My one-year old has developed the habit of standing in his crib when he should be sleeping. I end up staying in the room until he settles down, and falls asleep on his own. It is not my favorite thing to do, I get bored standing around doing nothing. (I pass the time with leg lifts and mule kicks and sun salutations.)
On the wall above his crib, hangs a stick mobile I made when my three and a half year old was only one. I remember that day clearly. We had a blanket spread out on the front lawn (when the lawn was still grass and weeds, before we seeded it with clover). We were waiting for Baba to come home. It was sunny and warm. I was picking up sticks and making circles out of them. I guess I was bored.
There are a lot of boring moments when you are a stay-at-home mom. I try to accept them as part of the day. I am not exactly sure how to enjoy them. I want to race about DOING.
I guess the mobile reminds me that it is very likely I will look back fondly on these quiet times. Maybe one day, I will wish I could stand beside the crib, just one more time, to watch my little one raise a blanket over his face and fall gently to sleep*, knowing mommy is in the room watching over him.
*Falling gently to sleep is a rarity...It takes quite a bit of consoling to get my son to go to bed. It's a phase that is really, really, killing me.
ps. The mobile is hung on a plaster hand print of mine from Kindergarten, beside a dinosaur print from salvation army.
