Love

[radegund]

One of the things I didn't quite anticipate about being a parent was the way it's redrawn my map of physical love. My children's bodies are utterly beautiful - their smooth faces, the intricacies of their irises, the curves of their calves, the way their muscles move under their skin, the way they are warm and strong and alive. I get intense joy from touching them, hugging them, stroking their heads, holding their hands. I think the ancient Greeks had a word for this, but my frayed brain isn't delivering it up.

Two versions of the same conversation

Unny: I love you, Mama.
Mama: I love you too.
Unny: I superlove you!
Mama: Wow.
Unny: Superloving means really really REALLY loving.
Mama: Cool. I superlove you too.

Fiachra: *erupts into enormous grin* Hai!
Mama: Hiya, love! Look at you! Look at my little pettikins boodlecreature!
Fiachra: A-ghihhh!
Mama: A-ghihhh! You're gorgeous! Yes, you are!
Fiachra: Ghhhuh!
Mama: You're so gorgeous they want to arrest you!
Fiachra: Eng-guh! *flails arms in manner of one inexpertly conducting climactic passage of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture*
Mama: Eng-guh! Yeah!
Fiachra: *looks thoughtful*
Mama: Yeah, you're lovely.
Fiachra: *emits loud and and copious poo*
Mama: You are. Come on, we'll change you.

...and so forth. Unny's version is more concise.

This is the biggest part of my work as a parent: practical loving - demonstrating to them, again and again, at 2a.m. as well as at noon, with cuddles and grins and milk and songs and wipes and burps and comfort and dancing and clean clothes and warm baths and beansontoast and answers and games and stories and endless, endless nappies, that they are loved and lovable - and, ultimately, loving in their turn.

Comments

[pisica.livejournal.com]

Awwwwww.

Your younger son speaks in LOLcat?

[ailbhe]

I wondered too...

[radegund.livejournal.com]

A smattering. He gets by.

[pisica.livejournal.com]

Is he captioned?

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

Aww... I'm so jealous!

[ailbhe]

I got more than 30 minutes of focussed loving with Linnea this morning. And she let me.

I do wonder sometimes whether one can explode of love.

[leedy.livejournal.com]

Awwww. That made me smile.

[sophiedb.livejournal.com]

I hope I can be as good a mum, as Katelyn grows up :)

[mollydot.livejournal.com]

Joining the "Awwwww" chorus.

[ainetl.livejournal.com]

it's true, there isn't anything as beautiful as a young child.

[londonn7.livejournal.com]

Hey! It's good to hear of a model of my upcoming parenthood that doesn't focus exclusively on the sleep deprivation. I'm going to extract your last paragraph into list and hang it on the fridge as first principles of baby minding, and hopefully the rest will come to me.

Hope you are all very well - you sound like you are. I will see you - and finally meet Fiachra - when I am back in June, the 13th to the 20th.

Gra (with a fada) D

[radegund.livejournal.com]

That's not to say the sleep deprivation doesn't have a starring role, mind you! But it isn't everything. And it's temporary. I'm told.

13th to 20th of June, eh? Well, you won't be seeing me on the evening of the 14th, unless you're at the LEONARD COHEN CONCERT in the RHK. Because that's where I'll be, barring act of god ... or baby :-)