Today was another warm, sunlit day. Sophie spent it outside and Nels spent it indoors playing his favorite video game. Ralph had band practice (they put together a new song!) and I had lunch with my mother, a steak and a bloody mary at our new pub. My new naturopath [brag, because I’m awesome and into alternative medicine!] suggested I forgo eating dairy for awhile to see if I experience any quality of life improvements. It would appear I am making up for this restriction with red meat as I have cravings like I haven’t known for years.
After lunch I got home and the kids were still, you know, up to their exploits and completely uninterested in me. So I sewed and watched two movies (Frozen River (2008) and Moon (2009), both excellent) and kind of puttered around and rested.
It’s lonely, sometimes, having independent kids. When the weather’s good they seem to mostly want to play, run inside to eat, run back outside and play some more, maybe come inside and draw and build some massive Lego thing then back outside. I recognize the Rightness in all of this, but it feels a bit odd, like I’ve worked myself out of a job (and yes, I know this is not true). The kids need me, I just don’t always see it. But:
In the nighttime it’s a different story. It’s all about the snuggling, which both kids love to do in the evening. So much so that it always looks odd to me in a film when someone tucks their kid into a bed and says, “Goodnight!” and leaves them alone. My kids even giggle when they see this. They sleep by me at night and in the morning I find myself absolutely piled on. Usually one kid is up against me and another one on top of both of us. And I love it because I slip out and make my coffee and get my morning started and maybe sew or cook a bit. And my kids are in a big jumbly pile in the bed, and my house is clean and calm and everything feels very right.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
“So much so that it always looks odd to me in a film when someone tucks their kid into a bed and says, “Goodnight!†and leaves them alone.”
I always feel so sad when I see that in movies – Eli has expressed the same to me – how sad those kids and parents get no cuddles or lullabyes or cozy times – so grateful we have ours!
Piled on. I love it! My brother had to travel last week and he said he couldn’t sleep a wink without his baby beside him. It was so sweet.
Ahh yes…it always cracks me up when I get home at night to find Kylie snuggled up close to mama as if her entire body was somehow magnetically attached. By morning she is equally fastened to my side. Even after a night of random right hooks and kicks to the groin I still enjoy having her there.
On a sticky-sweet note, I wake her up every morning with:
1. “It’s time to get up! It’s time to get up! It’s time to get up in the morning!”, to the tune of revelry of course.
2. “Wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey!” I have no idea where I got this from.
3. If neither of the above works, strategic mild tickling always does the trick. It must be fun to wake up giggling.
On an unrelated note, I have the feeling that you may be the first person interesting enough to pull me into that damn Twitter craze.
@K8: Perhaps on the anniversary of my minor surgery in 2002, I’ll detail my baby-as-a-bread-loaf-in-bed-with-me story from the hospital. Sleeping with a baby is as awesome as sleeping with a kid.
@Kidsync: Those are SUCH dad-isms to wake a kid up with! & might I add, more child-friendly than my personal favorite, “Drop your cocks and grab your socks!”
So, I’ve lured (Pronounced LOOUUURED ala Anthony Hopkins from Mamet-macho-action film The Edge) more than one person to Twitter and none of them have left. Give it a go I say!