Seasons Change

Spring has fully arrived in Pennsylvania. I’m pretty sure we’ve seen the last snow for the season, for the temps don’t drop to freezing at night anymore although they get close.  And the days are warmer. Sometimes they’re bright and sunny. Other times they’re cloudy and rainy. And many times they are a little of both. Robins and finches of various sorts build nests and hunt for worms. Squirrels scamper about looking for their winter stores. The grass is green and needs to be cut. Daffodils and tulips bloom in full array. And the lilac bushes have buds waiting to bloom – my favorite!

Although not my favorite season (I think because it ushers in summer which I don’t enjoy), I do love the beauty, newness and color of spring. This year it has been a reminder of just how much seasons change things.

It’s funny to think of the newest season in our lives – namely, Emry. It would be nice to think our lives do not evolve around her, as if she is just an addition to life as we knew it. But that is completely untrue. For everything in life stops when it’s time for her to eat. I wash a lot more clothes more often. It takes me longer to get out the door to go anywhere, even on a short walk. And what exactly did we do before we had her to hold, and watch, and entertain us? It’s true that the firstborn gets more attention than any of the others. She distracts us from everything else.

I mean, there are many things in life that haven’t changed. Ed continues to work – he just hurries home with less distractions to keep him occupied. We still go grocery shopping, only with an added little body. The house still gets dirty and must be cleaned, but cleaning gets spaced out around feedings, and diaper changes, and naps.

Yes, life will never be the same.

At three weeks old, it is true that Emry isn’t doing a whole lot. She’s beginning to see at further distances, her big dark eyes crossing funnily as she tries to focus. She talks to herself a bit more and hums sometimes. She’s awake more. And I am enjoying this stage that will soon pass into more entertaining ones with her little laughs, and eating solids, and crawling, and splashing in her bathtub. For she will grow fast, as I often remind myself. And then what will I do when she’s walking about getting into things? Or it’s time to learn to read? Or she’s talking back? It’s all a little overwhelming…a reminder to just take each day as it comes.