Lessons learned

Well. Didn't we have quite a day yesterday.

Back in December, I applied for a govvie job as an editor at the NRC. I got screened in and scheduled to do a pre-interview editing test. McPie came home from work to stay with the kids in the afternoon while I drove all the way out to the NRC for the two-hour test. We'd been trying to get Ruby to take milk from a bottle, with little success. (She'd progressed from spitting it out to chewing the nipple in amusement, but no real drinking.) I left them with a little milk in a bottle just in case, but we knew it wouldn't be much help. So I headed out, thinking I'd be gone about three hours, four tops.

Cue winter snowstorm. It took me THREE HOURS to drive home. I was DYING the whole way, thinking of the chaos that must be happening at home: it's dinner time, McPie home alone with a starving baby and potentially volcanic kid. When I burst in the door six hours after leaving, I braced myself for the worst.

I was met with silence. Then a soft "Hi Sweetie!" from upstairs, and McPie emerged looking completely sane and undisheveled. He ducked back into our room and returned with a very happy looking Doobie-doo.

WTF?

Apparently my child prefers attention to food. She was happy all day, as long as she was entertained. She even went down for a nap. (Of course, Tim threw a bit of a hissy fit because I came home "too early", but we managed to shut him down without too much trouble.)

Then McPie made supper, we put the kids to bed, I shoveled the driveway, and we settled in for a glass wine and enjoying the fact that all was right with the world.

And I learned that I do not want to take a job that reqiures me to commute across the city. Winter storms (and other inclement weather) are not unusual up here, and I do not want to revisit that white-knuckled drive again. Ruby may not need my milk that bad, but my kids need me for other reasons, and I'm not going to live my life that far away from them.

Amen.

While I'm here are other recent milestones:

Tim seems to have rounded the corner from three to four. His crazy tantrums are much less frequent, and they are almost always defusable (is that a word) by way of reason. Thank god. The little personality he's becoming is more and more visible and vibrant. He's truly becoming himself, and himself is starting to put it all together.

We caught Ruby making adorable mouth movements: opening and closing her mouth while smiling. It was new and sweet and very soon a clear indication that she's trying to "talk". She's imitating our talking mouths, and starting to spit out syllables. True baby babble. It's awesome. I will try to get it on video.

All in the family

This always happens: my kids grow up and I miss it, somehow. It starts happening right from the earliest infancy. You are thinking of them as completely helpless, and then you notice that they are doing something, a certain look or reaction or action, that makes you realize that they are way ahead of where you thought they were. And as I became seasoned as a parent, I'm coming to terms with the fact that this is just how it works. The keep slipping out from under me, and I run to catch up.

We realized today that Ruby is big enough to put in the exer-saucer. She's probably been ready for weeks, but we were still thinking of her as tiny and helpless. We brought it up for dinner time, and she sat-stood in it the whole time, quietly puttering away at some project or other, completely absorbed, and playing by herself.

Today was also Family Day, so we went out for brunch. Just the four of us, since the Big Kids had to go to school. The experience at the restaurant was relaxed, pleasant, unhurried... When did this happen? Wasn't it just yesterday that "Tim in a restaurant" required quick service and constant high-intensity management? Does this mean we don't have to dread restaurants any more? (It does. At least for another couple of months... Though the way things are going with Ruby, she'll be happy to just to sit calmly in a high chair, sardonically flicking Cheerios at passers-by.)

For Family Day, we also enjoyed an afternoon at the Aviation Museum. I'd never been before, so check that off the list. It's a lovely, very mellow place. So much space for a kid to run free, and just enough hands-on to keep them interested. (Pictures to come.)

Finishing off the day: Little kids in bed, Big Kids out for a skate on the canal with Dad, and Mom with a moment of blessed Quiet Time. (On my way to bed to work on the last few chapters of The Lacuna.)

Life is good.