos.

***

Photo 37

Baby Girl drew this picture of me. Do you see the resemblance? Uncanny, really....

Photo 40

Photo 38