Oh Yeah, Now I Remember This...

Normally, the giant pot is used for boiling water for some form of pasta. Spaghetti, fettuccini, lasagna...you name it. But as of tonight, the pot is back on sterilization duty. And there's a load of baby bottles that need to be re-sterilized. I mean, loads.

We'd been thinking that given the sheer number of bottles we ended up with, we'd better get started in setting them up for the new little one. Alas, you know what they say about the best laid plans, so not only had the bottles not been boiled, but they hadn't even been taken out yet. This brings us to the night before the due date, when we finally got around to starting up the first of what will likely be many waves of bottle cooking.

The memories...they all came rushing back upon dropping the bottles into the boiling water. How we overcame exhaustion to use the plastic bottle tongs to pull out the newly cleaned items from the heat, keeping just one step ahead of Christie's use of the old bottles. How that same exhaustion made us forget that the bottle was full of boiling water just waiting to take a bite out of our extremities, yet miraculously never suffering more than a quickly cooled slight burn. I guess I should make sure to keep sterilizing while I am actually somewhat rested.

But while the old baby care skills and experiences await dusting off, there is still an endless supply of new experiences at hand with Christie. Like yesterday, the first time she saw a rainbow. And it was a beauty if you had a chance to see it. After the crummy, chilly, overcast day we had around here, the clouds parted just enough at dusk to allow the sunlight to create a perfect, full rainbow. The kind of rainbow that looks like the pot of gold at its end is no more than a few miles away from us.

Christie was excited seeing the rainbow from the kitchen window, so I took her outside to get a better look. She asked so many questions. Who made the rainbow? Why was it there? Where does it start? I answered each question with every possible "rainbow myth" that I could think of, not to give stock answers or take the "easy parenting" way out, but to pass on all the stories of the rainbow to the newest generation. It's certainly much more fun to tell her about the pot of gold than it is about any splitting of white light into its component spectra anyway.

The sun was setting, and the dimming light was also causing the rainbow to fade slowly away. We stayed out as long as we could, watching the rainbow disappearing until it was no longer there, and then went inside. It's wonderful thinking back and realizing when your child is experiencing something new, but it's much more magical when you are aware of it as it's happening and can enjoy it unfold.