Dimensions of Time...

                
         Time takes on new and varied dimensions when you are a parent of small children. The immediacy of needs causes time to take on an omniscient dimension, where everything is seen through a triage lens that deals with events in the order of importance. 
       
          Often an infant will have his/her days and nights mixed up, creating a time warp of sleepless nights for the parents. Nothing makes a day feel longer in my view, than being up several times during the night. The early morning hours have a pace all their own, where time seems to barely creep along, especially if you continue to look at a clock. The darkness and quiet are wonderful for reflection, but the brain is usually too tired to have any continuity of thought. If there is one concept that can get replayed in one's brain at such an early hour, it is the thought of getting back to sleep.

          Infant sleep patterns usually adjust to a more manageable pattern after the first few months after birth. Then the parents breath a sigh of relief that they won't have to be drowsy during the day, and sleepwalking throughout the night. Somehow the old adage to "sleep when the baby sleeps" never really works because that is the only time when the parent(s) can get anything done. 

          If there is anything I learned from taking care of infants it is this: everything can wait, because nothing is more important than being present to the needs of a child.

~Kathy~







      

Being a Grandmother aka "Cookie"

                                                                 Isabel and "Cookie"

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, and I agree. I could write a book about being a grandmother...the differences between being a mother and a grandmother, the joys of celebrating each new milestone along the way, enjoying the growth and development and having the time and energy to spend focusing on one child.

Now that I have been blessed with two granddaughters, I am having double the fun being "Cookie"!
Isabel and I have done a lot of baking together over the years...mostly cookies, of course!During my visit here on the East Coast, we will be baking a Lemon Meringue Pie and peanut butter cookies.

Now that I have fully gotten into the hang of rocking a newborn, while reading a book to five year-old Isabel, I am beginning to remember the tiredness that comes over you at the end of the day. Don't get me wrong,it's a good kind of tired...from moving, rocking, consoling, and doing many small but necessary tasks throughout the day.

My time here with my two granddaughters has refreshed my memory about the importance of the small details of daily life. I had forgotten about the demands that a newborn makes on your time and energy. There are moments when it seems as if you will never have the time to read a book, or follow a recipe, but then as I
hold baby Mary and do a gentle bouncy walk...and she calms down...I wonder why I even cared about reading or trying to bake something. The nuances of the newborn are never-ending, and unpredictable, but there is nothing more precious!