Simon has been waking up between 5am and 6am all this week, so I'm feeling totally zonked. That's why I haven't written in a while.
The other night, I started reading through the journal I kept when Devon was a baby and realized how precious that will be when she's older. I'd love to format it, throw in some photos, and give it to her when she turns 18. It made me realize that I should really be documenting more of Simon's babyhood so that I can do the same for him. He doesn't sleep as much as Devon did during the day, so it's just so hard to find the time.
He's learning new things so quickly, I can barely keep up to him. He's eating solids three times a day. In fact, last night when we were eating dinner, he was sitting on Jeff's lap. Jeff looked away for a split second, and when he looked back at his plate, Simon had a fistful of spaghetti and was trying to get it into his mouth. That kid just loves to eat. Also last night, he figured out how to roll over from his back to his stomach. He did it over and over again with a very proud grin on his face.
Simon has discovered that he can grab things with his hands and there's just no stopping him. When I'm holding him, I have to watch what I'm standing beside because he'll inevitably grab whatever catches his eye: plants, paintings; lamps, the cat. That cat is very, very popular with Simon. Fortunately, she's also very patient and doesn't seem to mind having her fur pulled. She'll take love in whatever way she can get it, even if it's from a grabbing, pulling, drooling little screecher of a baby.
Today is my grandmother's 85th birthday. What an inspiration she is! We're having the family over for a special birthday dinner for her. Not sure how I'm going to manage to cook with Simon around, but I'll figure something out.
There has been an awesome display of the Northern Lights tonight. This is the one time that nature can actually strike me dumb. It's been absolutely magnificent, and the significance of them showing themselves 10 years to the day that my beloved Nana passed away is not lost on me. Jeff and I noticed them as we were coming home from our big night out. We drove down to the river and parked in a dark parking lot to watch for a while. From that vantage point we could see red in amongst the blues and greens. It really defies description. I'm pretty sure that this is the best set of Northern Lights that I've seen.
What struck me as we were driving down to the river, was how many people were carrying on about their business totally oblivious to the natural world around them. There were no drivers craning their necks for a look, no pedestrians stopped on the sidewalks staring into the sky, no one sitting on their front step with the porch light out. I felt like yelling out so that they would notice, but then I thought how nice to have this almost all to myself. A few other cars did arrive in the parking lot after we pulled in, so we weren't the only ones to notice, but it makes you think of all the times you must have missed this scene when you were caught up in things inside your house.
I don't think we spend enough of our lives staring up into the sky. There's a lot happening up there.
