Magic Month

October, I am so grateful that you exist.  Even if I almost forgot you existed, you have been kind enough to offer me some truly magical moments in what is just the first half of our time together!  Here is a list:

1. Being present at my cousin's wedding.  In Dallas, Texas.  While sitting on my couch in Port Willunga, South Australia.  I drank a cup of tea and held a naked baby on my hip.  When Trip was little(er) we called my grandparents on Skype so they could meet him, and later on Facebook, Grammy Labree posted this, "No other word for it...it's gotta be MAGIC!  Last night I talked with my daughter and saw my newest great grandson in real time on Skype.....FROM AUSTRALIA!!!!"  

One of the first things that came to mind when I decided to move to Australia, or even realized that loving Toff meant that I would probably live here for at least some portion of my life, was that I was going to miss weddings.  And I so so SO desperately did not want to have to miss any weddings of the people I grew up with!  So far, since living here, we have been invited to five weddings in the US, and have made it to three of them!  Which is a pretty good effort, I think.  (Not that I don't desperately miss with my whole heart being able to make it to all of them, plus another in the UK which I was 8 3/4 months pregnant for.)

Anyhow...back to the wedding in Texas!  While I desperately wanted to go because I knew that it meant a good portion of my Newcomb family would be in one place at the same time (and seriously, the times that happens are some of my favorite ever!) we just weren't able to make it.  No matter how I looked at my calendar, I just didn't see a way for us to get over to the States in October.  So I sighed, and thought, oh well, I'll look at pictures and pretend I was there.  But Kiki did me one better!  She called from Skype two days before the wedding so Trip and I could say hi to the whole family when they all flew into town.  And then, to my utter surprise and complete enjoyment, she called right before the ceremony started!  So I muted my microphone, whipped up the baby who was half way through getting dressed for the day, and may have cried a little as I sat on my couch in Australia and heard my cousin Gin and her brand-spanking-new husband, Justin, say "I do."  And I took great delight in telling everyone how Trip came to the wedding naked.

So thank you, October, for the little piece of magic.

(And apparently I suck at lists, because bullet point #1 could practically be a book it's so long.  Opps.  Sorry.  Moving on...)

2.  Tip toeing into Trip's bedroom every night, long after he has gone to bed, just to tuck him in.  This is one of my favorite parts of each and every day.  Okay, scratch that, I am going to say that it IS my most favoritest part.  I love walking over to peer down at him, crashed out on top of his blankets where he has quite obviously played and crawled around until literally "falling" asleep in whichever position he was in when he just got too tired to play anymore.  Sometimes he is folded over on his hands and knees in some little baby yoga pose.  Other times he is spread out in five different directions with his face pressed against the bars in the very corner.  So I scoot him into a more comfortable position and tuck his blankies around him.  And then I stand there, for 30 seconds to a minute more.  And I run one finger slowly across his cheek, and smooth my hand over the soft hair on the top of his head and through the curls down by his neck.  And if he is within reach I may even lean over (a feat which requires more than half of my torso being over the rail of his crib) and give him one more kiss.  Sigh.  Just thinking about it brings me the greatest sense of peace in the world.

3.  Love.  Before Trip was born, I knew that I loved him already.  In fact, I loved him for a very, very long time before we even knew we were having him.  I used to picture him riding on Toff's shoulders as we made our way through the streets of Bangkok, and imagined how I could tell him how long it was that I had thought of him before he was even born.  But it wasn't him, exactly.  It was "our child," whoever that would turn out to be.  When I was pregnant with Trip I knew that I loved him already, but some of that love came from the joy of being pregnant in general, and some more still was held back by the fear of the unknown. But this time, it isn't the pregnancy I love.  It's not the idea of a child or the thought of becoming a parent.  The only thing I love this time is the baby itself.  I love thinking of how small he or she is going to be, and all of the cuddles I have coming my way.  I am so looking forward to that tidal wave of love that I know is going to strike, hard and pure and fast, sometime in the first three months.  Every night when I lie down to bed, I place my hands over my tummy and eagerly wait for the gentle pressure of our baby's first kicks.  I know it's coming this time, so I wait for it.  I know all about the love that is coming this time, so I wait for it.

Also magic this month: Pop-pop's birthday, which is today!  Well, actually, it is tomorrow.  But one of the perks of being in a time zone so extreme I'm on an entirely different day, is that we all get TWO birthdays!  If you live in the States, and you are a friend of mine, I officially declare that you can claim two separate days for your birthday.  The Australian one and the American one.  That's just the way it is going to be.  And Dad's birthday (who I may have managed to send a present to ON TIME so it might actually arrive on time...!)

Also, this beautiful, beautiful song:

Of Monsters & Men:  Little Talks

That's all for now.  I'll let you know if anything else magical happens this month, and please tell me if anything magical happens to you!

xox

Cara