Baby time

I'd forgotten how incredibly awesome and how incredibly annoying babies can be.  One minute they're smiling and cooing at you and the next they're screaming in your ear with that supersonic scream that makes you want to stick pencils in your ears.

We do not give parents enough credit for surviving each day and for allowing their offspring to survive each day. 

Take a young couple, they've had years of school and work and learning to take care of themselves.  Often they are barely able to do even that, which is where parents come in, nagging a bit here and there.  Got car insurance?  Check  Got a job?  Check  Feeding yourself something reasonably healthy?  Check  Going to have a baby?  Check, wait, what?

OMG!  A baby?  Really?  Ok, we can do this, you can do this, can we do this, can you do this?  Yes, let's do this, full speed ahead, find a place to live, fix it up, furnish it with baby things, prepare and plan...

And then she's here and she's fabulous and my daughter and her guy step up and become these amazing parents.  They make some mistakes along the way, seriously, get the damn pacifiers.  They wade into strange territory and do this great job raising this little person, who is thriving in the most beautiful atmosphere of calm and reasonableness and love and laughter and chickens (love chickens).  I wish I was this baby.

I don't think I could do it at this late stage.  My patience isn't really there anymore, I've moved on to more selfish living.  And yet, there are grandparents who step up to raise a child, sometimes more than one.  Those people I stand humbled before, speechless and awed that they have taken on this exhausting job when they've already been there, done that.

I get to wallow around in babyland, nibble toes and make a suggestion here and there.  Actually I don't remember much.  Naps?  Sure, I think, not sure how long, not sure how well.  

And then I get to go home, where I will wake up the first morning, realize she and her mother won't be there to say good morning to and cry.  And then I will toodle along the rest of the day, doing what I want when I want, checking the calendar for how many days it is until I see them again.

And immerse myself in my passions, metal and glass and sticking the two together in interesting ways.

This time they will come to me.  I can hardly imagine sharing with my friends.  And seeing my Dad and Mom with their Great Granddaughter, what fun.

Peace to you and yours.