I sit here this morning, sipping my coffee while looking out at the peaceful backyard with the roses and grass. The porch swing gently rocks in the slight breeze. It looks cool and tantalizing... romantic, even. My almost a month old nephew is tucked in next to me here on the couch, snoring and snurgling quietly. The clouds today are casting a soft, diffused light that comes in the window and frames him just perfectly. It's a photo op. Totally.
The reality is that the peaceful backyard is sweltering hot already and it's not even 9am yet. The cloud cover lies. The gentle breeze feels more like an ailing hair dryer than anything close to refreshing.
But this cute little guy, well he's pretty true. He is a sweet, happy, peaceful, curious baby 98% of the time. That other 2% is when he gets gassy. Whoa howdy! The angel becomes the banshee with lungs of steel. His red haired temper surfaces and when you recover from the shock that this is actually the same child, you scramble to do anything to help the gas. You. Will. Do. ANYTHING. As soon as he burps or farts, the cherub returns.
It's only happened twice for Lee and I with him but for our parents-of-tweens brains, they were serious drop kick re-entries into Babydom.
We had to reach back and sift through our clogged brains for all the coping mechanisms we had for our three when they were babies. There's been a lot stuffed into our proverbial mental attics in the last 8 years, so it wasn't all that easy to relocate the strategies of rocking, singing, patting, swinging, burping, bathing, calming, changing, feeding, etc. Thankfully we did and peace eventually returned along with a new confidence that while we know babies and love them, we don't want anymore of our own. :)
I'm grateful that for Lee and I, the whim of "hey, let's have another baby!" isn't one that can be put into action by one wild night of fun. I used to begrudge people like the Duggar family for their extreme fertility but now i am pretty sure I am grateful that they have my share of it. :)
Thus, I will sit and cuddle my sweet redheaded nephew until his mommy and daddy come and pick him up later today and I will miss him when he goes home. But I'll also really enjoy playing Othello with my 10 year old (who will be 11 tomorrow!) and chatting over dinner with both of my boys (as they feed themselves and burp themselves and then take themselves off to the bathroom). :)
Yeah, it's good when they're little. But it's good as they get older, too. :) God knows what He is doing. :) As usual. :)
The reality is that the peaceful backyard is sweltering hot already and it's not even 9am yet. The cloud cover lies. The gentle breeze feels more like an ailing hair dryer than anything close to refreshing.
But this cute little guy, well he's pretty true. He is a sweet, happy, peaceful, curious baby 98% of the time. That other 2% is when he gets gassy. Whoa howdy! The angel becomes the banshee with lungs of steel. His red haired temper surfaces and when you recover from the shock that this is actually the same child, you scramble to do anything to help the gas. You. Will. Do. ANYTHING. As soon as he burps or farts, the cherub returns.
It's only happened twice for Lee and I with him but for our parents-of-tweens brains, they were serious drop kick re-entries into Babydom.
We had to reach back and sift through our clogged brains for all the coping mechanisms we had for our three when they were babies. There's been a lot stuffed into our proverbial mental attics in the last 8 years, so it wasn't all that easy to relocate the strategies of rocking, singing, patting, swinging, burping, bathing, calming, changing, feeding, etc. Thankfully we did and peace eventually returned along with a new confidence that while we know babies and love them, we don't want anymore of our own. :)
I'm grateful that for Lee and I, the whim of "hey, let's have another baby!" isn't one that can be put into action by one wild night of fun. I used to begrudge people like the Duggar family for their extreme fertility but now i am pretty sure I am grateful that they have my share of it. :)
Thus, I will sit and cuddle my sweet redheaded nephew until his mommy and daddy come and pick him up later today and I will miss him when he goes home. But I'll also really enjoy playing Othello with my 10 year old (who will be 11 tomorrow!) and chatting over dinner with both of my boys (as they feed themselves and burp themselves and then take themselves off to the bathroom). :)
Yeah, it's good when they're little. But it's good as they get older, too. :) God knows what He is doing. :) As usual. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment