I picked up Brex from daycare this afternoon. All the children and caregivers were in the backyard playing with each other. Gentle Smile held Brex and cooed, "Do you see who's here?!" Brex started giggling and shoving both fists in his mouth. The other kids crowded around me to show me the shovel, the bucket, the truck or the flower in their hands. I sat holding him and chatting with the other parents and with Miss G for a while. Then we went inside to gather up his diaper bag (I bring clean, dry cloth diapers, they fill my handy little waterproof bag) and then head home.
As soon as we opened the door, Muttola started whining in her excitement to go out. Unfortunately, our laziness about training her to be consistent on walks has now come back to bite her. She doesn't stay on one side the whole time. With Jrex, we did a funny dance. With a stroller? Well, let's just say that my left elbow is still recovering from a walk I did with her and the baby in the stroller a couple months ago. Most days I put him in a Beco Gemini carrier and bring the dog.
(Of course that's me!)Today, however, I wanted to get in a power walk. So, sorry, Muttola. I've found a little enclave behind the neighborhood park that actually has a fairly steep hill. This sounds like a silly, minor thing, but I really missed having a hill nearby in California. There I was with hills waving hello, but only after getting in the car to drive or walking for hours (which wasn't going to happen for a dog walk). Now here I am in flat Texas with hills near my house. I try not to imagine what the residents think as I walk the stroller up and down the hill a couple times. With my luck, Brex will end up with a BFF on the street and they'll say, "Oh, it's YOUR Mom who was the crazy lady?"
As I walked, I was deeply thankful. Glad that spring is already here. Grateful to have a son to push in a stroller, really happy about the hill. On the way home, we walked through the neighborhood park. I've never seen it so swarmed with kids and adults: soccer, basketball, tennis, fishing, playing on the path around the pond, and kids' play structures crawling with children.
Then home for baby feeding and bedtime.
He's been happily eating rice cereal for the past few weeks. We've mixed in peas, beans and sweet potatoes. The potatoes gave him gas, but the other two were eaten with gusto. Then I feed him. We go up, change him into PJs, read a story, say a prayer, sing a song and then swaddle him and put him in bed.
Dinner with Jrex usually follows (he comes home in time to give Brex a kiss and then cooks while I put him to bed).
Most evenings have a similar rhythm. The only drama has been trying to sort out his schedule to work with Miss G's schedule so that she doesn't complain about him being 'spoiled'. It's the comment she makes if he has a fussy day. Every time she says it I see red. It's a useless way to approach the situation, creates an unfixable situation. The only solution to spoiled is for me to change, right? Plus, I don't think anyone who's spent time with him would call him spoiled. He's happy to be held by other people. Is he used to things being a certain way? Probably. Kids like routine. So the fact that I make faces at him when he's on the changing table and we usually spend the time laughing together? And when he's at daycare, he cries when they change him? I think it's cause they aren't doing it 'right' in his little opinion. We've seen that with Jrex doing the bedtime routine. Brex used to start crying in the middle until I walked Jrex through how I usually do it. Once Jrex did it 'right', Brex was content to have him put him to sleep.
Ah, good times. Two alpha females and one baby. I've been trying to change what I can to align with how she does things. She's not going to change and Brex can't do anything to change his circumstances, so that means it's me that needs to shift. It's mostly been solved by adjusting our schedule to better fit the one he has during the day. So far, so good on that.
Heck, if that's the main fly in the ointment right now, we're doing really well, right?
Oh, and I'm still looking for a church.
And Jrex is totally buried alive at work (manuscript to get out by Wednesday, first day in clinic tomorrow, he has to write up a justification for the six-figure microscope he needs so they can pitch it to the board, one of his lab people hasn't gotten any results yet, he needs to get the lab really running, and somehow find time to be a husband and father).
So what do I blog about if I don't need to vent? Anyone have ideas?
5 comments:
You just keep telling us how content you are and how well things are going. It helps us to feel that things on our side will come right eventually too. Hope the photos helped. I took one on Sunday Ill try send it today but I have an idea i left the cable at hom :-( keep enjoying the ordinary...
Fun to hear about your life with a baby :). And now maybe you understand why my blog has effectively died. The drama I do have is too personal to blog about, and the rest, well, is just life being enjoyed. But thanks for sharing this post...
Love this post. It's okay to write about contentment. I'm glad you are enjoying your life. And there is no such thing as a "spoiled" infant!
Blog about what kind of cloth diapers you like to use and how it all works. I'm actually contemplating trying that the next time around (if we get a next time) simply because it kills me to watch my still unpotty-trained son go through boxes and boxes of diapers at over $35 a pop. I don't think I can do that again, so either God better send a kid who's already potty-trained or I should learn to do the cloth diapering thing even if the idea of all.that.laundry. with our really.really.slow.dryer nearly kills me. But I promise you won't lose your blogger cred and get labeled a "mommy blogger". ;)
O-o-oh. A beautiful new format. And I say Amen to Rachel's comment.
One of my favorite memories is of the clotheslines waving with pure white diapers when we lived in the country on Brush Creek. I don't know how those women did it because they even had to carry water from their wells to do the wash. It was hard enough to lug mine to the laundromat! I used cloth diapers until your mom got me into a disposable diaper study along about the time Jessie was 18 mo. I do prefer the cloth diapers and now it's so much nicer with all the fancy diaper covers. If you rinse the poopy diapers quickly in the toilet (just dip it in and hold it when you're flushing)and toss them into a diaper pale that has about 6 inches of bleach water, they are not so bad to wash. Maybe if they're double spun dry in the washer they'll dry quicker in Inkling's dryer.
Post a Comment