Where were you at 5 AM this morning?
My very own little prince and I were sitting bleary-eyed on our couch, watching British Royalty arrive at Westminster Abbey for the wedding of William and Kate. Little Man even had his very own construction paper crown for the occasion.
On a whole, Little Man was fairly unimpressed and not nearly as interested in the commentary on Kate's dress as his Mama was. He decided the more practical route would be to sleep on my chest during the ceremony while I dabbed at my eyes with a tissue.
After all, why would he be impressed with the horse drawn carriages The Royals arrived in? He gets in an open air carriage every day, and while the Mama that pushes it is no thoroughbred, it does have toys attached.
Why would be blink an eye at the long, beautiful aisle Kate walked down? He has a long, beautiful hallway to crawl down whenever he wants,complete with doors to open and shut at the end.
Who needs long-drawn out speeches when there are books to be read aloud? And what is up with all those funky hats everyone was wearing? They would be totally impractical at keeping the sun out of your eyes at the playground. And why does The Queen give that funny wave? Little Man knows how to wave hi, and it doesn't look anything like that.
Who needs a palace with guards when you have a home full of soft blankies, cupboards to explore, and a little porch where a brazen, chubby cardinal comes right up to the glass door to check you out?
Royalty, indeed.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Sunday, April 24, 2011
A Sense of Humor and Adventure
Now that he is getting a little older, we are starting to see more of Little Man's personality appear every day. He is a willful little guy (I imagine I'm going to be hearing "I do it myself!" quite a bit when he finds his words) but he is developing a sense of humor and adventure that is reminding me about all the really fun things in life.
He is starting to remember patterns. When I sing the bath time song each evening, he drops whatever he's doing and crawls at full speed down the hallway to the bathroom, where he stands up at the tub, knocks all his toys in and waits expectantly for me to put him in. While we put his PJs on, he "combs" my hair with his baby comb.
He's starting to crack himself up, laughing when he does something he finds pleasing. He plays games with Husband--whenever he sees his Daddy's bare feet he tickles then and then laughs hysterically when Husband laughs. He does things to make us laugh, especially in the evening during his wild hour before bath and bedtime.
About a week ago, he added cruising to his repertoire of movement. Now he's pulling up and moving along everything. His favorite place to do this is along the kitchen cabinets, when he orbits around me every night while I make dinner.
Most afternoons, I load him up in his new, big-boy carseat and we head off on an adventure. He is lord of the library, where he zooms up and down the rows of books, stopping every now and then to choose a book to read before starting off again. He is prince of the playground, where he recently discovered how to climb the stairs despite having no stairs at home. My days of relaxing in a sunny spot at the park are over as we now spend our time going up and down the playground equipment.
And today he became czar of the zoo on his very first trip to our city zoo. I have been going to the zoo regularly since college, and it has always been one of my favorite places in the city. He seemed to find it just as exciting, leaning out of his stroller to grab at plant life passing by and talking loudly to the lemurs in the monkey exhibit.
I have been to all these places before, on my own or with children I cared for in the past. But nothing is better than going with my own little one, watching his sense of self and adventure grow. As his world grows by leaps and bounds, so does my mine.
He is starting to remember patterns. When I sing the bath time song each evening, he drops whatever he's doing and crawls at full speed down the hallway to the bathroom, where he stands up at the tub, knocks all his toys in and waits expectantly for me to put him in. While we put his PJs on, he "combs" my hair with his baby comb.
He's starting to crack himself up, laughing when he does something he finds pleasing. He plays games with Husband--whenever he sees his Daddy's bare feet he tickles then and then laughs hysterically when Husband laughs. He does things to make us laugh, especially in the evening during his wild hour before bath and bedtime.
About a week ago, he added cruising to his repertoire of movement. Now he's pulling up and moving along everything. His favorite place to do this is along the kitchen cabinets, when he orbits around me every night while I make dinner.
Most afternoons, I load him up in his new, big-boy carseat and we head off on an adventure. He is lord of the library, where he zooms up and down the rows of books, stopping every now and then to choose a book to read before starting off again. He is prince of the playground, where he recently discovered how to climb the stairs despite having no stairs at home. My days of relaxing in a sunny spot at the park are over as we now spend our time going up and down the playground equipment.
And today he became czar of the zoo on his very first trip to our city zoo. I have been going to the zoo regularly since college, and it has always been one of my favorite places in the city. He seemed to find it just as exciting, leaning out of his stroller to grab at plant life passing by and talking loudly to the lemurs in the monkey exhibit.
I have been to all these places before, on my own or with children I cared for in the past. But nothing is better than going with my own little one, watching his sense of self and adventure grow. As his world grows by leaps and bounds, so does my mine.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
A Baby Knows No Sadness
Sometimes life is so unfair it is almost unbearable.
My uncle died today, after suffering from a brain aneurysm a week ago. It was sudden, so sudden my head is still reeling from it, and I can't even begin to grasp the unfairness of it all.
