Contemporaneous accounts depict sleepless nights and birthday wonders
I have assured Darius that this situation is “if not normal, then certainly not unusual.”
“That’s easy for you, Dad. You’re in California where you can sleep. Leandra cries if she’s hungry.”
“Astonishing, Dar,” I replied. “Astonishing?” I thought.
“She’s awake in the middle of the night, Dad.”
“Mitra did that too. I am sure that it was much harder for us than the little challenges you’re having with Leandra.”
“What?!”
“It was always harder in the ‘old days, Dar.” I replied. “For example, we drove you to school, but I had to walk 3 miles through the snow,” I thought.
“Memories, Dad, especially such ancient memories, are suspect.”
“Ah ha!” I retorted. “I have contemporaneous notes. Like James Comey, I was uncomfortable with the situation, so I wrote a diary… a daily, indeed hourly, record that is now part of The Martin Family archives.”
If Darius were the President he would have tweeted his response: “Fake baby news! Sad.”
A transcribed extract from the archives and a scanned page from the original memos follow.
An official page from the Archives
Extract from the OFFICIAL ARCHIVES
The Martin Family
June 6
Mitra sleeps until 11:30PM. Basically awake until 1:30AM. Slept from 1:30 to 2:30. Awake at 2:30. Slept at 4:00(AM!) Awake again at 4:30. Went to sleep at 6:30. Woke up at 8:45AM. Seems very sleepy — hopefully we can get some rest..
June 15
Asleep at 11:20 — we will carefully put her
down. Awake at 11:22. Asleep at 1:30. Awake at 2:20. These are the nights that are less than pleasant.
July 1
If Mitra was not our baby, I would have to classify her as a TOTAL A*****E. (However, she is ours and seems cute.) Nevertheless, cute wears thin at 6:00AM.
End Archive Extract
BTW: Journal writing is embedded in Mitra’s personality: she has 172 of them beginning when she learned to write.
Political aside: The Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, “Delighted and blessed” by the opportunity to “serve” Donald Trump, testified before a Senate committee this week. It reminded me of Bill Clinton’s news conference during the Monica Lewinsky affair:
“Ah did not have secretive relations with that country. Russia!”
— Jeff Sessions, Attorney General
The last couple of weeks have been marked by a plethora of birthday celebrations. Leandra, of course, had an actual Birth Day in Lebanon. Mitra celebrated a few days earlier. And last week was Tiger’s third birthday. Naturally a low-key celebration..
“.. series of celebrations, Dan.” Nazy interrupts.
“Series?” I asked.
“There will be a Sunday party at Rusty’s Pizza followed by an excursion to MOXI, the children’s museum.”
“Okay..”
“On Monday, his school will have a party for him.”
“Okay.”
“Then we’ll have a family party on Tuesday.”
“Eh..”
“And on Wednesday, he’s flying to Hawaii with Tom, Melika and Arrow.”
Nazy made a chocolate ‘car’ birthday cake. His best friend, Jace, as well as Mitra and Stefan joined us at Rusty’s. And, he had fun opening presents at his house at Nirvana.
There was a minor problem at the museum. They had arranged for all of the attendees to make paper rockets that were launched by compressed air. The museum wanted to let each child launch their own rocket. Tiger wanted to launch them all. We took him aside and..
“What’s the matter?” Nazy asked.
“It’s my birthday, so I should do all the rockets.” He explained succinctly.
“It’s your birthday, Tiger, but you didn’t eat all the cake,” I replied — ill-advised.
A couple of days later, Tiger was willing to share his ‘car cake’. And, he opened a lot of presents ..
“That’s so cool!” He shouted as he opened a Brio Train set.
As Tiger celebrated, Arrow’s first birthday is sneaking up. He’s 11 months old and on the cusp of walking. I’ve actually seen him stand by himself, holding on to nothing. (Although, I confess, when he realized what he was doing, he sat down immediately.) He’s mobile, curious and active. He understands a lot of words.
Reader interrupt: “How do you know he understands?”
“If you ask him where certain things are, he will look in the right direction. And, one of the directions he prefers is outside.
Nazy has trained a family of bluejays to come when she whistles. Arrow and Monster (the visiting super-cat) both like to gaze outside and contemplate on the beauty of nature.
“Don’t give him my bread,” Arrow is thinking.
“He looks pretty tasty,” Monster is thinking.
“Where is that woman with the food?” the bluejay is thinking. “I hope she doesn’t let that feline carnivore out.”
Both Tiger and Arrow are progressing with their education. Tiger has completed his initial swimming course and, after about 2½ years will be moving on to private lessons. He is fearless, fast and mischievous. He loves the water. And, at school, he is ‘the artist’ — he loves to paint.
Arrow is enjoying his Tuesday music class. His favorite instrument are the drums. In the couple of months since we started, Arrow has become very mobile and very comfortable in class. He’s almost walking and like his brother is fearless, fast and mischievous.
“But not completely stable on his feet,” I exclaimed after he lost his balance and bashed his head.
“Were you watching him, Dan?” Nazy asked.
“Of course I was watching,” I replied, miffed. “I saw exactly what happened.” I thought.
“Maybe you should have been doing more than just watching.” Nazy asserted. (Unfairly, in my opinion.)
“The child needs freedom, my dear,” I replied — as I dashed to the spice drawer where he was trying to open the cayenne pepper jar.
For last week's letter (new granddaughter), please click here
A couple of photos
Nazy, Melika, Arrow and Tiger
at Rusty's
Tiger at Nirvana (with car-cake)