the way we were

yesterday i swaddled my kids. woo hoo. big news! mommy swaddling babies! bor-ing. snore. well. it is big news. because mommy didn't swaddle babies. mommy swaddled 20-month-old toddlers. well past their youthful baby days of swaddling. this makes me sound like mommy dearest, swaddling toddlers into little toddler straight jackets... not exactly. i was swaddling the only baby left in the house, a preemie cabbage patch kid (amanda jayne, or maybe it was millie rose, wait i think this one was the boy preemie...xander jameson, benny fritz? [you know those names were weird]. i can't believe i can't remember. i always remember stuff like this, even 25 years later). so i decided to test my swaddling recall with a quick trip down memory lane to swaddle, let's call him, xander. C and R are ecstatic to see the swaddling in action. it is the best thing ever. even better than the flushing of the toilet. even better than the flushing of the toilet while a small hand is in the toilet. ok it's not that good, let's be serious. but it is an art, you know. and something i am good at. still. should put it on my resume. R and C are so enthralled by my skills that they both go and get their own blankets out of their cribs. seriously cute. they bring them over to me. they want to be swaddled. they actually both are laying the blankets on the floor and lay down on said blankets. who says kids don't remember anything before they are three? they remember the luxury and security of the swaddle! long live the swaddle! so with all of this adorablecuteness, i must oblige. who can deny a swaddle request? now, it seems, they've grown a bit since their most recent swaddle. like 15 pounds at least. they're a bit leggy now. swaddling is not quite the same. but i did it. of course to do an appropriate swaddle, as professional swaddlers well know, i would now need at least a twin-sized blanket (no pun intended). the baby blanket isn't cutting it. i did have the mommy pang of ohmygoshrememberwhenyouweresotiny? wherehasthetimegone? not enough of a pang for me to reproduce a reproduction. but enough for me to hear "memories, like the corners of my mind" fairly vividly. oh babs. but then i am snapped back to reality because you know what? once those toddlers are swaddled in their toddler straight jackets, those kids are heavy. usually they can cling on to me in some fashion and help me out a little bit. not with the straight jacket. i'm doing all the heavy lifting. they're just laying. and laughing. at. me.

this photo has nothing to do with this post.

i should never blog before bedtime.

er i should never look up google images of straight jackets before bedtime. not pretty. curses!

misty water-colored memories...