"Mink" Farewell
January 12th, 2012
Where have all the binkies gone? Please don’t tell Colby, but they’re hiding in a bowl on the kitchen counter.
It’s amazing how many we have accumulated over the years. Because Luke is not a fan, this is goodbye–one of our first true finales of the baby days. I’m not sad at all that Colby will now advance in his speech and that he won’t wake up looking for his binky and not go to sleep until someone retrieves it from under his crib. I am sad that he is both sad and mad about the loss of his precious “mink.” It’s been five days, and he is still asking for it, but not nearly as much as he was. I think we’re going to make it!
I had no intention of not blogging for nearly a week. There were several nights I wanted to write, but it’s always too late. Usually 11 p.m. Mornings come way too soon. This week was typical in that I had many trying moments, others that melted my heart and not enough time to truly finish any one thing.
On Monday, Lily woke me up in time for me to make her lunch and push her out to the bus. She only packs her lunch once a week, and she always gets a note. I like to imagine her happy little face as she finds it each time.
Colby had a particularly hard time without the binky that morning. There were tears. I didn’t discover it until I parked an hour away at work, but I forgot one of the five bags that needed to get to the van at home on the kitchen counter. Luckily, I did hit my marks in getting four of four children where they needed to be.
That forgotten bag included a very healthy, perishable lunch and–oh yes, again–pump parts, bottles in particular. So I was inventive. And it worked.
There were a lot of spills this week. Today, coffee with hazelnut creamer was my perfume. I inadvertently treated the kitchen floor to Luke’s hot, steamy oatmeal with honey. Yesterday, Colby may or may not have dumped fresh iced tea on the counter (in, around and under the Keurig, Mr. Coffee Iced Tea Maker and canisters).
I tell ya. This life.
But I’ve made it to this golden moment: Thursday eve with the work week over and my sights firmly set on the weekend. The snow has arrived, and I am ready to hunker down in my house and read a book. Oh, the kids, you say? What will I do with them? Hmm. They can build forts out of the cushions all day. When they hurt each other every two minutes, I’ll soothe the boo-boo and yell at the offender. That should buy me two more paragraphs or so.
So blessings abound. They tuck themselves right in there with the conflicts, the cleaning sessions and the timeouts. They manifest in the golden moments when Lily and Max are happily playing school; in Colby’s true helpfulness with laundry load transfers; and Luke’s sweet open-mouthed, wet kisses.
And so it is.
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