No Time Like the Present

Ahahaha, all my good blog intentions! There are only so many hours in a day, so I don’t feel badly about it, just grateful for the times when the stars align and I can tap out a little dispatch. I usually have a running list of things I want to share, but I’m just going to do a smattering of thoughts and happenings instead, since those posts are the ones I tend to treasure the most. (Annd I should add that this post has been delayed by about a week by the relentless stomach virus that struck our tiny angel…and then me…and then Eric. Being sick all at the same time was very, very rough. We kept having relapses after we thought we were better, and we had one very scary night when we almost took Micah to the ER, fearing that he was dehydrated. We are beyond grateful that he is ok, and that we are getting better. Right now Micah is sitting right next to me driving his cars on the kitchen table, and I am just so happy that we are all together, all upright, all in one piece.)

So! How are things? Very good! And very tiring! It is so funny how different all these parenting stages are. In the newborn days you are just longing for sleep like a thirsty person crawling across the desert, but you can totally watch Property Brothers (why are all the houses in Toronto semi-detached? why do they use the same bizarre chandelier in every house?) and sip coffee while tending to your cooing (and hopefully not crying) little sweetheart. The toddler days are so different. We are (hallelujah!) sleeping through the night, but this leaves us ill-trained for nights taken victim by teething, growth spurts, random sleeplessness, or 5am (or before, aaahh!) wake-up calls. The stakes seem a bit higher now because the awake time is all time of engagement. And it is really, really cute and fun engagement. Oh no, there is no time to contemplate the mysteries of Property Brothers these days. There is coloring and car racing, book reading and insistent requests to “pway!”, walks and trips to the library, and exuberant games of chase and hide and seek. There is very little time for snuggling (someone has important work to do!), but there are sporadic exclamations of “I love Mommy!” It is such a sweet time. I don’t know that I have ever really accomplished much in those post-bedtime hours, but now there are many, many nights when I just crawl into bed for some 30 Rock and chocolate. It feels like the right thing to do.

We were very lucky to have Eric’s parents here for Holy Week and Easter, and especially so because Eric was out of town for a few of those days. I so appreciated the help and the company. The best kind of company is the kind who wants to adore your child with you, and this company did not disappoint! We had so much fun, made so many joyful memories, had lots of wonderful conversations and collectively marveled as my father-in-law fixed every broken thing in the house. You’d be very hard pressed to find any sweeter people on earth. Yes, that is our sweet baby in his Easter outfit, breaking his Mommy’s heart with cuteness.

We walked him over to Caltech to have a little Easter egg hunt in the grass, and he loved it. It was so sweet to have Eric’s parents here for this special week, and, thanks to grandpa’s magnificent babysitting services, grandma and I were able to attend all of the Holy Week services. It was a beautiful thing to share, just the two of us. We are so looking forward to seeing them this summer, and to Micah’s happy reunion with the farm, and, more importantly, its many tractors and combines! (Yes, he totally knows the difference, mommy!)

We took him to the art museum a few weeks later, and he was rather in awe of this enormous car track. I was too! I was expecting him to race right past the guard wire, but he just stood there clutching it. And my heart broke a little. He looks like such a big boy.

I went on a retreat a few weekends ago to a beautiful place in the foothills of the San Gabriels. It was a wonderfully refreshing time (I have been wanting to go on a retreat since before I was pregnant with Micah!), and I was a BIG FAN of the 24-7 fresh Douwe Egberts coffee and the silence, but you better believe that I was also a big fan of FaceTiming my baby.

The next week my mom came to visit! It was seven days of laughter, joy, and desperately needed home organization. My mom is the best, as I am sure I have previously indicated. Every time she comes, I ask her to help me make the house more efficient, and every time she finds ways to solve problems I thought were unsolvable. We had so much fun playing with the baby, running errands, and doing all the everyday things with the added boost of delightful company. And she bought me shampoo! Like, nice shampoo! I haven’t used conditioner since 2012! Okay, TMI, sorry about that.

My mom, who I have already canonized, also kept the baby for us for two nights while we went on a little getaway to the Central Coast..while she had a lingering sinus infection, the baby woke up at heinous times in the morning and also wasn’t much of a napper. When we came home, she had rearranged our living room, done our laundry, and left fresh flowers on the kitchen table and bathroom counter. How does she do it?! I do not know, but I am so very grateful.

I think those are all the big happenings of late. Our tiny angel is 21 months now, and he is talking up a storm! He’s been speaking in complete sentences for a while, and he surprises us sometimes with words we don’t remember teaching him. He repeats everything we say, which is hilarious and adorable (“responsible” on the lips of a toddler is very, very funny indeed). The other day we were reading a book with a picture of a night sky, and I was talking about how Daddy studies the stars. “Daddy is an astronomer,” I said. Micah looked at me for a second and then said, “Daddy innuh tronomer!” It was astoundingly precious. Yesterday we were driving past Eric’s building on our way to Kindermusik (pronounced “Kinnamunik” in toddler-ese, in case you were wondering) when he started gleefully yelling something. I couldn’t understand him at first, but then I realized what he was saying. “Daddy innuh tronomer! Daddy innuh tronomer! Daddy innuh tronomer!” And he was so proud of himself for remembering. My mind is blown pretty much on a daily basis. In further cuteness, the other day he got down a framed photo of himself on the day of his baptism and proceeded to read Goodnight, Moon to baby Micah. Eric and I could hardly scramble for our phones fast enough. I remember when he was tiny, before he could even smile at us, I used to wonder so much about what he was thinking and who he was in there. It has been the greatest delight to begin to find out.

In local news, the star of jasmine opened last week, and the jacaranda trees are just starting to bloom. It is a fragrant and beautiful time here, one that I’m so grateful for every year. I don’t think too often about the seasons or the cyclical nature of the weather, but wow, what a gift. A year is just long enough to completely and fully miss something, so much that you begin to despair of ever seeing it again, and then, pop! There it is, once again. Happy, happy spring to you!