Monday, April 30, 2007

A Wrinkle In Time

It seems that every week we vow to cut back on our weekend plans in order to avoid over-scheduling Owen and to find some time to relax and maybe even make a dent in the long list of projects we have for the house. The reality though is that something always comes up, and since we haven’t managed to add any hours to our day, the relaxation part of our weekend tends to get the short end of the stick. This past weekend was no exception. We squeezed in lunch with the Hyatts, dinner at Mom & Don’s, and a visit with the Brown family, and that was just Saturday! On Sunday we took Owen to his first baseball game, on Friday night I went to the Dismemberment Plan reunion show at the Black Cat, and I think I ended up at the extra-innings Nats v. Mets game Saturday night as well (thanks Elaine!).

Despite the hectic pace, it was a good weekend (except when Owen got suntan lotion in his eyes at the Nats game -- apparently there is crying in baseball). The most interesting part though was seeing Owen interact with Kaden at lunch while we were visiting Nabeel and Megan, and then seeing Owen with Mia later that night when Brad and Marlo came over to Mom’s place for pizza. Kaden turned two a couple months ago, and Mia just turned two months, so Owen went from being the little kid at lunch, to being the big kid at dinner. I was struck by the juxtaposition of seeing how far Owen has to go in the next year to be able to walk, talk, and interact like Kaden; and seeing how far he’s come in the past six months since he was a tiny infant like Mia, still longing for the comforts of the womb. Amazingly, at this stage Owen seemed to have more in common with the two year old Kaden than the two month old Mia. Kaden and Owen could play with the same toys, chase each other around, and get into all sorts of trouble; while it will still be a few more months before Mia is really ready to interact with another baby.

Our two visits also reinforced how dynamic the task of parenting is. Living through it all we've certainly felt how fast things are changing; every time we start to feel like we're getting the hang of things, Owen changes the game. But when I held a crying Mia and shushed and swayed her to sleep, I couldn't help but think how obsolete those techniques are with Owen now. And watching Nabeel and Megan try to convince Kaden of the values of sharing showed just how much our skill set will have to evolve. Thankfully we have some great friends that can help us out when we need parenting advice, empathize with our trials and tribulations, and share in all the joys of child rearing. If only we had more time to see them all!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Oh, Allen, wait until you have a really sick child on your hands!! Swaying and shushing them to sleep will come in very handy for many years to come!!

Audra