FOR THE LOVE OF PULL-UPS
Last night I purchased a new brand of training pants for Noah (because the others were getting a bit too tight) and in an attempt to assuage his I’m-not-going-to-bed attitude, I reminded him that the faster he went to bed, the sooner he’d be be able to wake up and wear his new training pants. (He still wears a diaper to bed - potty training is hard!)
These new ones have fire trucks on them and he thinks they are WAY COOL. That seemed to calm him down… quite well. He grabbed the package of pull-ups, stroked it lovingly, gave a wistful sigh and gently said, “I’ll peeeeeeee.” Toddlerease translation: “I can’t wait until the morning when I get to pee in my new super-awesome pants.” Sigh. Potty training tips, please?
{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
MY MIDWEST WOES
My dirty little secret: I suffer from hardcore Midwest disenchantment. Here, nestled between the rolling hills of the Ohio River Valley and the flat expanse of the Bible Belt, I find the years slipping by with little purpose.
I find myself caught up in the mundane - between the casserole dish potlucks, the coupon clipping, and the Friday evenings on a bar stool at a smokey bar - wedged by my mediocre performance at a mediocre job and my geographic entanglements to Noah’s family. I’m sinking. I feel like I’m losing myself. Long gone is the fresh faced, enthusiastic teenager who dreamed of writing poetry in a loft in NYC.
Now I long to be on the stretches of beach on either coast - east or west of us - where, presumably, my acquaintances will have attended Yale or Berkley. Where recycling isn’t an option (it’s actually required) and where Waldorf, extended breastfeeding, and eating sprouted grains isn’t considered “weird” or “gross”. Where the drama of convoluted family relationships doesn’t weigh so heavily on day-to-day reality.
But here I am. And by no fault of anyone but myself. For some reason, today, I’ve been thinking about the decisions that catapulted me into the life I currently have. There was a critical moment at age 17, while sifting through a scholarship packet from Columbia College in Chicago, and the acceptance letters from the Pratt Institute of New York and Emerson College in Boston, when I decided that I would forgo adventure and remain at home. I decided on a modest education at a local university to be close to my family and, honestly, because I was scared to leave. How different would my life have been if I hadn’t made that choice?
I may have been a better writer by now. Maybe an editor of a magazine. Maybe a doctorate-holding geographer, researching the mountain region I so desperately wanted to escape from. The real truth is that while that life may have been great, I wouldn’t have met my sweet husband and I wouldn’t have taken my adorable baby boy.
Nevertheless, I’m guessing there’s something better out there than this Midwest existence. Something beyond this grey cubicle and middle class life - adventures in a great expanse of world that me and my babes can still experience?
SNAP
FACT: I peruse through the KY Special Needs Adoption (SNAP) website at least once a week and cry my eyes out while reading all the profiles. I wish I could bring them all home.
I’ve been lacking the motivation to blog recently so, instead, I’ll just leave you with a cute photo of the curly headed short dude who makes my world go round.
