words

There are so many words to go with that little video, so many words that I feel I've said before and, worried that I may become redundant, don't want to go into. But I will say that there is such beauty in watching my child's relationship with her best little buddy develop. It's simple and complex and kind and bitchy and funny and quirky and all other markers of a legitimate relationship. Because they share a babysitter twice a week, there's this great marker of time because I always know that I'll get to watch Moana and Elie in action a few times a week. There's this lovely consistency in those sorts of time markers for me these days. And on Tuesdays, often fabulous babysitter Kelly leaves when Casey arrives to pick-up Moanie. So I get to come home to my two favorite little girls and one of my very favorite big girls. It's icing on the cake. On Tuesday I walked into Elie's room and they were jumping and laughing like little hooligans in El's crib. It's such a happy, happy sight after my wild and focused work days.

I count on it as a super moment in my week. Lots of super moments these days. Eliana loves songs and loves to be sung to. It's something I can count on. She loves her books and she loves breakfast. She loves to watch people come and go from our big front window, loves to wave wildly and say, "Bye bye!" when our friends leave. She adores her friends and talks about them relentlessly. She loves the ABC's and sang the whole song, totally out of the blue, tonight. And her voice got really high in the high parts and I laughed really, really hard. And counting. She loves to count.

But it seems that Eliana's blog is morphing into her mommy's blog or that her mommy suddenly has a lot more to say about her own life, beyond her babe. And I'm deciding that that's okay. So here are some other super things I count on in my week. I count on loving my bath alone, and loving my bath with Eliana. I count on teaching my yoga class and dance class and knowing that something about that studio or the music or the students will bring out my very best self. I count on falling asleep before my husband on most nights and count on wanting to hold him because he's always warm and lovely. I count on feeling infinitely better when the sun shines. I count on adoring my girlfriends and looking forward to any dates that I'm lucky enough to have with any of them. I count on loving my mom's voice on the phone. I count on playing phone tag with my sister and Melissa, but still loving their messages. I count on my second and third graders challenging and impressing me in new and unusual ways daily. I count on loving my community and feeling extremely blessed in my daily musings about town. I count on being totally taken aback by the view of the valley from the top of the mountain. I count on turning thirty five in nine days. I count on feeling old and young and wrinkly and splendid all at the same time. I count on vigor and exhaustion and giggles and depth and feeling like I know everything to feeling like I just learned how to tie my shoe. Actually, I never feel like I know everything. I don't really feel like I know much. But I'm trying. And it's cool to realize that the need to learn, the satisfaction in vulnerability, is part of the glory of the ride.

I can certainly count on learning more.