Graceful Parenting in Austin

I was a little unsure of myself and how I would handle the whole baby thing. Noel is my step-daughter, when I married Blue Eyes, she was six, so I don’t have any previous baby experience. Would I know if she was tired or hungry by her cries? Would I be able to read her expressions and movements? What if she was bright eyed and sucking her thumb, is she awake or tired? Would I have the intuition and feelings that would help me know what to do?

I had my answer last night, when the family was in line at Amy’s Ice Cream…

(By the way, I love living in Austin where it isn’t unusual for the family to go for ice cream in February. I also love Amy’s Ice Cream.)

Baby Girl was in her Baby Bjorn, facing forward. I like carrying her this way, she likes to see what is going on and I can kiss her head and rub her feet. But I can’t see her face and I miss that. I think sometimes about getting a little rear-view bicycle mirror I can strap to her head, so I don’t miss out on her smiles.

I see her right arm lift up and then come back down and I think, that looks like a tired arm. Just that one little movement, with no facial expression to help me out, and I knew. Soon after, she was rubbing her eyes. She was tired for sure.

We were home not long after that and I was feeding Baby Girl her night time bottle. It feels good to hold her and to know that we know how to talk to each other. I wonder if she can read my cues too, like when I give her lots of kisses or sing to her, does she know I’m saying ‘I love you?’ I think she does.

Just every now and then, like today at Target, I’ll be feeling good and wearing a little makeup and my skinny jeans and people I don’t know will smile at me and I’ll smile back. I must be looking really good today, I’ll think. Then I’ll remember I’m wearing Baby Girl in her Baby Bjorn, facing out so she can see everything, and these smiles aren’t meant for me, they are for her. Oh, well, I still smile back.

Today I held Baby Girl and we danced around the living room to Corinne Bailey Rae’s Little Star. What a perfect song for dancing with a baby, it’s not too fast or too slow and it has a groove and a rhythm. The words are easy to learn and sing and the first verse is [...]

Sometimes normal, every day things happen in a funny order or with odd timing that makes me laugh. Like when I was shopping for my husband’s birthday present. I got him a tennis skirt. Well, not for him, for me. But, for him because he really, really likes tennis skirts. So, even though I’m not [...]