Snippets from the interim
1stbdaycake
Originally uploaded by queentassone. I didn't realize it'd been so long since I posted!
Since we've been living half the week up at Heathcote since October, I really haven't found much time to be on the computer.
In case anyone out there still remembers me, and maybe wonders what Rowan and I've been up to, I thought I would just encapsulate our life together for the past 6 months or so (since I last posted pictures to flickr) in the following.
At 7 months, just after Kal's first visit, Rowan rolled off the bed before I was fully awake one morning, landing on his face and providing a "teachable moment" about falling down. Unfortunately it didn't keep him from falling off numerous other times. In fact, he's getting to be quite an old hat at it!
Rowan lets my aunt's big dogs crowd and kiss him on the floor (briefly) after warming up to them following a traumatic introduction that had him screaming while they barked for what seemed like 15 minutes. The interesting thing for me was that the whole time I hardly noticed the dogs, focusing on convincing Rowan that it was OK and he was safe - whereas I'm sure if he hadn't been there to comfort I would've been pretty frightened myself. More recently, he still screams and kicks in fear in the presence of dogs, but points in excitement and repeats "DOGS!" whenever he sees a picture of one.
I build an elaborate lattice-like wall of Legos for Rowan to wake up to on his first Christmas morning. He is primarily inclined to check out the bows crowning the Lego gift and the new hammer toy in front of it.
Rowan puts together 2 Legos while I pretend to be sleeping, and I startle him by shouting and clapping at his success (and brilliance). I haven't seen him do it another time before or since.
I ask Rowan for a kiss and he plants his open mouth around my nose. I playfully stick my tongue out in his face and he sticks his out too, licking mine (duh, mom! should'a seen that one coming!).
Rowan cries for his Pop-Pop to come save him from his lazy mother's lingering in bed, after Pop-Pop does just that enough weekends in a row. Rowan learns the joys of cake when Pop takes him to make "ta-tet!" (pancakes) every weekend and feeds the baby up to 3 (the amount I usually eat) at a time.
Rowan "Oh[m]"s loudly with the Open Classroom tribe as we begin our toning.
My dad and I strip Rowan so I can anoint his chakras in the middle of an (L-shaped) circle of 40 of our closest family and family friends at his Naming Ceremony.
Rowan is nearly weaned when I develop a milk-blister and wind up unwilling and unable to nurse more than once a day.
Rowan becomes too heavy for me to shower with him comfortably.
Rowan and my dad accompany me to a non-hospital emergency care facility after my dad crushes to death and fails to remove a tick half-buried in my leg. I amuse myself in the waiting room watching people try to figure out what I could possibly be thinking by wearing a large red sweatshirt, short light blue lounge shorts, black knit thigh-high leg warmers and vegan denim negative heel sneakers at the end of winter, and why they have to be subjected to it. I feel vindicated when I don't have to remove a single shred of clothing to have the tick removed. I stare, sweating, at the unremarkable impressionistic painting on the wall while a physician digs in my un-anaesthetized leg with a needle for the tick's lingering mouth-parts. The following week I remove a smaller tick from Rowan's hair, and the week after that one from inside a bag of hand-dyed baby clothes from a Heathcote family. I plan to cut off the majority of our hair for the upcoming tick season.
Rowan persistently requests a "tcat-tcat" (carrot) almost every time he sees me eating something he's not after enough meals where I offered him carrots from my soup or stew.
Rowan alternately communes with his pal "bubba" (Buddha) from within his baby cage ("play yard"), plays with toys, or sits on my knee while I meditate on my yoga ball, sometimes also "ohm"ing with me or singing loudly on his own as I intone.
After learning to use "down" properly when crawling down the stairs, Rowan begins demanding "Down" when he wants to be picked up, and "Up" when he wants to get out of someone's lap.
Rowan covers the side of my neck with hickeys, sucking there when I deny him "Up" (milk).
After months of reading the "beh-bup" (Bird Book) with Pop-Pop at bedtime, Rowan educates anyone who will listen as to the "ooooo" sounds made by "ah" (owl) and the "eeeee" sounds made by both "aw" (hawk) and horse.