Are you visiting me? 

Cool!

Well, since you're here I should explain that I love the topics up for discussion and thought I'd jot down ideas as I have them.  But I'm not sure what the group format is so I'll jot my ideas here until I understand how we share.

Maybe this is how we share

Possible (narrative type) topics for thought and discussion

Transformed spaces: Think about a space that has been transformed by a child. What was it before that child inhabited it, and what has it become? i.e., the futon sofa, where I spent the first two months with Gabe next to me on the chair in his blanket-lined bathtub. The library became the night nursery, away from sleeping Christoph, where our routine as mother and son began.

The nebulous unknowing: Situations where you ask yourself, “Am I doing this right?” For me, this seems to happen with each new developmental stage. A really tough one was the first time we decided to let Gabriel cry in his crib.

Firsts and lasts: This is pretty self-explanatory, I guess. The lasts seem to come as fast as the firsts. As Gabriel gets older, he develops new modes of expression and ways of being that are fascinating and exciting, but the new ways replace the old ways that were just as fascinating and maybe more adorable and infant like. This is always cause for celebration and grieving—celebration at his growth, grief at the sweet moments of babyhood that have passed.

Funny thoughts, funny words, funny moments: These are also self-explanatory…and unique to each parent and child…

Teaching what you haven't learned: My son is not yet nine months, but even now, when he is with his cousin who is 11 weeks older, they take each other’s toys, and there is a competitive vibe. And I think of the time to come when he will be hurt or treated unjustly by someone else or when he hurts someone else, and I wonder if I should tell him what I know is right or tell him what I would have done in that situation...Those are not always the same.