A Huffington Post article about parenting recently made its rounds across the inter-web. In it, the author describes parenting as being both totally exhausting and pure magic. It's worth the read no matter whether you're a parent or not. It speaks to keeping perspective in all things in life. It's nice to be reminded to note moments of beauty without worrying about EVERY moment being unattainably perfect.
I thought about this article often this weekend. I fluctuated between "Please teleport me to a beach with my book" and "I wouldn't want to be anywhere else right now, this kid is hilarious". Here's the scene: Our kiddo is teething (working on 4+ at once); we're still piecing together allergen triggers (thus itchy excema city); I've been going steady for more than 3 weeks with work/family travel etc. and Ry was out of town with college buddies. Please know that I don't begrudge Ryan his fun. I'm looking forward to my own college pal get away in May.
So Lu is also VERY attached to me right now. The toddler websites/books say that this happens. Kids want to know that you're there for them and may choose one parent over the other one day and flip flop to the other the next. Lucy was attached and interacting most of the last 48 hours. She was there when I stepped into the shower to rinse the child snot off of my body, she asked for my help with her cute little "please" sign after she threw a bowl of cheerios all over the room and she took up more than her fair share of the bed, at one point demanding a mid-night graham cracker (one of a handful of recognizable words she says). Those were some of the "please send me to the Caribbean" moments.
Some of the awe and wonder ones are as follows.
1. Laying in bed in the dark listening to her crunching on that graham cracker.
2. Her total giddyness as we put together the treehouse tent in our living room.
3. Watching her concentrate intently spooning dry rice from one container to another.
4. The look of genuine surprise when she upended those same containers sending rice dancing all over the hardwood floors.
5. Dancing and marching around the living room to rockin toddler tunes.
6. And baking bread with her for the first time. That's a pretty big one for me. My parents were always great about including my brother and I in their activities. Baking bread was one of those. There are pictures of Ben and I wearing aprons, standing on chairs at the counter completely covered in flour helping my Dad make anadama bread (a dense molasses bread). For our midwestern readers - molasses is a staple ingredient in many traditional New England recipes...bread, beans, cookies...you name it and it's probably better with molasses.
All in all it was a great way to wrap up the weekend. All of us in the kitchen baking bread and our flour covered child reminding me to acknowledge these moments of big love and awe even while counting down the hour until bedtime.
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