Pan and I had a date today. We took three hours getting to the museum (Pan walked to the train, down the stairs, through the station, on the train, back up the stairs, and to the museum), a few hours there, and then a ride back to Chelsea to meet up with Sebastian & Quinny.
It's been a long while since I've had a good bit of time alone with Pan. He is an enormously charismatic little guy. He has started referring to himself as "you". He says "bye!" whenever he wants you to leave so that he can do something he shouldn't. He watches, and sees, everything so closely. He walks with confidence down these busy, filfthy sidewalks -- often picking up trash to throw in the garbage. We don't yet have the babies' proper beds set up, and so, each night, I lay with them until they fall asleep. He says, "down, mama," and though there are boxes stacked along the walls -- walls badly in need of painting -- and my head is full of projects and of this city, I settle in next to him, because this too is worthy.
And once they are asleep -- and maybe I have fallen asleep, as well -- I come out and ignore the boxes and the walls. But I do tidy up this, the innards of that owl he made today, opened and extracted as soon as we got home, just as I told him he could.
+Chelsea