two week catch-all

So much to tell. I’ve been sick and busy. An ugly cold greeted me during the day Thursday and I went home early and stayed home Friday. Calvin might have caught it before since he had a runny nose and some trouble sleeping.

Saturday night Calvin pulled himself to a standing position in his crib, fingers cupped over the end of his crib, marshmallow legs holding the whole operation together. It was close to 7 p.m., an hour after his bedtime. Both Shaun and I were tired and wondering what was up with the little mover. After rolling and hoisting his body up and down, he finally just stood up and stayed there long enough for me to cross the house and see his two-toothed smile beaming in the glow of the baby monitor. It was the look of triumph. Then he shifted his foot and lost his balance, landing on his bottom. But of course, he was up again the next day.

The practically crawling and the full-blown standing – all this has seemed to happen in a week. I mean, he’s been on the verge of almost crawling for awhile, but now he’s up on all fours at all hours – yes, at night too.

I feel like Cal is a great audience member for comedy acts of all kinds now. He really gets funny things. Sunday sitting in Cal’s room right before a nap, Shaun wrapped my rose-colored scarf(that I use as my breastfeeding cloak) around his head like a turban, over-emphasizing some cartoonish accent and comical facial expressions, and Cal laughed and laughed. Then Shaun made other hats then some hair, followed by more laughter from us, the peanut crowd.

Shaun regularly hoists Cal upside down, dangling him by his legs and asking comically for his milk money. It’s kind of cute. Although I either close my eyes or issue the warning: be careful now you sillies. Cal smiles a toothy grin and giggles. They play what we call affectionately and plainly “the blanket game” involving any sort of blanket and the basic peek-a-boo premise. Shaun has also taken to walking the house with Cal, holding his hands up while Cal takes steps – left … right … left – in a beautiful and timed fashion, almost like a tiny but incredibly adorable almond-eyed mechanical doll. He’s getting so good at it I can’t even believe it. They started this, what, like a week or so ago???

On Sunday, he showed off his walking at Chevy’s on the River while we celebrated my cousin’s 16th birthday. Calvin wore shoes for the first time – dark brown loafers – and took some aided steps that the crowd lapped up. As usual, Cal was tossed over the huge table, zig-zagging his way up and down, of our party of at least 20, sucking on spoons and eating fresh avocados.

Another thing, Calvin got his first real hair cut two weekends ago. I thought of his hairdo as like an old man’s – the strawberry blond hairs grew lush around the back and sides of his head, and made tiny tents over his ears. There were also long puffs up top. I wanted to keep the sweet wispies, but Shaun insisted we cut it to one uniform length, which was probably a good idea. Shaun drove over Cal’s head with his beard trimmer on the two-notch setting while we sat in the bath. The resulting ’do was a buzz cut fit for the military. It makes him look like a little boy; this is perhaps why I resisted.

Reading "the books" I can’t believe what amazing things are on the horizon: the first shows of empathy, as well as kissing, sharing, signing, and first words, not to mention crawling, walking and running. Oh and also many more falls and rough-and-tumble than a sensitive mommy can effectively handle. That’s where dads come in so handy.

After the Mexican food, we ate cake for my cousin’s birthday on a hillside overlooking the river aglow in afternoon sun. The breeze felt good. A family friend and little girl Sammy came up to me and asked if my repeated attempts to rock Cal to sleep in the carrier, for his much-needed late afternoon nap, were wiping me out. “It's hard work being a mom,” she said. “So why do people do it?” I smiled but was temporarily dumbfounded.

I got my answer 20 minutes later when Cal lay burrowed in my shoulder, fast asleep, with slivers of choclate and carrot cakes ready to eat in hand. Although you might have to wait a bit longer to join the party as a mama, the cake tastes a million times better, and life, spoon fulls sweeter.