The Raft

My baby boy will be two on Thursday.
And I will be married to my husband for 8 years the following Tuesday.
It's a pretty exciting time of year around here!!

Wyatt.
In 2 years this boy has completely turned my world upside down.
My daughter was calm and sweet and peaceful and social and happy - from birth.

My son is wild and willful and busy and challenging and charming and moody.  He wants what he wants and he wants it his way and immediately.  Then, once he has it, he will throw it aside and move on to the next thing that he wants.  He will do something naughty, like toss aside said object - whether it is a toy car or a banana or his grandmother - and when I am about to reprimand him he will cast a glance at me with such charm and 'tude that my heart melts and I feel my mouth turning up at the corners before the words of discipline begin to form on my lips.
He is adorable.  He is smart.  He is funny.  He is a charmer as if he invented the term.  And I am so unbelievably, upside down and inside out in LOVE with him!  He completely owns me.

Yes, I know it is my job to teach him to use his powers for good.
And each day I am trying to do just that.  I want this beautiful and perfect boy to be just that - and I love learning how to work him and mold him and make him the perfect being that he is destined to be but Boy!  It is hard work with this one!
For example - if he is doing something that he should not be, such as playing with a decoration or sticking his finger int he outlet, I will say "Wyatt, that is not a toy.  Get away from there!  Wyatt...   One...    Two..." and before I can say it, he will yell "THREE!" and run to me with joy.
So, I know that works...  but is it working the "right way"?  Does that even matter?

And when it doesn't work, and he is getting away with it - he knows that, too.  He sees me coming a mile away.  I count, he ignores.  I lower my tone to that "mom growl", he giggles.  I begin to move toward him to "remove and distract" and he takes off running, laughing and cackling all over the house.

See what I mean?  He is hysterical!  And that is infectious!!  He has fun with everything he does.  And that is a difficult kind of "difficult" to reign in.
So, I find myself getting more and more patient.  More and more lenient.  More and more "he's-a-2-year-old-boy-this-is-to-be-expected."

That boy will sit at the table, pick up his fork and then eat with his other hand.

That boy will say "excuse me, all done" and get down from the table then come around the other side and eat from my plate.

Phew.  What a boy.  I love that little man.  And I find myself loving my mother-in-law in a way that is very different than anything I ever knew before.  I see my son and I picture her looking at her son...  and I know.  I understand.  And I am grateful to her for being as good to me as she is.
Because ladies - whomever comes along and wins the heart of MY baby boy!!!  LOOK OUT!

Marriage.
and Connecticut.
My wedding date was October 20, 2001.  I always thought that was cool because the abbreviation was "10-20-01".  Get it?  10-2001.

This was us the moment we were introduced as "Mr. & Mrs.", we burst through the doors into the reception and I was so excited - yes, I was literally hopping.

Anyway.  I grew up in Brewster, NY and lived with my parents until the morning I left to get married.  I love that I did that.  I love that we waited to live together until we were husband and wife.
When we got home from Aruba on Saturday night, a week married, I walked into our apartment for the first time I could call it "ours".

I officially became a CT resident.

With my parents on my Wedding Day.

Here we are, 8 years later and I have lived in Connecticut long enough to only kinda-sorta-sometimes still feel like a New Yorker.  When asked "where are you from" I no longer say "NY".  I say "Connecticut".  And I am proud of being a "New Englander".

But it's weird.  Because I am not, technically, a New Yorker nor am I technically a "New Englander".

All of a sudden, at 33 years old, I feel like a transient.  Like I don't have a "from" anymore.
I used to take a lot of pride in being a New Yorker.  And I resented people who moved TO the greatest state on the Earth and called themselves New Yorkers.
I had plans to move to the city, work in restaurants and audition until my big break came.
I even had a deal with my BFF that if we didn't get married by the time we were 30 we would move together and live like old ladies in the city, sit on lawn chairs on the sidewalk and love life.
We did get married, we did have kids and we're still BFF's - but we'll never sit in our lawn chairs on the concrete.

Anyway - October is a big month here at 131.  I love it.
I love my life, wherever I am...  it's who I am with that makes it amazing.  And I am with amazing people.