Okay, This is What They Were Talking About

Many of my friends have babies (now kids) and I read a blog or two about perfect strangers and their parenting adventures. I've been perplexed over the last ten months when I've read about how hard they find parenting. I've certainly had moments when I've thought to myself, "I could use another hour or ten of sleep" but overall, it's not been terribly hard work.

As your gross motor skills have improved (crawling, pulling up) I now read and process those conversations with a new understanding. Crimeny, this is hard! I've glimpsed the future and the future is...exhausting. But also stunningly interesting and fun and quirky and delightful.

Learning to see the world through your eyes requires shedding the veil of old and boring. Nothing is old or boring. Not the potpourri that has been in a bowl by the fireplace since the 1980s or the dust pan with who-knows-what stuck to it or the anti-skid mats that seem to be under every rug you peer under! There are treasures untold in the pantry and STAIRS, STAIRS, STAIRS. What happens when you stick you finger here?

For parents who have grown accustomed to the world, entering your universe is exhausting. Learning (anew) to comprehend the joy in finding crumbs on the floor and swinging doors that open and close is taxing work. We've grown accustomed to thinking of these little miracles as details to be glossed over on our way to the main event. We usually don't know what the main event is; but we actively seek it just the same. The main event, you seem to believe, is the sound of the paper tearing, the speed at which you can dart out of the room and the texture of Peanut's fur. My work, it appears, is to make sure you can explore safely in a world where these miracles are omnipresent. That means I have to find those little miracles too, to anticipate where you might be headed next on your grand adventure (NOT down the stairs head first). If I can find the joy in this, and I'm thinking that it won't always be easy, then your gift to me will be remarkable. The world will be a more wonder-ful place.

To be fair to Daniel -- who I may have maligned in a previous post -- you now find the dog food miraculous too.Mail is very interesting

Marian battles the stairsStairs -1 Marian-0. Red spot on the forehead is the only battle wound.