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This week he: wanted to stay by my side as much as he could, 'because I like you, mama'... how can I argue with that!? / rode his scooter a lot and played at every park in town / built an amazing tower city with his blocks (that somehow we didn't photograph) / loved going deep in the pond with daddy, and getting tossed up high / told me he would take care of his sister's dolly. he's never shown any interest in dolls and I thought his nurturing side was coming out, until he finally added... 'I like her because her head smells delicious!'. and actually, it does ;)
This week she: cried whenever daddy left, she is already such a daddy's girl / have I mentioned that she can stand without pulling up on anything? yeah, that's her thing, again and again with a beaming smile of pride / tried to crawl into the fireplace, got stuck in a million places, and generally looked for mischief / had daddy and I laughing as she played with her brother's train, complete with engine noises (I guess if you hear something all day every day, you are bound to imitate it!) / woke up very early. often.
++++++++++++++
Our days have been full with all the basics of summer; swimming, lots of ice cream, staying out too late, waking up too early, trying to squeeze in all the usual chores. I feel like so little is getting accomplished, but also like I'm running around constantly. Maybe that is just every mother, but it seems especially true as of late.
As baby Roo is quickly approaching her first birthday, my mind is busy. I often find myself quiet and lost in thought. Some of it is about her, our family, and the speed of these years... but it's also more than that, and maybe one of these days I will find myself well enough rested and with the extra time to sift through the threads and write them down.
I keep promising myself to be more consistent with blogging, I string together a few days, and then fall back off the rhythm. I started this blog when Little Smith turned one, and it does feel as though that same creative energy that prompted me to create this space is swelling again. At least in my experience, the first year of a baby's life is really a blur. I thought that all of that would be different the second time around, but I have found myself equally disoriented and taken by surprise with our little girl. I love the baby phase, truly, and in some ways it is easier than toddler tantrums, but it is also all-consuming... and I am still consumed at the moment. I'm drained that my baby can't nap on her own, and yet so aware that I am going to desperately miss holding her in my arms and watching her sleep. As I sigh and wish to be needed less, I already miss being needed. Transitions are complicated, and I imagine never more so than in motherhood.
So that's where we are; eating popsicles and dangling our toes in the water and completely given over to the care-free days of summer, well with the exception of my over-active brain that always seems to follow us around, uninvited. I'm grateful Roo's birthday is in August, imagine how wild my thoughts would be running with a good coating of snow and 5PM sunsets!