Watching Seth

Seth didn't sleep very well last night. I have no idea what was on his little mind, but from about 2:45 to about 5:00 am, he was wide awake. Then he fussed and woke up again around 6:00 and 6:20. At that point, he ended up in my bed. (Something that happens only very, very rarely!) The phone ringing at 7:45 woke me up (Frank, on his way to work, calling to make sure I was up. A good thing, 'cause I wasn't! Neither were the two boys who needed to be up getting ready for school.) but Seth slept like a little angel until about 8:15.

The bottom line is, I was tired today. And on days like this, I allow myself to throw the "to do" list out the window. This is not a bad thing. I mean, the world is not going to end if the bathrooms are dirty for one more day. So I floated around in a kind of tired haze, and found myself observing my little guy even more than I usually do. We read books; we "cooked" some soup (using a toy pot and plastic food) and "sampled" our work; I taught him to play "ring around the rosie" (he loved it; peals of laughter!);I let him chase me with his walker toy (more peals of laughter).

At one point, I tried to change Seth's diaper (I thought it was messy) and he kicked up a fuss. Which is unusual for him; he is usually pretty docile about diaper changes. I managed to determine that he wasn't messy after all, so I let him go. "Does he know something I don't know?", I wondered. Apparently yes--a few minutes later...grunt, grunt...now he needs to be changed! He walked over to the abandoned diaper and wipes I had readied earlier, picked them up, and brought them to me! Too bad he's only 16 months old...much too early for potty training.

He has spent the last half hour on the deck, watching the neighbor behind us mowing his lawn...totally fascinated! Now he is crawling back and forth underneath my chair as I type. What a monkey!

It is impossible to be unhappy on a day like today, even if you are dead tired. It is one of those gorgeous, sparkling autumn days. The reds, oranges and golds of the starting-to-change leaves stand out beautifully against the soft blue sky.

But even that doesn't compare to my little man...I could watch him forever! Why don't I do this more often?