Seth!: July 2008

Dear Seth,

I am a couple of weeks late in finishing this newsletter to you, and the process of leaving off and revisiting the post has taught me that motherhood carries with it a healthy dose of amnesia. I just now sat down to write to you and realized that not only had I already started this monthly recollection, but that I recollected this month a lot differently two weeks ago than I do now. A couple of weeks ago I wrote:

What a month we have had! It's been really fun, but also very traumatic in some ways and baby, I'm tired!

So you remember how when you were itty bitty you were such a great sleeper and we were so lucky? No, it turns out you don't remember that. Because this month you have shown us a newly developed complete lack of understanding of how to sleep.

Yes, I do still remember those newfound sleep issues, but they don't seem nearly as catastrophic as they must have seemed in the moment. And the fact that I am less upset by your 6-month-old sleep issues may have something to do with the two more recent weeks, whose sleep battles are a bit more monumental. Tune in next month for details on that.

I guess the mommy amnesia is healthy. It colours my memories of your babyhood with such a rosy brush. But this should also be a forewarning to you: I will never see anything the way you do, or even the way your Dad does. To me you will always be a little bit better than you really are, a little bit easier, a little bit smarter, and a little bit cuter. Moms are supposed to think this way - probably an evolutionary measure to keep us from offing you in those sleepless mid-night hours.

But there's a lot that's been fun about this month. You in and of yourself are fun - your excitement is contagious, and you can make everyone who is within earshot and eyesight of you smile.

Also, you're this close to crawling. This is not to say that you aren't mobile. In fact, when we put you down on the ground we can't expect to return to find you anywhere near where we left you - you just roll on over to where you want to be - chasing toys, dogs, Charlotte. Where your whims lead you, there you do go. This is very fun despite what all the experienced moms in my life warn me about. Everyone who already has kids keeps telling me to enjoy these months of immobility while they last, because there is no turning back once you realize you can move. But your Dad and I are actually really looking forward to that. We can't wait to help you explore larger and larger areas of your world.

As a first step in expanding your horizons, we enrolled you in swimming lessons. You had a bit of a rough time with it the first week, though I think you were more put off by the temperature of the water than by the swimming lesson activities. Your subsequent lessons have been so much fun - you're so relaxed! I'm apprehensive about getting you to go underwater, but I have a few weeks to deal with my anxiety before I have to push it aside so as not to pass it on to you.

Finally, to further widen your world, this month we took you on your first camping trip. Camping is something that your Dad and I really really like a lot, and many of our discussions before you were born revolved around how on earth we were going to brainwash you into liking the outdoors too. We agreed that we have to start early, but the first time that grass touched your body you screamed bloody murder - yeah, camping would be awesome, right? Needless to say, I approached this adventure with a bit of trepidation, because meeting your needs in our own house can be tough at times. Doing the same in the wild seemed an epic task! Also, with the sleep issues we've been having, we were honestly cringing at the thought of what our camping neighbors might have to endure! So how did it go? Swimmingly well! We can't believe how you adapted to our new fresh-air abode without batting an eye (No seriously - why don't you blink?) . Not only were you awesome in the car for all of our whole driving adventure through New Hampshire, but you didn't seem fazed by your change of environs at all. The whole campground thanks you!

So, Seth, overall it's been another great month for us. Whether that is just the way my mommy-brain makes me see it, or because it actually was just another awesome month - who knows. But I promise I will remember it happily for the rest of my life.