What a Life!

I talked with my parents yesterday, as is my usual custom on Sunday. The first thing my dad had to say was to ask if everything was okay since I hadn’t posted for a while. Yes, everything is okay. I just have a bunch of things going on with nothing that’s finished enough to be worth talking about. Know what I mean?

I’m hating my camera so I’ve taken pictures but haven’t downloaded any. It’s a great camera, really. But my skills as a photographer have simply outgrown it. I’ve figured out how I want to upgrade as well as how to pay for it, but I haven’t had the opportunity to tell my husband about my plans, something I really should do before hitting the “Purchase” button.

I also am in the process of changing how I backup my computer. I found some reputable external hard drives that cost less than a year’s worth of backing up online, but I haven’t switched over to that system yet. Such a project requires one to sit down and actually think, and opportunities for such a project have been extremely limited as of late. In fact, frazzled would be a good word to describe the current state of things. Frazzled is not a good state of mind for serious projects. Ach!

Today Joey is officially nine months old. He started pulling himself up last week, but he hasn’t yet learned how to get down once he’s gotten up, other than to fall over, which usually involves hitting his head on the floor. So he’ll pull himself up somewhere and then start whining because he’s stuck (which, of course, adds to the frazzled state of things when you’re having to stop what you’re doing all the time in order to go rescue a cute little boy). When they learn a new skill like that, they’re so driven to practice it…which leads to not sleeping well and so forth. Saturday I went to my knitting group, and even though Joey had taken a two hour nap in the morning, he fell asleep on my chest. Usually when that happens, if I move or talk, he wakes up; but Saturday, he was so tired, nothing could disturb him. He’s back to sleeping more at night, but naps are still hit and miss.

[Deep breath]

I do have a couple funny Ben stories, though.

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The thing about having kids is that you learn things about yourself that you might have never noticed otherwise. Sometimes it’s things in their personality or how they act; other times, it’s the things they say and do.

Lately, when I ask Ben to do something, like, “Ben, Mommy needs you to take your shirt and put it in the laundry hamper,” Ben will reply, “Okay, I can do that,” in this confident, reassuring tone of voice. It’s so cute I almost giggle every time he says that.

But seriously, where did that line come from? It’s a mystery I’ve been pondering for a few days now. After observing our conversations for a few days (okay, maybe a week), I’m thinking it’s something Steve and I say to each other when we’re discussing things that need to be done and deciding who is going to do them. We’ll discuss what needs to happen and how, and then we’ll tie up the conversation with things like, “Well, I can do that.” That’s how tasks get parceled out around here.

Truly, there are many things that parents say and children repeat. Dare I humbly congratulate myself that “I can do that” happens to be one of the things that my child has picked up and repeats?

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One more story…as you know, Ben has been riding the Potty Train lately. Yesterday morning, he was running around the house in his underwear, all happy and completely delighted, and I couldn’t figure out why. Well, he had figured out how to use the hole in the front of his underwear. I’m telling you, it was hysterical. I can’t describe exactly what he did – I can tell you that your imagination will probably do a very good job. Laugh on!