I know, I have a lot of catching up to do. Thomas's birthday party, Chicago, the Farmer's Market, the list goes on and on. But I also want to do something else.
I spend a fair amount of time each day trying to help Thomas go to sleep. Sometimes I get frustrated quickly because I have a million other things that I need to be doing rather than singing lullabies to a baby who can sing them to himself. One of the ways that I manage to not thing about work while I am putting T to bed is to think about the alphabet. (Let's just go ahead and acknowledge that I am a dork so we can move on.) It started with me trying to think of a wild animal whose name begins with each letter of the alphabet. For example, A - aardvark, B - boa constrictor. You get the idea. Then I attempted domesticated animals. Then I would put the states in alphabetical order. Then I decided that I would rather think about Thomas while I was putting him to sleep so that I could be "in the moment." Rumors abound that I won't have to wrap him up in a blanket and sway him to and fro forever. Instead of animals or states, I think of three attributes that begin with each letter of the alphabet that I pray that he has. Surprisingly, this takes longer than I ever imagined. I started with A, then thought about all the personal characteristics and traits that begin with that letter. Some stood out immediately, others took some time. (Let me tell you about J....) I actually go through a whole dialogue with myself about which word gets the cut and why. I've been doing this for about a month for two naps and at bedtime. Sometimes I have more time than others (an hour last night... but no time for his afternoon nap yesterday), and some letters are harder. My memory ain't what it used to be, so I decided to put my wishes (my letters) for Thomas here. It's okay if you go back to Kate's blog now, but she's probably talking about her kids too....
Amiable - what! What a lame word to start with, I know. But seriously. I want Thomas to be friendly, to not have preconceived notions of people or cultures. I want him to be and appear to be interested in everyone without prejudice.
Adventurous - I want Thomas to seize every opportunity that comes his way (and make opportunities of his own) to explore this amazing world. I want him to not be held back from anything by fear of the unknown. I am sometimes happy to repeat the same day over and over, I don't want that for him. I want him to crave adventure (within reason - I better not hear about any bungee jumping or skydiving).
Affectionate - No, I don't want a feminine or emotionally needy boy, but I do want Thomas to show affection to those that he loves. Today's society doesn't have quite the same requirements that men be strong and silent, but some of those manly characteristics haven't faded. It's only been in the past 7 or 8 years that my own Daddy would tell me that he loved me or that he was proud of me. I don't want Thomas's children or his wife to ever have to wonder. I want Thomas to be affectionate.
There you go, you can expect 25 more of these posts. No pictures, just words. Not to worry, I'll intermix the fun ones with these. These take less time because I've already done the thinking about don't have to deal with uploading pictures so perhaps I'll post a bit more regularly.
