“Today’s temperature will only hit 98 degrees, a welcome relief from the intense heat, thanks to a cool front moving through the North Texas area,” chirped the radio announcer when the alarm clicked on at 5:00 a.m. Yikes, what’s not to love about Texas in the summer time? Finally, I thought, a relief from eighteen days of one-hundred-plus-degree temperatures. We’re all going to roast this season.
For some reason, I hop out of bed, awake and energized, a rarity these days in the early morning hours. My husband dresses and heads to the gym, while I add cream and sugar to a cup of morning coffee, the first of several.
“Waaaaa,” cries my ten-month old baby Benjamin, so I walk in the nursery to check on him. He’s sound asleep on his tummy—little butt in the air. Now that he can roll and safely sleep in any position he chooses, he loves to sleep on his tummy. I just want to give his little bum a pat, but I dare not disturb him. The house is quiet, and I want to savor a few more moments before the day fully begins.
I walk into our home office to check email and to grade a couple of students’ assignments for the online course I’m instructing.
“Waaaaa,” I hear again on the baby monitor, so I return to the nursery, only to find the same scene—a content and sleeping baby. I wonder if he is dreaming and crying out in his sleep.
My husband returns from the gym, and we chat about the day ahead and what we might eat for dinner that evening. I mention our baby’s strange cries, and he says that he, too, heard one and checked on Ben earlier, only to find him peacefully dozing. ”Strange,” we comment, and I mention that the cry sort of sounded like a cat. “Weird, huh?” I remark, dismissing the thought and heading towards the kitchen for a refill of my morning caffeine jolt.
Ben soon awakes and drinks his morning bottle; he immediately slides from my arms towards the floor to begin playing with his toys. Neatly piled on the ottoman, he can’t wait to scatter them across the room. No more snuggling after a bottle these days—Ben is crawling at lightening speed and pulling up on everything. He is a very busy boy. Walking can only be days or a couple of weeks away.
