I know everyone writes this post at this time of year. School is starting and our kids are getting older. But, really!! I can’t believe my youngest little guy is turning 5-years-old. 5-years-old!
When he was born I was so overwhelmed. My boys are 18-months apart and I was on bedrest with both. The older one was always sick and I was so tired. When the youngest was finally born after 3 months of bedrest for preterm labor, it was 8 days after his due date.
We were living in Berkeley at the time and I remember being in the hospital reading in the San Francisco Chronicle that there was a storm approaching Louisiana. It said that the flood waters would grow so high that coffins from the mausoleums would rise from the earth and float around New Orleans. It said it would be a catastrophe of biblical proportions.
When I went home I took my spot on the couch and my baby and I got to know each other. I sat and watched the TV while I was nursing around the clock. I’ll never forget the images from New Orleans and the people trapped with no one to help them. I especially remember Brian Williams losing it with FEMA chief Michael Brown and thinking that this would be it; the thing that would take down George Bush for good. Sadly, that wasn’t the case. And like so many people, I wondered what the response would have been at the Superdome if the people there had been white. It was such a sad time.
After a week or two of alternating between crying uncontrollably at the television and bonding with the baby it was time to pack. My husband had accepted job in Los Angeles and we were moving. We went from a beautiful, comfortable house in Berkeley to a temporary apartment on Wilshire near Westwood Blvd., the busiest intersection in Los Angeles. We were facing the street and it was so loud and urban and the building was strange.
It was filled with beautiful people, retired couples and certainly no kids. My older son would ride his Radio Flyer tricycle up and down the halls ringing his bell. The funniest thing about the place was the parking lot. Many of the cars were those you’d see in magazines and cost upwards of $200,000. The parking space for my Subaru was on the very bottom floor next to the service vehicles and car wash.
We were only there for a few months, but it ended up being a lovely time. My little guy was a great baby, a good sleeper, a good eater, and so happy. I carried him around in a Moby wrap everywhere I went and it felt so good to always have him so close. It left my hands free to take care of the older one.
I miss being able to pick them both up and I still can’t believe my beautiful boys are 5 and 6.
OMG that picture of your baby is so cute!!!
Congrats on the 5-year milestone!
Love that pic! And for the first time in a LONG time, it actually made me a bit sentimental for those days when Riley was in my arms and Sylvia was still so little.