Growing Pleasures

In the past four days, Eliot has put an impressive dent in the groceries I bought on Friday afternoon. He has eaten almost an entire box of Ritz wheat crackers, at least one box of mac n' cheese, 1/2 a box of couscous, a quarter pound of grapes, almost an entire bag of goldfish, 1/2 a block of cheese, nearly a gallon of milk, almost an entire large jar of mangoes, 1/2 lb of bunch-style carrots and god knows what else.

I'd say he's probably experiencing a growth spurt.

The other tell-tale factor is that he is sleeping like an absolute dream, pardon the pun. He has been going down without a fuss and sleeping until nearly 7:00 a.m (which, as my long-time readers know, is pretty much the equivalent of getting to sleep in until eleven a.m.). Yesterday his nap lasted almost 3 hours, which was great, because I'm swimming in much-welcome freelance work.

But this afternoon, all records were broken. Eliot slept 4 hours. After hour 3, I had convinced myself that he was dead (because, really, WHAT other explanation could there be). I jokingly told Cara on the phone that this was my theory, and then immediately regretted it while walking down the hallway to his room at the stroke of the fourth hour. I know that joking about your child's death is really morbid and even despicable, but I tend to joke about things that I'm terrified of in order to deal with the harsh reality life sometimes deals us. I figure if I joke about something, it's off limits for the universe to mess with. It's a little agreement we have. By we I mean me and the universe. It's complicated.

I tiptoed into his room, sure that as soon as he heard the creak of the door he'd bolt upright and demand milk! and more food! Instead he was in a deep deep sleep, slightly twitching and sucking on Blue like it was going to run off if he let up. I stood there and watched something I rarely get to see anymore - my own child sleeping. I even managed to snap a few photos, something I'm usually too afraid to try - if there is even the slightest chance that he could sleep even a few seconds longer, I will do all in my power to make it happen.

When he finally woke up, he was ready to go, requesting a red diaper and Ernie and Bobby (Bobby is Bob of Sesame Street, singer of 'People in Your Neighborhood' - click the link, he loves the part with Ralph Nader. And yes, you read that right, Ralph Nader) and a carrot and some water and well, everything.

So now we are hoping that he will actually sleep tonight, because there are actual nights in his short life that he didn't sleep as long as he did this afternoon. I half expect that if he does sleep all night, we'll wake up to find a fifth grader in his crib.

All this growing is exhausting.