You all remember I am a teacher, right?
Therefore, I have students. Many of them. Like, a lot.* And some of them even read my posts. Gulp.
And then, some of them… even friended me on the MyFaces.
I KNOW. Foolish? Perhaps. Vainglorious? Maybe so. Seeking adulation and nostalgia? A bit.
Or, I just love ’em.
Here is some writing from Melania. Miss Melania (Ahem, it is pronounced Mel Awwwnee -uh. Not MelanEE or heaven forbid, MelanEE-uh. Just so you know. It’s important, and she will cut you if you mess it up.)
– Sorry, I digress. Miss Melania is what I like to call a peach. Even though she has a confusing name.
I taught this girl a few years** ago – she was rather the epitome of the following statement:
“That girl has some serious spunk.”
And good gravy, she went out and got married and had a baby. This is impossible. This is ludicrous. She’s like… 16, right?
Nope.
So every once in a while she posts stuff on fb that makes me snort and dribble my coffee a bit. So now it seems the little student has become a mom, and I just shrug. Time. It doesn’t just flew. It done flied.
Melania sent me this cute musing not long back:
Henry: ah na na na NA!
M: muh muh muh muh MUH!
H; ah na na na?
M: muh muh muh muh MUH!
H: growls
M: no. muh muh muh muh MUH!
H: pterodactyl sounds
M: no. muh muh muh muh MUH!
H *bites fist in apparent frustration
M: muh muh muh muh MUH!
H: ………….
I’ve always been an anxious person. I remember crying if my dad left in the morning before I got up, because what if he didn’t come home? And when serious boyfriends didn’t answer on that first ring, surely they were dead somewhere. My husband knows to text me when he gets to work so that I know he’s safe.
But having a baby has taken that anxiety and put it in overdrive.
The first several months of his life I kept having awful visions of all the terrible things that could happen. I wouldn’t let us visit the boardwalk because he would obviously fall in the ocean. His soft spot, his wimpy neck, his ridiculously unsteady breathing all occupied my thoughts constantly.
He is (slightly) bigger now and I am (mostly) calm. Our days are joyful. We get out with our friends. We go for walks. We drive downtown. The other day I even let us walk onto a pier.
But my nights are still breathless.
I wonder when that goes away?
Dana Bowman 
Love this. Hmmm, best advice for a new mom? Let him cry. Like all new parents we put our 1st down in her crib and listened from our bedroom at the end of the hall. Sure enough, the crying started. She had been fed, she had been changed, she wasn’t being strangled by some toy. So we put her down again and said good-night. Of course, she cried. It was the hardest, and best thing we ever did. Let her cry. She cried less the next night and not at all the 3rd night. We suffered those nights, but she learned. And that was our job.
Well put. I remember my husband literally putting his arm across me in bed saying, “wait four minutes. just four.” and he stopped in three and a half. it was SO hard.
I agree. I think it goes against human nature to withhold anything from our children. We want to give, give, give. It turns out it’s best not to pick them up sometimes, not to give them every toy in the store, and not to allow the temper tantrum. We found it curious that much of parenting, especially the early stages, to be the word ‘NO.’ It had nothing to do with money but everything to do with raising good kids.
Of course, now that we are grandparents, all bets are off. There is no limit to what we can and will give and do for the grandchildren. Call it a rite of ascension, call it ‘having survived’, or just call it ‘I’m old and I’ll do whatever I want now!’ 🙂
Um, you started teaching in 1993. Kinda was hoping the anxiety thing passes. It crossed my mind to forbid Kelli from driving to work in the light snow because she’s pregnant. Now it sounds like it gets worse.
Thank you for the actual date – I am getting so old I forgot. 🙂
[…] there is this, from my sweet-once-a-student-now-friend-and-new-mommah Melania (remember her?) She emailed me recently with precisely the same thoughts. She’s so […]
I’m a little slow getting to Momsie blog, but finally read this one.
I do remember my imagination going berserk a lot when my oldest was itty bitty. And then came number 2! Twice as many berserks happening! I think that is when 2 Corinthians 10:5 was pointed out to me–Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;–and it has to be KJV. Other versions use the word arguments instead of imaginations. It was my imagination arguing with God about how well He could care for my young ones. Time to train my mind–capture that thought and send it running! You (crazy imagined thought) have no place in my mind of Christ! Thankfully my kids were young enough they did think their mom was nuts when sometimes she had to say things like that out loud.
Anyway, my imagination was put to better practices (what do I fix for supper tonight??). But you know how the enemy works–he’ll try it again in our weak moments. So I do get to continue practicing the casting down of imaginations that just don’t line up with God and His Word.
Thanks, Momsie, for your blogs of honesty and fun. 😉
i am an “out loud” talker all the time – my boys will have to get used to that. I think you and i are VERY alike – my imagination can be a blessing and it can be a curse – this blog has really helped use that crazy imagination of mine in fruitful(ish) ways. 🙂
hugs to you.