My Lady of the Lantern

I heard an infant's cry sometime around 5:30 a.m. today. It was still dark outside (hello winter), and I spent a few moments listen to the baby exercising its lungs. There has been an advent of about four new babies in my neighbourhood, including two in my building.  It could be anyone of those bubbas.  I was happy that it wasn't mine. M still is a sleep-wrecker, but that kind of crying is history.  And yet, when I see newborns, I have this urge to hold them, to touch them, and to feel that tiny life in my arms - to see how those tiny fingers wrap around a single finger of mine...their antics and all.  And oh, for the tiniest of fleeting moments I might even experience an urge to be pregnant and have a baby. When my senses return after the lapse of that nanosecond, I am just relieved to not be going through all of that, and those struggles of babyhood.

Wow, M really has stepped up his bug fest. Figlia uninstalled the snot machine only for it to be installed by Mister About-to-be-Two. Plus, the allergic reaction to the insect bite, plus a day of diarrhoea, and I am just sitting pretty about his birthday. Last year, he ran a fever right before his birthday, and sickness is a not my favourite repeat trend. My in-laws are here, and both of them have also been coughing/sneezing and hence there is ample source of infection everywhere.  Thanks for the comments on the previous post. Yes, it could be a growth spurt. I missed documenting an amazing milestone that happened sometime in October. I was out and about in the park in our neighbourhood (it's a gated township) one evening and I had to rush back home for some reason. I told Figlia to stay with M, while I returned back, and I came home for fifteen minutes and returned back to them. That was the first time that Figlia and M were together that way for the first time. ...

In nine days, M will be two. Can you believe it? Unlike Figlia, he won't have a party. To tell the truth, I am not even firm with what will be done for the birthday. This year has been hard on me, and I am in the midst of an existential crisis.  We have travelled outstation twice in the last six weeks, and I went out solo for a conference on my own for a couple of days last week. I wish I could spend some more alone time (maybe a few months?), but that won't happen. Figlia will be five in a couple of months. She is smart (not the first time I said that), and picks up everything like a sponge, and sometimes plays back data in front of people I would not share the data with. That means we have to be careful with what we say to each other in front of her. Then the little Missy will pick up the tone, and reprimand either parent, or both for the way we are talking. She is having a food problem. She has never given me trouble with food. But she is constantly hung...