Adventures and Waffle House

Whenever I dreamt of having a "baby" I never really thought through a lot of things. To be fair, you can't logically think through all the details of something you have never actually experienced. I guess everyone's ideas of what it must be like to be a parent is just watching others... and trying to remember what you have been told or read somewhere. But actually having your own child is nothing like that. At all.

I say all of this because I've been thinking about how I never really knew how young a baby really was when they started crawling and walking. I always thought in my mind, "Oh those cute little toddlers." We are actually talking about 7 and 8 month old babies being able to go anywhere.

And then all of the sudden, you have a full time job that requires you to be constantly running and bending over to pick up and "redirect" this baby. I say "redirect" because lately that has turned from taking Blanche away from something and introducing her to something new, to me trying to take Blanche away from something and her being completely emotionally distraught. As you can see in the pictures above, Blanche was playing he loves me, he loves me not with the flowers in the park, and then was very upset to be swept away.

Tonight as Andrew was laying on the floor in Blanche's room reading a golden book about Jesus, I said to him, "You know what kind of sucks? That whenever we are bored out of our minds, Blanche is so content and happy. But as soon as we try to entertain ourselves she isn't." I didn't get a response. He was really into the golden book.

What I said sounds a little harsh I guess. But its an honest reflection. When we are both just giving our full attention to Blanche, or even just in her room, reading golden books to ourselves, she is happy. But then it just seems that every time we put on a movie she needs us. Which is what it truly means to be a parent to a small child. And I do love those precious family moments together, but sometimes you just want a moment. Which I guess is what night time is for. Anyways... I'm just rambling about parenthood. No one is probably even reading anymore.

But there are benefits to having a baby that gets into everything. You get to go outside a lot more. You have a reason to sit in the park for an hour. You can also bring Blanche to Waffle House and she will be very content making friends with the bikers. And its those moments when Andrew and I exhale slowly, and he sips his black coffee and I sip mine with a bit of cream. And we smile at each other and smile at Blanche, who has no idea we are looking at her. And then its like the world is perfect inside a  waffle house.