Wave Baby

Since I've broken my rule about not writing about my kids, I think it's about time I wrote something about my son. So far, he's hardly had a mention, aside from vague references to his existence. There's so much I could say, about both/either of my kids, that I hardly know where to start. The easiest way is to kind of set them in context, i.e. as foils for each other.

Because that's what they are.

My little girl, for all her sweetness and light (and she is, so incredibly, undeniably, wonderfully shiny and sweet) has another side. She is smiley, and playful, and funny, and so unique; but she is as unyielding as a brick wall. Since she's built like one, as well... suffice it to say, sometimes she is like an immovable object, and other times, she's an unstoppable force. Either way, it's her way or the high way (as, funnily enough, my own mother used to say to me when I was a child--now I've got 2 of them).

But my little boy... he's just a baby, but he's got his own little personality, and it's nearly the complete opposite. I don't mean to say that he's not smiley--he smiles and giggles all the time--and I don't mean to imply that he's any less cheerful or playful than she us, or even that he doesn't have a will of his own. He's all of those things, and his will is asserted whenever he feels the need.

But that's just it. He so rarely feels the need, to assert his will. Aside from obvious physical discomfort (and even that, he'll put up with for a while) as long as we're all together, he's cool. Whatever we're doing, it's fine with him. Unless he's exhausted, starving, or sitting in buckets of poo (buckets, mind you--a smear isn't that bad, he can ignore it) he's perfectly happy to just go with the flow.

Which is why he's my Wave Baby. Which works perfectly.

My daughter, you see, is like the moon. Moon Baby controls the tide--guess who--and the tide pulls along the Wave Baby. Of course, as the tide, I have to figure out the path to take to get where I'm going, and how to accomplish getting there, but really, that's based on what the moon requires. And in the end, we all wind up exactly where we're supposed to be, and everything's okay. And it's lovely, in some ways, going on Moon Baby's journey. It's a more interesting one than I'd have picked for myself; but sometimes it's no bad thing, to be forced to take a different path. The road less travelled, and all that.

But thank God my son is less like the moon, and more like a wave. I am learning to be more flexible, more resilient, more mutable, like water--but 2 moons fighting over me would still pull me apart. Or at least make for very stormy seas.

And just to finish on one final cliche (what difference is one more gonna make) I'll remark that where my babies are concerned, I would prefer smooth sailing.