Cal bear 
zoo crewLet’s all jive to Cal’s weekly five:
1. We visited Calvin’s G Aunt Vicki Wednesday at the Folsom Zoo. Although many of the animals had fled to their “behind the scenes” lairs to escape the midday heat, Cal got to see the tiger, several pairs of monkeys, a wolf, a sleeping bear, Arial the Owl, and lots of birdies. But his favorite by far was the ferret in Vicki’s office. Cal went nose to nose with the long, white rodent, which somewhat resembled Cal’s other animal admirer, my sister’s Chihuahua, Valentino. Funny animal glasses pictures capped off our enjoyable zoo safari. (As a shout out to my aunt – the zoo will miss you much; you’ve given your heart, hard work, and love to those animals and the education of them, and they are way better for it).
2. It is sublimely blissful to wake up with a baby in your bed. The sun is shining, the baby is smiling, and opportunity is everywhere. I just bask in the glow of these times.
3. Last night, Cal went to sleep cradled in my arms. This is big big. He usually prefers belly to belly, but because it’s been so hot I found myself encouraging the cradling. If he’s tired, he’ll let me lay him in my arms. It’s a precious view from my perch – soft, downy head hairs, elegant eye lashes touching his cheeks, and his mouth fluttering around binky. He is at peace and so am I.
4. I’m not going to lie, Cal stayed up until 9:30 p.m. Wednesday night. This is quite a bit later than his usual 7:30 p.m. bedtime. Although we had a guest over, I did not depart from the bedtime routine. Still, Cal persistently avoided night-night time throughout my rocking and hammock swinging and singing. After more than two hours of this, I was clearly tired and just laid us both down on the big bed. I stared into his round shiny blue eyes and started laughing out of sheer exhaustion. He laughed right back at me. We laughed in tandem for several minutes. That felt good. He fell asleep 10 minutes later.
5. Having a baby is like simultaneously injecting joy and difficulty into your life. Autonomy is stripped away. But love is infused in it. I am thankful that, in the last weeks, I've reclaimed a small slice of me time – I get to watch my boy sleep in his crib in the evening and then have a hot bath and a good read. He naturally wakes up around 9:30 p.m. for a snack and the whole Hughes clan crawls into bed. As we round the bend to month five, I feel like we're really settling into parenthood. But I won't get too comfortable on my haunches, I know new adventures are on the horizon.
Stay tuned for Cal's birth, I'm almost done writing it! Yes, you can think it: finally!
1. We visited Calvin’s G Aunt Vicki Wednesday at the Folsom Zoo. Although many of the animals had fled to their “behind the scenes” lairs to escape the midday heat, Cal got to see the tiger, several pairs of monkeys, a wolf, a sleeping bear, Arial the Owl, and lots of birdies. But his favorite by far was the ferret in Vicki’s office. Cal went nose to nose with the long, white rodent, which somewhat resembled Cal’s other animal admirer, my sister’s Chihuahua, Valentino. Funny animal glasses pictures capped off our enjoyable zoo safari. (As a shout out to my aunt – the zoo will miss you much; you’ve given your heart, hard work, and love to those animals and the education of them, and they are way better for it).
2. It is sublimely blissful to wake up with a baby in your bed. The sun is shining, the baby is smiling, and opportunity is everywhere. I just bask in the glow of these times.
3. Last night, Cal went to sleep cradled in my arms. This is big big. He usually prefers belly to belly, but because it’s been so hot I found myself encouraging the cradling. If he’s tired, he’ll let me lay him in my arms. It’s a precious view from my perch – soft, downy head hairs, elegant eye lashes touching his cheeks, and his mouth fluttering around binky. He is at peace and so am I.
4. I’m not going to lie, Cal stayed up until 9:30 p.m. Wednesday night. This is quite a bit later than his usual 7:30 p.m. bedtime. Although we had a guest over, I did not depart from the bedtime routine. Still, Cal persistently avoided night-night time throughout my rocking and hammock swinging and singing. After more than two hours of this, I was clearly tired and just laid us both down on the big bed. I stared into his round shiny blue eyes and started laughing out of sheer exhaustion. He laughed right back at me. We laughed in tandem for several minutes. That felt good. He fell asleep 10 minutes later.
5. Having a baby is like simultaneously injecting joy and difficulty into your life. Autonomy is stripped away. But love is infused in it. I am thankful that, in the last weeks, I've reclaimed a small slice of me time – I get to watch my boy sleep in his crib in the evening and then have a hot bath and a good read. He naturally wakes up around 9:30 p.m. for a snack and the whole Hughes clan crawls into bed. As we round the bend to month five, I feel like we're really settling into parenthood. But I won't get too comfortable on my haunches, I know new adventures are on the horizon.
Stay tuned for Cal's birth, I'm almost done writing it! Yes, you can think it: finally!
