Dog

Patience is a virtue... unless you are a parent or child care provider. Then it is a necessity if you value your sanity.

Feeding a ten month old is hilarious, frustrating, painstaking and deliberate, all at the same time. With a vocabulary of approximately two words and four other random syllables, getting a clear message across to me when it comes to "food time" involves face-puckering, slapping the spoon out of my hand, pushing any incoming utensils or bite-sized pieces as far away from the mouth as possible (including on to the floor for their 13 year old weimaraner,) covering her mouth with both hands (really cute) or HUGE entire-body-shaking-giggle-infested-wide-eyed-hand-clapping-joyfests when I actually get it right. (Again, REALLY cute.)

If she feels particularly generous, her favorite word will be pulled out in conjunction with these jumping bean joyfests:

"Dog!

Dogdogdogdogdogdogdog!"

This means, in infantspeak, "hooboy! she gets it! finally! geesh!" Riley's favorite thing on the planet, besides her wonderful and uber-rad-loving parents, is their dog Monte. Dang is he ever patient with that kid! They are pretty adorable together - but that's another story altogether...

Today I discovered the power of pomegranate seeds. OMG. "DOGDOGDOG!" I was afraid the highchair would crash over from her enthusiastic jumping bean moves! Thankfully all was safe in the land of Oz and we both had giant grins plastered over our faces - thanks to the fruit of the dead.

Oh, how I love red.

Cloth Diapers, Breastmilk & Sleepytime

Yesterday was the greatest work day of my life. Period.

My crazy lifelong dream of being a nanny has come to fruition in the form of part time childcare for the happiest, softest, brightest and most captivating ten month old on the planet. Miss Riley reached out with invisible fingers, tangled them in my heartstrings and gently turned up the corners of my mouth in the first moment of my employment.

Gone are the fluorescent lights, stale air, politics and depression of the cubical world. Even if this chapter of my life is but a moment, it is one of smiles, learning, sharing, wonder, dancing, jeans, preparation and joy. One of cloth diapers, patient feedings, not-so-easy "sleepytime" and a ten second attention span. Does this mean that this is an easy job? Not necessarily. I have never been on such high alert while at a job - one short day and I was ready for a VERY early bedtime. But is it a job that I can actually believe in? Darn tootin'.

Too often in this lightening-fast-paced-e-world, "work" entails clicking keys, reading nonsensical and repetitive paragraph after paragraph, drowning in the buzz of radiating fake lighting and learning to live with a constant HVAC-induced headache. We have ergonomic chairs, keyboards, calculators, mice, desks, pens, pencils... Does anyone else find this ridiculous? We are a workforce contorting our bodies and minds into such unnatural positions that we have spawned an entire industry dedicated to the treatment and prevention of stress- and repetitive-motion-related injuries and complaints. Good Lord. Talk about ironic.

So, off I trot to spend the day building block castles, reading cardboard books, delighting in the seedpod of dandelions... perhaps not a "realistic" list of work activities for today's reality, but then again, what is reality?