She and I spent about an hour chatting today about her various interests, sharing a bagel and a bit of juice. I had peppermint tea but that is a minor detail.
She wanted to play with my hands. I let her. Towards the end of our hour together I was overcome with a bit of sadness. Had C not been unwell and sleeping out of schedule, we would not have had that hour together.
The last 16 months have been a bit of haze. There were times when I was just trying to get through the day. On top of that there was potty-training, a new house, C's collapsed lung & hospitalization, my surgery ... and life's incidents.
So now I get it. I really do. A was 5.5 months old when I found out that I was pregnant with C and most people were shocked but elated to hear the good news. Well, except for one friend who told me via email "Congratulations, although it makes me a bit sad. Two children so close together calls for an immense amount of work. You should try to space them out in the future. So close together you'll probably miss out."
When I first got that email I thought to myself "That's insane." Today, I talked to my 2.5 year old about her favorite color (blue because daddy's eyes are blue) , which animals frighten her (anything green), things she enjoys doing (building sand castles), and her favorite foods (chicken and soy milk). The entire conversation was held in Spanish. She played a couple of jokes on me.
It hit me. I did not have a clue that she had a favorite color, feared green animals or that building sand castles ranked that highly on her personal totem pole. And well done for her being able to speak for an hour in Spanish. While I can't imagine life without my two sidekicks, I now understand Lulu's email, while unsolicited, her advice was and is accurate.
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