Boxing Day

It's not lost on me that today is the last day in a long, long while that I will wake up to a peaceful, clean, intact home. Well, I suppose I still will on weekends, but I still expect the place to be fairly torn apart. Construction begins tomorrow on the attic play space. It will be a couple of days of putting in the pull down ladder for access, followed by I guess the weekend and New Year's (please tell me they don't plan on working New Year's Day), then updating the electric, then insulation and skylight and window installation, then flooring and dry walling everything, then cabinetry and finishes. Unlike my usual construction around here we won't have to keep stopping down for permits, and I want to believe this guy means it when he says he likes to just get in and out on a job and not dilly-dally. Still I expect this to take the entire month of January, more or less. Which means a serious interruption of our routines.

And right now we have a very pleasant routine which I am enjoying very much. In the morning I put the B in his crib after changing his diaper so he can play while I check my phone or read in the bed next to the crib; then we move to the kitchen where I make breakfast for myself, then feed him some poofs and about half a bag of baby food (those neat little squeezy bags). Then he goes in the playpen while I shower and dress; then we go out to our activities (whether a mommy & me thing, bank/post office, shopping, a hike, etc). Upon return home I eat lunch and feed the baby and then he naps; evenings consist of dinner for me, TV, and rotating the baby between the playpen, the bouncer, and my lap. That's it, that's our life. The only part I see really being interrupted is the kitchen time in the morning, which bothers me. This is where the men trooping in and out will be most intrusive, and I can't imagine B too focused on eating with all that excitement around. Maybe I'll cordon us off in the bedroom. I don't know. I'll have to get creative.

It dawned on me what an important milestone and rite of passage this is, the preparing of the bedroom for the baby. It's kind of like prepping the nursery, only more intense since this is meant to be his permanent space, whereas the nursery was always temporary. Soon the nursery will just be part of the living room again. This new room will be redecorated countless times; he'll no doubt get up to lots of nefarious activities up there later in life. It's kind of a big deal.

My whole childhood I never once had a room, and certainly never lived anywhere long enough to grow into a bedroom type area anyway; we mostly lived in tiny studio apartments with loft beds to optimize space (high school), or a futon rolled up in a corner (junior high). We always rented and so were never allowed to paint or decorate in any real way; the idea of picking out color schemes, being somewhere long enough to actually redecorate, or making structural changes, is completely alien to me. I think this is why I get so much pleasure out of working on this house - it's because I CAN!

B is constantly changing, as babies do. He's always doing a new thing - squinting, shaking his head, rolling his tongue. In the last couple of weeks there's a new intelligence behind his eyes, just a new sentience that I can't quite put my finger on. The significance of his first tooth starting to erupt is not lost on me. It's just the beginning of all of the adult things that will eventually lead to his growing up - teeth, and weaning, and walking, and talking. I can see why mothers get weird about this stuff - every new development is part of their leaving you. It's very bittersweet. I do take the time every day to treasure this baby time, with all its ups and downs. It really does go so quickly.