This is the first tree I’ve had, or decorated, which I feel relatively proud of! in fact, this is the first Christmas season for which I feel excited and participatory. I blame my babies for the joie de vivre, Christmas really is so much more fun when you get to experience it through your children….I can’t believe I have 2 of my own. Still. Crazy. Anyway, here’s our big beautiful evergreen all dolled up.
These days, I wake up to a 13lb pork chop, who’s goobery, toothless mouth is wide and smiling, and in the background, a lilting, teensy chant of, “wakey-wakey mommy”, from my 3yr old, the 2nd floor imp. All smooshy baby and toddler glee pile together for our morning snuggle; the baby beaming at the imp, the imp incessantly chattering about nothing and everything. This squish and puff army makes its way downstairs where I routinely shoot espresso to the rising sun and the hind-splash of Sponge Bob jokes. Back to the floor above where the I-must-wear-a-ballgown-in-the-rain daily exchange, and the dress-the-baby-in-jammies-puhlease wars are waged. Later to the floor again above that, to stuff self into still-ill fitting clothes from pre-pregnancy fame. All now contained anatomical pudges descend to that coffee scented level to debate the path out the door and further, into the realm of ‘before lunch’.
Howl from Natalie Bettelheim on Vimeo.
A thousand blackberry iphone buzzes gather like a hailstorm while celebratory chimes ring incessantly in my hospitalized ears. For three days I bend and shake inside tent tie-backed clothes to break wicked fever spells on a mechanical moving mattress. In a dream in the early dawn hours, von-Scholtz is holding my newborn daughter up to his face, so proud for her to be born. He kisses her lips and closes his eyes. I see that she has fairest hair and blue eyes. He adores her. This only makes me think I need to invest at least of half of my time to translating her new nuances.
