On Contortion

Had Strawberry Brown Butter Bettys last night hoping to coax this body and baby into labor (close enough to strawberry pie, right?)  I've decided that browned butter is one of the top seven sultry scents I can imagine.  But, alas I awoke still pregnant.

This morning, while I was at my midwife appointment my mom did breakfast dishes and the locks of the littlest.  Not one, not two, but three ponytails was the request.  More of a demand.  She already knows the power of her cuteness is amplified by ponytails.  Look out, world.

It was early day so we grabbed the kids, the food and headed to the park in hopes of releasing energy from this clan of mine.

Divine was impressed by how high grandma can swing and wanted to know HOW.  Divine always wants to be the highest and best.  Then, she wants to be recognized for it, mostly by her momma.  She struggles trying new things because of the fear for not doing them perfectly, because she does most things so well.  She'll sit on the periphery, observing instead of jumping in with both feet until she's confident her splash will be big and beautiful.

Azure just needs to be heard.  She wants to share the hue of life from her height, which is a place where I'd like to be more frequently with the amount of absolute joy that radiates from simple acts like going to the treasure box.

They are each their own.

And each one comes in a different flavor that sometimes is hard to meld with the rest.

We discussed last night (Ryan, my mom, and I) how learning to parent each one is like a contortion act.

I am not very flexible, in both senses, sometimes.

I want what works for one person at a particular time to work for everyone all the time.

But of course that would be too easy.  

I fight change more than Divine does.

Change is hard, but Hard Things are good, as we like to tell our kids (over and over and over).  

We are about to experience another grand change, all of us.  We are adding a new flavor.

Oh, how exciting!  My midwife wanted to know if I was anxious to have this baby.

I told her yes, but I've gotten to this point and waited this long that I am willing to wait for labor to begin on it's own.  I hope.

Ready or not, we will embrace change and attempt more twisting and bending to get this parenting thing down.

Swinging, by the way, didn't convince baby either.