Happy Days are Here Again!

Well Susanne is back and I’m just so happy. Life is definitely much better when she’s around. She’s glad she went but very glad to be back with us as you can imagine. Danny and I did just fine all week and I worked things out so we also accomplished a lot (a walk to the post office to mail thank you cards, time on the swing for him while I washed the car, stuff like that.)

But I have to tell you, it’s hard being the sole caregiver of anybody. And I think I was even a bit hyper-vigilant with him while Su was gone. “Not on my watch” I remember thinking more than once. Having her back last night made me realize how I could finally relax again.

She thinks his new haircut makes him look very handsome too. We’d actually talked about it the weekend before when we were in Dupont Circle waiting outside for our brunch reservations. We were right next to a place called Spalon where I’d gone for years when I lived in that part of DC, and a woman who worked there named Rachel came out and was just chatting with us on her break, commenting on how cute Danny was but that his hair was “so long for such a little boy”. She of course also told us that she cut children’s hair. I asked her what she charged and thought that her reply of $15 actually seemed very reasonable for this area.

Anyway, he sort of got familiar with her that weekend, and when I brought him back a week later (Saturday) she was so great with him. She played with him while he sat on my lap and touched his face and tousled and rubbed his little head while playing which he loved for about 15 minutes. Then she had me take him back to her barber chair and hold him on my lap facing me (so he couldn’t see the mirror.) Then she just kept playing with his hair-sort of tousling and gently pulling it like she had before, but this time she was snipping away. He didn’t even notice at first! By the time she got to his bangs he knew something was up and was a bit crabby, but she managed to clip them too. It was a brilliant performance I think! Bravo!

Anyway, Danny is just growing up so fast. His comprehension is pretty amazing. I ask him where just about anything is (mostly in English but even in my very rudimentary German) and he either looks at or goes right to it. I can also sing any song of any of his battery operated toys and he'll go to that toy too. It's a great redirect.

His favorite word is “Cat” (or is it “Dat”?) and that pretty much means everything including:

Me
Susanne
The vaccum cleaner (AKA his best friend ;-)
Milk
The lamp
The kitchen
The stereo
The telephone
All his toys

THE CATS

Oh…you get the picture. He’s just so darn cute when he “Cats” us.

Alrighty then, back to work. Did I mention how happy I am today? -Monica