Time flies...
Thank you, thank you, for welcoming Sam home. You guys sure know how to send warm fuzzies through the ether.
How is it that a whole week has passed Sam's arrival? What have I been up to?
The first night, being awakened numerous times by MrMan, who usually sleeps quite well at night. But, understandably, sleeping between us threw him for a loop. (Yes, he's still sleeping with me. I'd planned to write about it, titling the entry "I give up on hate," because the struggle to get him to sleep in the crib was making us both hate bedtime, but I never got around to it. I guess he'll eventually sleep on his own, but it was too much trying to get us to that stage before Sam arrived.) So, MrMan kept waking me up. I just knew that if he was talking he would have been saying, "Um, Mom, there's someone in the bed with us.... Mom, there's someone in the bed with us.... Shouldn't we be concerned?... Shouldn't we do something?.... Mom there's someone in the bed with us." Around five in the morning, he decided to explore Sam, poking, prodding, tugging, and seemed to reach the conclusion that he was alright.
Getting my hair cut. It's very short. Sam isn't thrilled with it, but I like it. And when I showed up at playgroup, the other moms gushed about it. The importance of supportive women friends.
Catching up with old friends. Friday night, we went to eat at the home of some family friends. The "kids" in that family grew up with me and Anis: weekends usually found the four of us together, sleeping over at one house or the other. In recent years, we've seen each other only in passing, since we've scattered around the country. But they were in town, and it was awesome to hang out for the evening, along with our spouses and children. Their children are older, at ages where negotiations come into play - I had such a warm feeling watching my friends being amazing parents, disciplining while respecting their kids.
Seeing my guys bond. MrMan has fallen asleep on Sam's chest several times, just like the old days. He has also enjoyed knocking down the toy towers tirelessly built by Sam. Tonight, they played ball in the living room. Yes, eventually there will come a time when we will have to stop the ball playing in the house, but for now I love watching MrMan bat the ball with his hand and then crawl after it. Over and over again.
Greeting my mother at the airport. She's back from her six-week visit to China! It's funny - I was really dreading her departure, but I'm really glad she went. Not that I didn't miss her, but it was a good experience for me, and I came through just fine. As did most of the plants. At the airport, MrMan was standoff-ish at first, but when we were in baggage claim, it seemed to suddenly dawn on him who she was, and he couldn't wait to get into her arms.
Cooking red beans and other treats. With Sam here, I'm having the energy to cook again, even for ten people, so that my mother could see the previously mentioned family friends before the "kids" and their kids headed back home.
Watching with amazement as MrMan initiated contact with another little boy, a big kid of 2.5 years old. We were at a coffee shop and MrMan was watching the little boy run around the patio. He insisted on getting out of his stroller, and started waving to the boy. He's been working on waving for the past week or so, but this was the first time he was using the skill so readily, and with someone closer in age to himself.
Buying a car seat. After my stress-out of a few weeks ago, I realized that I could wait a little longer before buying MrMan a new seat. Partly because I figured Sam should have some say, partly because I'm not ready to give up the convenience of carrying MrMan into places in his infant car seat. (I envy people buying the new travel systems that carry up to 30 pounds.) We decided to go with a Graco one.
In the next week: welcoming my brother and his girlfriend, and Meisa. A full house, in a house with no beds. Okay, I'm exaggerating when I say no beds, but we currently have no extra beds. Welcome to our house, welcome to our couch.
Posted by Shokufeh at August 10, 2006 10:52 PM