words, words, words

I have a family of snails living in a box in my backyard. I'm not sure how it happened but once you tally up the nest of four birds, the fish, the dog and now the three snails that Aidan has claimed as pets, the animals are seriously outnumbering the people. And I don't even like animals. Hopefully the snails are as self-sufficient as the birds because I have no time to feed or clean up after anyone else during the day. It's funny. I always thought I was an animal person. Perhaps it's just the wrong time in my life because there are days when even Rudi, the most gentle, undemanding and wonderful dog in the universe, is too much for me.

It's that feeling of having nothing left to give. So many requests have been made of me, so many things have required my attention during the day that I end up too drained for anything else. Unfortunately for Rudi, she and Einstein the fish, although I don't think he notices, are always last on my list. She's lucky if I have the energy to rub her head for awhile in the evening. Yes, judge me as you will, there are days when it's that bad.


Thankfully, it's Aidan's responsibility to feed the dog and give her fresh water and he's usually extremely good about doing his chores. So good that I'm beginning to consider the idea that I should give him more input into the rules, responsibilites and daily management of the household. My older brother loaned me a recent copy of the London Review of Books the other day and in it there was an interesting essay on Milton and his definition of a free man. The author talked about Milton's conviction that democracy breeds creativity and and discovery while monarchies simply encourage toadying and flattery. And because I am pregnant, mostly house-bound and kind of lost right now in the foggy days of diapers, goldfish crackers and soccer practice, I no longer have any other context in which to consider this information and so have to apply it to my family life. So, perhaps it would be better for Aidan's creativity if he lived in less of a "benevolent dictatorship" (the way my friend Jean characterizes family dynamics) and more of a democracy. I'm not sure how I intend to apply these thoughts. It's certainly much easier just to tell him of the decisions I've made rather than have him participate in the decision making process. But perhaps not as beneficial in the long run. Then again, I can always assuage my conscience by concluding that the real reason that Milton can think so critically is because he had a monarchy to rebel against in the first place.

Well, that was a wordy paragraph. If you made it through, I'm impressed. Sigh. I really need some different things to occupy my brain.

Before I go, I want to remedy one thing. I realized I posted several pictures of my nephew Manny in the last blog and neglected to post even one photograph of my delightful niece Olivia who, of course, also came to Leo's party and was charming as always. Unfortunately, she was feeling a bit under the weather and looks pretty grumpy in all of the photographs I took of her that day. So, to best display her loveliness, I'll post a picture of her from her birthday. She's a perfect and dainty little girl. Note the cool flower barrette in her hair? A friend of mine makes those. Her etsy shop is here and everything she makes is really cute and stays in even the finest hair quite well.