Boy Cuddles Times Two

Inspirational song: Golden Years (David Bowie)

Ah, so much better. Quality baby cuddling today. I even got it in stages, so I wasn't overwhelmed by any one experience. First I had the teeny baby, all to myself at my house. At first he was a little fussy, but I persevered, and figured out what was his primary complaint. (In a nutshell, burps and a little spitup, exactly as I expected.) I managed to coax some really cute expressions out of him, including his practice smiles. I can't say for certain it wasn't related to body functions. Maybe he was smiling while peeing. I prefer to think he was really contemplating this whole grandma idea, and finding that he approved. He took a while to finally fall asleep, but once he did, so did I. 

I stayed in the exact same spot I sat in when he and I walked in the door for almost two hours. I was just so happy to finally have bonding time with my fresh baby boy that I didn't want to waste a second of it moving around. Even if I was asleep for 20 minutes, I was asleep with a grandbaby in my arms. I was happy. He woke up in a decent mood but hungry, and it was our good fortune that his mother and the rest showed up right then. 

The older kids went swimming with their parents. They intended to go to the rec center, but it was closed for an upgrade, so they went to the wading ponds at the river instead. The kids had a blast, and they showed up here smelling of wild water and needing a bath. The kids stayed with us while their parents took the baby home. We are going to be doing a lot of this sharing of babies for a while, so each level of child can get quality enrichment time as appropriate. We played for a while until Dmtri started flinging Lincoln logs around and not listening. (I said that we need to figure out a way to harness this behavior--give him a bag of grass seed and let him go to town in the backyard maybe.) Eventually I recognized that this was an obvious sign of fatigue, and asked him if he needed to rock in my lap until he fell asleep. He immediately climbed into my chair, and we watched a play-through of Mario Kart until he was out. So there I was again, with a grandson sleeping on me. I win at life.