From the Living Room to the Kitchen

(Why am I naming days?)
08/07/15, Day 14,338 (Mercena Day 357): From the Living Room to the Kitchen

I am giving myself a swift kick or two for falling behind again on my daily journal at a time when so much is changing for this beautiful creature as she hurtles toward her year birthday. Yesterday held another exciting milestone: she crawled all the way from the living room to the kitchen, a fair distance for us as far as New York City apartments go.

She still refuses the traditional crawl, and has adapted the military crawl to be surprisingly fast and nimble. Like a little snake she slithers across our hardwood floors to the book shelves, where she pulls out some books; to the CD rack, where she does the same to a heap of CDs; to the kitchen itself, where she grins, pleased with herself, and begins pulling herself up to dig out the recycling. Futility, thy name is baby-proofing.

She is also pulling herself to standing, often without aid, though she can still take a tumble if we’re not there to help. Mercena loves to cruise now, which doesn’t mean what my pre-baby brain would have thought; she walks along the couch, the wall, and chairs, holding on like a climber on a narrow ledge. Occasionally, she takes her hands away for a daring free-stand before unsteadily reestablishing her hold. She is a girl on the move.

We’re on a staycation now, with doesn’t feel much like a vacation as I’m still doing lots of Flux and NET work, and even sneaking in some TCG work on the side. More than that, vacations as I knew them are dead. There is no sleeping late to wake slowly and take whatever the day brings with ease; no slow-sipping of coffee on a porch while I read a paper. I’m still close enough to that old life to remember that ease and miss it. But it is joyful to have so much time with Heather and Mercena, and not while traveling, which plays such terrible havoc with our baby’s sleep.

We decided to cancel our travel for this last bit of summer down-time because we couldn’t take another shattered travel baby.  She is so happy now, sleeping almost 12 hours a night, and if her naps are still not totally reliable, she is thriving during the day. I really miss our chance to have visited the Cape and Islands again, but there are no more vacations anymore, and this is its own kind of wonderful.

There’s more to write about my own personal journey, which has accelerated in clarity recently, but there is no time to slow-sip coffee and write a meandering blog. Mercena is up and ready, and so, I guess, am I.

On all the rest, more soon.