Moments, By The Sea

A cloudy day at the beach is still a day at the beach

Elan named the baby. Thank goodness, because Mikhail and I have been having some trouble with this task. One morning, playing a game involving magnetic tow truck and wrecked cars with numbers on them, Elan said "Baby Tie-lie is 1 years old." Only a blip of hesitation before he busted out with "Tie-lie." Then he towed the "1" over to my belly and plopped it on top. Also, according to him, it's a girl. He's thought that since the start, using the pronoun "she" and talking about his "sister." Won't he be surprised if it's a boy. Of course, I think he'll just be surprised that it's an actual baby, come to live with us, and by the way, when will she/he be going home?

Judah is safely on his way back to Georgia with no injuries caused by Elan. Not that he didn't occasionally try. One morning, while I slept in, Elan overturned an ottoman on top of Judah. He did it right in front of my sister. She put him in a time-out. Later in the day, while my mom gave Judah his bottle, Elan overturned the ottoman on top of himself (it's pretty light) and chastized himself. Obviously there is a lot going on in that little blonde-streaked head. I believe it is now clear that he takes after his mama in that he processes things in advance. And he's definitely in processing mode about "Tie-lie," this unknowable baby on the way.

Showing Judah the ropes

Kind of

We've been having a lot of 5:30 a.m. scream-fests. You can imagine how much Mikhail and I enjoy this. This morning, I plopped Elan in the stroller and took a walk. The sky was gray, the air was damp, and the crickets were still chirping. The fact that I could hear the crickets chirping was a blessed relief. He was quiet in the stroller, curled under a blanket in his sleeper, eyes wide. On the way home, he told me: "Mama, I'm going to blow like this (demonstrates a puff like blowing out a candle), and then I'm going to be a big boy. Ready, set, go. (Big puff.) See? Now I'm a big boy."

Back in Berkeley, it took knocking the contents of a full glass of water into my open nightstand drawer in the middle of the night to get me to clean out my junk drawer. Not that I tend to procrastinate household organizational tasks or anything... If I spent as much time doing them as thinking about doing them, I'd have a very well-organized house indeed.

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Moments is a weekly challenge I'm setting for myself, an opportunity to reflect on and capture all those little moments that make up life. If you'd like to join me in this blog challenge by starting your own Moments series, please do! It's not just for parents. If you do take this blog challenge, please link back here.