Lately, Bears favorite bedtime book is Love You Forever. If you've never heard of it, it's basically the story of a crazy mom who continues to sneak into her sleeping son's bedroom at night, pick him up, rock him and sing to him well into his adulthood. I'm assuming that it's not meant to be taken literally and the point is that the mother will always love her child with the same fierceness that she did when he was a baby. Here's the song:
I'll love you forever
I'll like you for always
As long as I'm living
My baby you'll be
Towards the end of the story, she tries to sing the song to her son but she's too old and sick, so instead, he picks her up, rocks her, and sings the song, substituting "mommy" for "baby." Then goes home to his new baby daughter and starts the singing/rocking tradition over with her. We've read it at least 30 times now but my voice still gets suspiciously husky toward the end. I think it was Ryan's mom who got it for Bears when he was first born but I can't remember for sure. It's really a good one though. I highly recommend it.
The best part is that as I'm tucking him in to go to sleep, Bears likes me to sing the song again to him...except that I have to say "big boy" instead of baby. He's very insistent that he is the big boy and bitty Biscuits is the baby. After I'm done, he puts his hand gently on my arm and sings the song back to me with "mommy" at the final line. Blast it but it's a doozy. Mostly because the song itself is a nostalgic reminder of how fleeting and precious these moments are. I feel so very lucky that I get to be the mommy of this wonderful, troublesome, loving, and rambunctious cub.
The scoop on Bears 'n Biscuits
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Out and About: The Strange Slew of Friendly People
You know those days where you feel isolated and disconnected even when surrounded by a sea of people? Seems like most of my days have been like that lately. Normally when I go out with the boys, people walking by or waiting in line with us dutifully ignore our existence (I reciprocate, of course. I am anything if not...not social. and also highly proficient with the use of double negatives. but I digress). The most we usually get are looks of disdain (when Bears is screaming) or pity (when they're both screaming). But not today. I don't know what on earth happened but nearly every stranger we ran into treated us like family or old friends.
We started the day by going for a walk with Poopers, Kins, and Max. It was some good times, as always, with good conversation and minimal tantrumming from the toddlers. The strange happenings occurred when we headed out to the market after naps. As we were waiting in line to return some items, the lady behind us struck up a conversation about her 3-year-old great grandson and how much she missed him, as she'd just started a full 2-year mission with her husband. She was very sweet and tried to engage both boys while talking to me. Soon the lady behind her started talking to us as even gave Bears his first piece of gum, for which he was ridiculously grateful and kept repeating "wow. how neat!" over and over again while popping it in and out of his mouth.
After the return was over and we started out actual shopping, it seemed like every time we stopped to look at something, neighboring people would share some sort of anecdote about their own kids with me. While waiting in the checkout line, a teenage couple behind us played silly games with Bears the entire 10 minutes that we were waiting and even narrated what Biscuits (riding on my back) was thinking, "MOMMMM...I'm pretty sick of being here, let's go HOooOOOMe."
As I was putting the groceries in the back of the car, Bears was yelling his heart out what sounded something like the 60's batman theme song, but I couldn't be certain...that is, I couldn't be certain until a lady roughly 20 yards a way from us started loudly singing "danna nanna nanna nanna na--BATMAN!" and then walked towards us and just as I was taking Bears out of the cart, takes the cart off my hands, says "some people never grow up," with a wink and heads into the store. Whaaaa...? Is this the kind of thing that happens regularly to most people? If so, I have really been missing out with all these years of hermitting about. That is, going out while still managing to avoid just about all social interaction.
It feels so...foreign to feel this kind of connection with so many strangers in a normally non-social atmosphere. Almost makes me think that it might be worth coming out of my bubble so that instances like this won't be quite so rare. Almost.
We started the day by going for a walk with Poopers, Kins, and Max. It was some good times, as always, with good conversation and minimal tantrumming from the toddlers. The strange happenings occurred when we headed out to the market after naps. As we were waiting in line to return some items, the lady behind us struck up a conversation about her 3-year-old great grandson and how much she missed him, as she'd just started a full 2-year mission with her husband. She was very sweet and tried to engage both boys while talking to me. Soon the lady behind her started talking to us as even gave Bears his first piece of gum, for which he was ridiculously grateful and kept repeating "wow. how neat!" over and over again while popping it in and out of his mouth.
After the return was over and we started out actual shopping, it seemed like every time we stopped to look at something, neighboring people would share some sort of anecdote about their own kids with me. While waiting in the checkout line, a teenage couple behind us played silly games with Bears the entire 10 minutes that we were waiting and even narrated what Biscuits (riding on my back) was thinking, "MOMMMM...I'm pretty sick of being here, let's go HOooOOOMe."
As I was putting the groceries in the back of the car, Bears was yelling his heart out what sounded something like the 60's batman theme song, but I couldn't be certain...that is, I couldn't be certain until a lady roughly 20 yards a way from us started loudly singing "danna nanna nanna nanna na--BATMAN!" and then walked towards us and just as I was taking Bears out of the cart, takes the cart off my hands, says "some people never grow up," with a wink and heads into the store. Whaaaa...? Is this the kind of thing that happens regularly to most people? If so, I have really been missing out with all these years of hermitting about. That is, going out while still managing to avoid just about all social interaction.
It feels so...foreign to feel this kind of connection with so many strangers in a normally non-social atmosphere. Almost makes me think that it might be worth coming out of my bubble so that instances like this won't be quite so rare. Almost.
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