Identify Yourself

Today Luke went on a play date with his friend Levi. They did not play too much. Well, Luke didn’t. Levi played plenty. Levi lives in Morden, ten minutes down the road, and was born in February. He is Ryan and Charity’s son. Charity and I got rained out of the farmer’s market last night, so we walked down there this morning. And not long after we returned to her house it poured again. So we had some excellent timing! I bought carrots, potatoes, and onions. Charity bought bread, cookies and carrots.

Luke and I ended up staying at Charity’s house for a few hours after our walk because the rain was coming down so hard we would have gotten soaked walking to the car, and I had to load up the stroller, car seat, and vegetables. We stayed long enough for Luke to fall asleep for his afternoon nap, and to share soup and bread with Charity, Ethne and Ryan. It was a very nice visit.

In a book I read recently the therapist tries to get the main character to define herself using three words. This is supposed to give the therapist some insight into the person’s character. I want to get to know Charity, and I feel like every time I’m with her I totally forget a million wonderful and insightful questions. But today I remembered this question, so I asked Charity. She told me to go first and I realized what a hard task it is to come up with three concise words to define my character!

I finally settled on these three: photographer, friend, woman. I chose “photographer” not just because it is something I do, but because it is something I really enjoy spending my time at. Art is central to how I understand the world and myself. I chose “friend” because I wanted a word that showed me being in relation to others, but words like sister and wife were too restrictive. And finally I chose “woman” because since giving birth to Luke I have been very proud of being a woman, very proud of being that unique & safe place for a baby to grow and enter the world from. Being Luke’s mother defines me, but I haven’t been a mom long enough to use that term as something central to my character.

It was an interesting challenge. It made me wonder what Luke would say now that he’s two months old. I think he might say “baby”, “eater”, and “pooper”. But I don’t really know.

This morning Luke started to fuss at eight. I prayed he’d go back to sleep for another hour and lay in bed for another fifteen minutes while he continued to make noise. Finally I got up and went to pick him up. His head was wedged in a corner of the crib and he had one arm hanging out between the slats. He was so pitiful grunting away and pushing himself further into the corner. I felt just awful. This afternoon when I lay him down for a nap in his crib, I went to nap too. After a little while I started hearing a strange sound coming from Luke’s room. I went to investigate and found Luke way at the end of his crib, pushing his head against the slats. This time I was able to laugh and ask, “Is that crib getting in your way?” I really need to get a bumper!
News Flash: Luke took the soother last night!
Happy Friday to All. So ends the first week of my resolution.