Up to Walter's Sixth Week

Lots going on! Sometimes I’m ridiculously stressed and other times it’s ok. So here’s what’s happening:

- We’re having to leave our college accommodation on September 23^rd, so we decided to use it as an excuse to do some extended traveling (and working for David). We’re heading to Aberdeen in Scotland for a week to visit our good friends Pippa & Andy for a week and then we’re heading off to Berlin for 2 months (October & November). I’m really hoping that after that we’ll be able to come to Canada to visit family & friends, but we need to wait and see how often/when David has to be back at Cambridge for the last bits of his PhD. 

Pippa, Andy, & David at Wimpole Estate last year. We were chasing sheep.

- I’ve spent the last 5 weeks taking care of Walter, finding a place to live in Germany, organising paperwork (yuck yuck yuck) and figuring out what to do with our stuff. Now I’m packing. Fortunately Walter enjoys watching me pack. I feel bad for the little guy as instead of playing “this little piggy” with his fat little toes or assembling all sorts of bright coloured spinny things for him to watch and play with he instead gets to watch me bubble wrapping china and putting books into boxes. It’s educational at least! I tried to entertain him by spinning Christmas tree ornaments in front of his face. He wasn’t amused.

- For the first time in my life I’ve had to buy boxes for a move. This disgusts me. I have to pay for cardboard! But it’s been slim pickings to get them in Cambridge and, after a discussion with our moving company, we decided that it would be the more prudent option for long term storage / international shipping. In fact it’s only the thought that we may have to ship the boxes to another country that has consoled me on this.

- I bought a Baby Hawk mei-tei carrier for Walter. I thought it would be ideal. He likes being held and I like using my arms. We could combine our loves! I tried putting him in it this morning. He screamed so loudly you would’ve thought that I was murdering him. Then again he was in a fussy mood and the only thing that was getting any form of approval from him was being carried so that he could see over my shoulder and shriek at The Lamp.

- Walter is fixated on The Lamp in our bedroom. He stares at it. He babbles at it. Occasionally he shrieks at it. Sometimes he cowers from it and whimpers. If I turn it on and off he chortles (in a way that suggests he’s impressed that mummy can master The Lamp). I’m not sure if The Lamp is his enemy, friend, or if, like David suggested, he thinks the lamp is God. It’s not even a nice lamp. I feel really bad that the one thing in the place that he’s formed an attachment to doesn’t even belong to us so he’ll have to leave it behind.

The Lamp

Walter

 

VS

- I used to wonder how I’d manage at raising a little boy, instead of a little girl. Obviously David would know how to play like a boy, but would I? Thanks to growing up with a baby brother I’m realising every day that it’s going to be AWESOME. Having Walter is like getting to relive my childhood with John, if that makes sense. So not only do I get to have fun with my little son, I get to feel like my brother is here.

Me & Johnnykins, c1990

- Walter loves music so I’ve been utilising that with the packing / internetting that I’ve had to do. He really likes ska & reggae, particularly Desmond Dekker. He bobs his head in time to the music and makes giant baby grins at me when I sing along to “The Israelites”. He also likes a good portion of The Incredible String Band, especially “Black Jack Davie" (we hold hands and 'dance' to it while singing along). And fortunately he also loves it when I sing. Sometimes I think he’s trying to sing along, as he sort of coos along with me with longer noises than when we’re chatting.

 

- And to finish this off, if you can’t tell I’m absolutely enamored with my little boy. These past six weeks have been incredibly challenging but also amazing. Happy six weeks old, little man!