You Know That I'll Be Back

I'm sorry for anyone who is on vacation this week, but I'm digging the rain. The trees and things need it, it washes away the troublesome pollen, and it's given me a chance to do things such as put pants on my baby. Not to rob him of the joy of pantslessness when he's got a lifetime of pants wearing ahead of him, but he's got so many nice things he's in danger of outgrowing before he gets a chance to wear them, it's nice if they make it onto his body at least once before being passed down the line.

Ah, my petit bonhomme, he is full of beans lately. He's been backsliding a bit in his sleep habits (boo) but he makes up for it in other types of development (yay) such as keeping up a constant stream of jabber. We have pretend conversations all day long and it is THE awesomeness. I said my first word at five months and spoke in full sentences by my first birthday, but I'm not sure that's the sort of thing that's hereditary. I think this is just what babies do at this stage and is no indicator that he'll be an early talker. I don't even care about that, I'm just enjoying the expressive nonsense coming out of his mouth. Anyway, you know I think any little thing he does is the bees knees-- I still high five him for producing an especially impressive shart. HR will be four months on Friday, and can you even believe it? This one has definitely gone by the fastest so far.

This past weekend was full of friends, which is so great because I feel like we haven't socialized with other non-related adults for a long time. Two friends were in from Vermont with their beautiful five-month-old daughter, and though we mostly talked about the ups and downs of new parenthood, it was a treat. Yesterday Mike worked the brunch shift and I joined my best friend and her husband at the restaurant where he works to catch up over biscuits and sausage gravy. We live about 100 yards from one another, but lately if we see each other once a week we're doing well so we really have to take advantage of these opportunities to get together, especially since they're about to bring a little dude or dudette into the world in a couple of months.

Ooh yes, Blog of the Week: Lois Lowry (author of The Giver, the Anastasia Krupnik series, and approximately one million other excellent books) is one of my writing heroines and her blog--which offers a glimpse into her thoughts and private life as well the occasional post on her writing process--is fantastic.

I was just telling my brother that I heard Mark Morris's "Return of the Mack" on my drive in this morning and it took care of my Monday blues before I really caught them. This is admittedly an awful piece of pop music, but it holds a nostalgic place in my heart and its airing was perfectly timed. What have you heard recently that rearranged your whole mindset?