El noche

Some of the most tender moments I share with my son are in the middle of the night.

Usually (and thankfully), Max is a great sleeper and makes it through the night on his own. Occassionally, he will wake up but soothe himself back to sleep after several minutes. Rarely, as was the case last night, he will wake up and need parental intervention to go back to sleep. Whatever was going on in his little head, all he wanted was to be held and rocked for a while to make it all better. I obliged and, though it was 2 a.m., those were the most serene and affirming 20 minutes of our day.

One of the most blessed and inspiring lessons I have learned from motherhood is the joy and satisfaction that comes of bringing peace and comfort to another human being.

Jobzzzzzz

The matriarch of the Clare-Panton Family blog recently posted about the job from which she learned the most during her working life. Reading the post and thinking about my own life, the vivid tableaux that illuminated my mind were all the jobs that were totally ridiculous, not the ones I gained the most from professionally or intellectually. She suggested I post my thoughts about these lowly positions on my own blog instead of hers, thankyouverymuch. No riff-raff allowed on her blog, apparently. :-)

Like my very first job, at A&W Rootbeer in Louisville (sadly, it closed last year) when I was 14 years old, swaddled in skin-tight forest green doubleknit polyester. Within a month, I had flooded the dining room and nearly burned the place down...and I didn't get fired. I still have the faux driving cap thingy that was part of the uniform.

Or the waitressing gig at The Egg & I in Greeley during college, at which my shift began at 5 a.m., ended at 2 p.m. and I earned $2.13/hr. As I was a horrible waitress (who can remember eggs over-medium at 5 a.m.?), I didn't get many tips. In fact, I knew I wasn't cut out for waitresshood when people asking for things -- like a clean fork -- really pissed me off. This is the place where, one day, one of the cooks accidentally cut the finger off his rubber glove while making omelets and didn't notice for quite a while. By that time, there was no telling where that rubber finger had ended up. About an hour later, the police came by the restaurant because an old lady called them to report finding a "condom" in her eggs.

These are the jobs that stand out for me.

I'd love to read about your funniest jobzzz, so please post away!

Happy Mother's Day!

Open-mouth guppy kisses on my face. Dirt between his little toes. Sticky fingers. Wrassling him into a clean diaper and a change of clothes. Waving bye-bye. Together, watching the leafy shadows dance on the grass under the tree. Chubby baby boy legs. His "I'm so tired" sigh, even as he chases a ball down the hallway. Stroking and patting my face while nursing. Maammaaammaaa, daadaaadaaa. Love.

OPM

Other People's Music. "I know this is whyyyy, this is whyyyy, this is whyyyy...I know this is whyyy...." This is the rap song I'm enjoying while writing this in my second floor office with the window only cracked open. Not part of my music collection, rather it is courtesy of the teenager two houses down and across the street who is in his house with a window open. That is how loud it is. It's the same teenager who asked Santa for one of those really loud mufflers (seems like just taking the regular muffler off would achieve the same affect?) for his low-rider Honda Civic...and Santa -- who obviously didn't refer to his good kid/bad kid list -- got him one. He's been terrorizing the neighborhood with it ever since.

My only solace is knowing he'll be wearing hearing aids by the time he's 40.

Do I sound like an old lady? Oh well...next I will be yelling at neighborhood children for walking on my lawn. LOL!!

Back yard, etc.

Adrian has owned/lived in this house since it was built in 2001, and I since we were engaged. It has only been since last weekend that the back yard is finally completed.

Two summers ago, we had the trees planted, grass laid down, planters built, etc. Last year, I was very pregnant and then had a newborn, so did not lift a trowel or pull a weed all summer (and neither did Adrian). So, with the help of three teenagers, we made the final push and laid down weedmat in the flower beds, prepared the vegetable garden, planted shrubs and flowers, mowed/edged the grass, shoveled in 4 cubic yards of mulch, and pulled enough weeds and collected enough yard debris to fill up a dumpster. Needless to say, we were all exhausted.

In addition to the better-than-minimum wage the teens earned, they also ate the equivalent of two full meals in the space of six hours, plus pop, plus tea, plus bottled water, plus a few bags of chips. And, on the way home, Adrian bought them all ice cream. If they had stayed any longer, we might have had to BBQ the dog.

I'm growing lettuce, tomatoes, two kinds of peppers, squash and garlic in the garden.

Max still thinks grass is alive and dangerous. So if I sit him on a blanket in the middle of the lawn with some toys, he is essentially marooned. He will NOT move past the edge of the blanket....so that way I can get some planting/weeding done nearby and know he is more or less in one spot. Unfortunately, some day soon he will figure out that the emperor has no clothes, and then I'll have to get the play pen out. I hate the play pen (baby jail), but I admit it is the only way to keep them safe and get anything done that requires two hands.

In Grandma Mary's kitchen, with Cheerios.

Pearl St. Mall, springtime, with mommy.

Motivation

I've been teaching Max to use a straw for a couple of weeks now. He has mastered the sippy and regular cup (with help), but the straw has so far just been something to chew and play with. Last night, the family went on an evening car ride to Sonic for a treat. Adrian got a fruit slushy (Sprite, crushed ice and fruit) and gave Max a taste by sucking a bit into his straw, then taking it out of the cup and releasing the liquid into Max's mouth. It was the most wonderful thing he had ever tasted. As if the skies parted and a choir began singing Hallelujah!, Max grabbed the cup and began sucking on that straw as if his life depended on it. He drank until he had to come up for air. It was the funniest thing I've ever seen. Good part: Max knows how to use a straw. Bad part: Max has a powerful desire for fruit slushy.