The heat of May lingered as June tried to announce its arrival. After weeks of mid 20 degree heat, the grass was turning brown. The river that runs through my little town, that raged and roared and flooded homes and swept cars away in January was now like a gentle kitten, barely ankle deep in places and full of children desperately trying to find some relief from the heat in the cool sparkling water. Even the birds that sang for the joy of the arrival of spring now sounded lazy and tired.
Me and my little baby, brown and baked by the beating sun were hiding indoors when June arrived, unable to stand any more of that stale relentless heat.
Then the rain came. Not torrents. Not floods like in January. Just enough. Just enough to freshen this corner of the world. Just enough to refresh the trees, just enough to cool the breeze, just enough to put the joy back into the birdsong. Just enough to give the earth that delicious aroma of damp soil and new growth.
In the same way that the rain prompted newness, my baby changed. My new family visited my old family for the first time. For the first time in his whole tiny lifetime, my baby was able to meet his grandma, grandad, 6 uncles and 2 aunties. Because of a global pandemic and a nationwide lockdown that began on the day of his birth, the only people that existed in my baby’s little world were his mummy and his daddy, but now the lockdown is lifting little by little, his world is also growing.
When we left for my parents house, my baby was sleepy and cuddly and small. At my parents house, his little world suddenly became full of new things to see, new people to watch and be held by, new smells, and all of these things unlocked something new in him. Just as the rain unlocked new life, so did the stimulation of a new environment unlock new character from my little boy.
Where he was once sleepy, he’s now alert and engaged. Where he was once cuddly, he now needs to see everything all the time and pulls himself away from my shoulder so he doesn’t miss anything. Now he is either hyperactive or asleep, on or off.
It’s exciting, being a mum. I can’t wait for the next change, the next little clue as to who this little boy will become.
Knit in the Forest 