If you write a word over and over, doesn't the spelling of that word seem strange by the end?
As I woke up this morning with a bit of a wine hangover from binge watching three episodes of Parenthood, my mind wandered to sounds I both love and hate, not hate, but dislike. Why parenthood and why did we drink so much? There are only four episodes left and there are big questions to be answered. Will they kill off Zeke? Probably. Will Joel and Julia get back together? Probably. Of the four episodes left, I am sure one is going to be primarily in the hospital, another will be covering a funeral which will contain the reunion of a couple and the other two will just tie up the loose ends of the rest of the family, a birth of a child, marriage, etc... I could probably create an entire blog about my predictions on TV plot lines, and it would probably be about as accurate as our picks for the pick-em league for the NFL, and probably as interesting.
Back to my point, as my head slowly pulses with pain, I was awoken by one of those sounds. Oscar has busted into our room pretty much every morning when we are not up by a certain time. He has gotten so much better about his noise level. from the early days of busting through the door, light blasting in and stomping over to the edge of the bed and pronouncing "I'm hungry", or "I wanna get up", "I have to pee", or the best, "Vivian is up." Of course she is, she just heard you stomping past her room, waking everyone else up. He is much stealthier now, closing the door behind him and laying down next to the bed until he hears one of us start to wake up.
Oscar's arrival usually means we will hear the next sound we love and hate. Vivian's morning wail. "Mmmmoooomy" or "DaaaaaDDY" are the usual subject in the morning. We never know who she will be calling out for and it really doesn't matter, we both want to stay in bed while at the same time get up so the other can sleep a bit longer. We both likely stayed up too late, drinking too much wine, after swearing that we should get to bed by 10. It rarely works and never on a weekend. One or both of us eventually get up and are greeted by her sweet voice. I am sure she will join or replace Oscars early morning entrance as soon as she is not in a crib, but we are in no hurry to move her out and she still likes it.
Another sound is Oscars bedtime delay tactic. Just after tucking him in, Oscar always asks me, "can I tell you something?" Usually at this point I am exhausted and the whole bedtime process has killed any patience I once had, but I still tell him, "one thing, you can tell me one thing." It never is just one thing, but I say that in the hope it is. The things he tells me are never overly insightful, brilliant or even interesting. They usually cover random events in a video-game or TV show, something that a friend of his said or has, that he wants, toys he wants(all of them), games he wants (all of them) and then sometimes it seems that it is just a stream of thought as he tries to delay bedtime by just a few more minutes. As I mentioned, my patience is gone this point and I just want to get down stairs and relax a little with Jen. I stay, in the doorway until I finally can't take it anymore and say "goodnight and I love you", he will either try to continue on his stream of thought or repeat the phrase back, "goodnight and I love you daddy". I really can't leave until I hear that. I think I need to hear it as much as he does.
Silence. That is another sound, or lack thereof that I love and hate. Silence means that no one else is around. It is both cherished and reviled. If you have kids, this needs no explanation.
"Will you play with me daddy?" I will miss it when he stops asking this question. I can't always play with him and usually it isn't even playing, it is just being present in the room. I don't play with him enough and I know I will regret that someday
Oscars horrible song lyrics, which include pee, poopy, wieners and fart cheeks, whatever those are. Don't laugh at those songs or that is all you will hear for the rest of the day.
These are all sounds I love and hate. Right now, I want to sleep, so hearing Vivian or Oscars voice and noise first thing in the morning, it isn't that I hate it, it is more frustration. I know I will miss him busting into the room some day, and he will likely stop that soon. Vivian may take up the responsibility for that, but it probably won't last as long. Sleeping in will be nice, but we will probably just wake up to them arguing over what show they get to watch instead. Vivian's morning wail will go away, which means, so will her sweet greeting when one of us gets to get her out of bed. Replaced with some demand for breakfast probably. The evening bedtime routine will probably change and Oscar will no longer try to delay with me and stop repeating "good night and I love you". Though he does say it to babysitters, and that brought a smile my face when I heard that. I know age changes all of these things and they will be replaced with other sounds and things. But for now, I will just be frustrated and try to remember that it is temporary.
The moral of this story, which isn't really a story, I guess I should just not drink so much wine at night, it tends to make noises a bit... noisier.
Who am I kidding, pop the damn cork!