I am heartbroken for my Grandmother, my Mom and my other uncle--how do you cope with the loss of son and brother? I am heartbroken for his friends, for my husband, and for myself--what do you do when your "go-to" guy for everything suddenly leaves? But most of all, I am heartbroken for my child. My Uncle was so excited when I got pregnant, following this blog religiously and keeping up with every change. Every time he went out, he came home with something for the baby: a bouncing tigger, a train tent, a giant 6 foot dragon....and all these arrived before I was even showing. Since my Dad, who passed away in 2008, couldn't be here, he took it upon himself to be the Grandpa my son didn't have from my side of the family. He was full of things he was going to do with him.
And now my son won't know him. And that is the most unfair part of all of this.
Luckily, Little Man has a PaPaw, his grandfather on Husband's side, who loves him more than I can fathom. If my little boy is only going to get one grandpa, I couldn't ask for a better man for the job.
Dealing with the past week and the decisions we had to make has been a different experience for me because of Little Man. Grief has not been able to take me over, there has been no chance to fall apart. There has been a happy Little Man who doesn't realize a part of our world is crumbling, who still wants to play and has to be fed on time and rocked to sleep and snuggled. Our Little Man didn't know he was supposed to be sad when we all gathered in the ICU waiting room--all he knew is that his entire family was there, along with a dozen other people, all of whom found him charming and sweet. To him it was a party, and he was happy to see everyone and he made all his noises and did all his tricks and made all of us smile even though we felt like crying.
A baby knows no sadness, and that is the true blessing of an otherwise horrible situation.
My uncle died today, after suffering from a brain aneurysm a week ago. It was sudden, so sudden my head is still reeling from it, and I can't even begin to grasp the unfairness of it all.
I am heartbroken for my Grandmother, my Mom and my other uncle--how do you cope with the loss of son and brother? I am heartbroken for his friends, for my husband, and for myself--what do you do when your "go-to" guy for everything suddenly leaves? But most of all, I am heartbroken for my child. My Uncle was so excited when I got pregnant, following this blog religiously and keeping up with every change. Every time he went out, he came home with something for the baby: a bouncing tigger, a train tent, a giant 6 foot dragon....and all these arrived before I was even showing. Since my Dad, who passed away in 2008, couldn't be here, he took it upon himself to be the Grandpa my son didn't have from my side of the family. He was full of things he was going to do with him.
And now my son won't know him. And that is the most unfair part of all of this.
Luckily, Little Man has a PaPaw, his grandfather on Husband's side, who loves him more than I can fathom. If my little boy is only going to get one grandpa, I couldn't ask for a better man for the job.
Dealing with the past week and the decisions we had to make has been a different experience for me because of Little Man. Grief has not been able to take me over, there has been no chance to fall apart. There has been a happy Little Man who doesn't realize a part of our world is crumbling, who still wants to play and has to be fed on time and rocked to sleep and snuggled. Our Little Man didn't know he was supposed to be sad when we all gathered in the ICU waiting room--all he knew is that his entire family was there, along with a dozen other people, all of whom found him charming and sweet. To him it was a party, and he was happy to see everyone and he made all his noises and did all his tricks and made all of us smile even though we felt like crying.
A baby knows no sadness, and that is the true blessing of an otherwise horrible situation.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Tried It, Liked It
It's no surprise that our growing boy is getting tired of his formula-heavy diet. He's starting to branch out into the world of edible wonder, although he still prefers things in their pureed or soupy form.
Little Man's favorite non-baby food by far is orange sherbet. He knows what the container looks like, and the minute I pull it from the freezer he tries to climb my legs up to the counter. He eats it right off a grown-up spoon every night, sitting on the floor with me, watching Wheel of Fortune. In his excitement he climbs all over me trying to get to the bowl, but understands when I say "sit on your bottom", flopping dramatically onto his tush with a sigh and mouth open wide.
In the same vein, he's crazy over smoothies and loves to visit the smoothie shop where he's a fan of all sorts of flavors: pineapple, strawberry, raspberry and tangerine, to name a few.
The sight of a yo-baby yougurt container is enough to send him into frenzied excitement. I have to keep it tucked away until he's eaten the rest of his food, or the meal turns into a match of wills as he stresches and contorts himself in his high chair to get to the container.
He likes cheese, and last night devoured most of my cheese-covered mashed potatos. He is still rebelling against feeding himself--the only self-feeding we see is with his little puffs--but he likes to try things off the grown-up spoon.
Especially if it's on Daddy's plate.
Little Man's favorite non-baby food by far is orange sherbet. He knows what the container looks like, and the minute I pull it from the freezer he tries to climb my legs up to the counter. He eats it right off a grown-up spoon every night, sitting on the floor with me, watching Wheel of Fortune. In his excitement he climbs all over me trying to get to the bowl, but understands when I say "sit on your bottom", flopping dramatically onto his tush with a sigh and mouth open wide.
In the same vein, he's crazy over smoothies and loves to visit the smoothie shop where he's a fan of all sorts of flavors: pineapple, strawberry, raspberry and tangerine, to name a few.
The sight of a yo-baby yougurt container is enough to send him into frenzied excitement. I have to keep it tucked away until he's eaten the rest of his food, or the meal turns into a match of wills as he stresches and contorts himself in his high chair to get to the container.
He likes cheese, and last night devoured most of my cheese-covered mashed potatos. He is still rebelling against feeding himself--the only self-feeding we see is with his little puffs--but he likes to try things off the grown-up spoon.
Especially if it's on Daddy's plate.
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