Baby gone

My son in a chicken costume around 5 months

I’d say nothing really prepares you for labor and motherhood; until you experience both and your emotions take over, you cannot anticipate how it’s going to change you as a person, shuffle your priorities, and your life – forever.

There is more. No matter how often I heard it over the past year, I still cannot believe how quickly my baby T has grown into this little boy.

It’s mind-blowing: for weeks, you power-wash, sterilize and carefully store every little bottle, ring, nipple, pacifier, spoon even, that may enter in contact with your child’s mouth; you have visitors thoroughly wash their hands, use sanitizer (the H1N1 threat that we now have forgotten all about); your pediatrician may even have recommended you avoid crowded public places for the first two weeks of your offspring’s life (Psst! Never heard of that rule outside of America!). You even handle baby’s laundry separately from yours, for who knows what perfectly logical reason.

Next thing you know, that small, immobile angel has turned into an active, independent, and stubborn little person, called toddler. And toddlers like to get down and dirty. And will bring anything to their mouth, not a chance to sanitize, forget that. They like to defy your authority. They (often) do whatever pleases them, and that’s how they learn they should listen to their Maman  

My son’s latest strategic move consists in picking up the smallest piece of dog biscuit negligently leftover on the carpet and just … trying it out. Sometimes — coincidentally, when daddy is on duty – T has time to hit the dog’s bowl. Yum! Oh well, there will be much worse. I could share what my mom used to find in my diapers: paper clips, beads, push pins. Yes, I ate push pins and I SURVIVED! Dieu merci ! Nowadays this would be reality-TV material!

(Hmm, looking back, my mom had a pretty loose watch, don’t you think!?)

Now that I come to think of it the French don’t even have a name for the toddler phase — you move straight up from the bébé category to petit garçon (little boy).

Looking at my 15-month old boy now, I can barely remember him as a newborn! I cannot believe the pictures when I look at them — was he EVER that small? No way. Still can’t quite grasp the reality of how quickly he’s become… a little person!  All right, I think I made my point.

I’m writing this thinking of my girlfriends A & E — both ready to pop any day now, their first babies! — and hope I can remind them to embrace these special moments, despite the sleep deprivation, the crankiness and all the hard work that come along with this beautiful, remarkable change… It won’t be long till baby is gone.

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