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It’s 70 degrees outside. There is going to be a burning raft floated down the bayou at some point this evening. They’re having a band on the court around the corner. I made two dozen blue devils (deviled eggs with blue cheese). I went to see E today for a mental health check and contrary to popular belief 2009 was not the worst year because Tin was born in 2009 but it came pretty close to be the most challenging year of my life. And now comes 2010 – I say bring on the new year and I hope everyone of you have the best and brightest to come.

Love.

I had to run to Fairgrounds to get some focused time to finish a work project and a friend called. I said let me step outside to talk because I’m in a coffee shop. My friend hollered in the phone – step outside! – ha, where she is is very cold, where I am is fine with a polar fleece vest. As a matter of fact, it’s warming up this week – going to be around 60 degrees. That and a full moon on New Year’s Eve is enough to make you smile!

New Orleans – no better place on earth.

When my mom was young, she had four little boys and two little girls and how she kept from going stark raving mad is impossible to know. But she did have a creative streak. We lived in an apartment on Louisiana Avenue Parkway and there was a big rotund water heater in our kitchen. My mom took a magic marker and drew a benign face and wrapped a frilly apron around it and called her Sally.

Sally babysat us sometimes.

We interviewed our first nanny this morning and it’s a curious thing to be a modern mother, too aware of everything, and a 50-year-old mother, aware that it’s not all what you think. A photograph of my mother, who we call Mimi for Tin, hangs in his bedroom. I told him that Mimi is watching over him; she is his guardian angel. And in the meantime, we have to be able to make the right decision about who in reality will be watching him while we work. We want Mary Poppins of course but realize that we might need a spoonful of sugar to help reality go down.

I remember when mom was in the hospital she kept making a circular motion in the bed and telling the nurses she was making room for the baby. And she was. She left a big space in my life that a baby is filling up.

In the meantime, everyone at the LaLa stopped their swirling motion of making room for a baby when the baby actually showed up – Gadzooks! It is quite amazing how much time one little 9-month old can absorb in a 24 hour period. To think we have a 9-month old, one who eats and sleeps pretty regularly, one is generally good natured, and we don’t have time to even read our horoscope around here.

How do parents do it? How do single parents do it? I remember a single mother of one little boy telling me she would dread the weekends because she wouldn’t have day care and she knew she had to do it all alone. The guilt that ate at her was enormous.

Babies make a big splash in your life. I knew to expect radical change, but even so, it is more than radical, it is rocking our world – all good – I mean I could just sit and play patty cake all day with him or even stare at the monitor and watch him sleep. But the time allotment for life’s other pleasures shrinks to nil. That’s why you need someone who has a more balanced view on things – like T – she’s a Libra – to give you perspective and to make sure everything is measured.

It takes more than one parent to raise a child. Of that I’m sure.

My friend who is going to give Tin swimming lessons this summer said that the best introduction is to go into the water with him in my arms and don’t submerge him but just bond with him. Well, today I was taking a bath in our big tub and T1 brought T2 in and put him in the bath with me. And he just loves it – snuggles up against my chest and lets his legs float free in the water. He is a natural born water bug.

Okay Tin’s first words in this order (mind you Tatjana is Mama and I’m Mommy):

1) Da Da Da Da Da Da DA DA DA DA DA

2) Who dat

3) Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma

We went to Meaux Bar last night to celebrate Mom’s birthday – I decked out in jewelry and high heels and fake fur. It was the perfect place to go as everyone there knows our name – Debbie waited on us, Matthew fed us, Jim sat us. It was all good.

Every Saturday my mom and I would have lunch and I miss that. I was in Metairie today taking my camera in the shop and just going to Metairie and passing by her street made me ache. Then I was putting dog bags in the box we keep them in – my mom used to save the plastic bags her newspapers came in in an empty kleenex box and give them to me for dog bags – she had read that somewhere. She also cut out articles for me from the Times Picayune. She also was always at the other end of the telephone.

We’re telling Tin about Mimi – which is what she wanted our child to call her. A photograph of Mimi is in his room and every night we say goodnight to Mimi along with Loca, Wolfie, Bam Bam, Mama and the elephant that plays the lullabye.

Heartache. Joy.

I know what people mean about children growing up so quickly – today is the fourth week of having Tin in our lives and looking back over the photos I’m shocked at how much he has changed. More than that, I was in Metairie to get my camera fixed this afternoon and I was shocked to see the grandstands going up for Mardi Gras. Good god.

Here is one of the photographs that Marc Pagani took on Christmas eve:

When I was living at the American Can and Katrina hit, my neighbor, a Master swimmer and swim instructor at Southern University for decades helped save others by swimming across the fetid water to get supplies and help. After Katrina he got a pink slip from Southern – hail to the hero. Then soon he was steadily employed and life was good again. I see him now and then, he’s been to parties at the LaLa and often walks by on the bayou. Yesterday, while Tin was bathing in the sink, he stopped in – he wasn’t aware of Tin’s arrival and he was immediately enchanted by him.

He said Tin is going to love water and I said of course, he’s a Pisces! Then he offered up private swim instructions starting this summer for Tin for free – so he said there is no reason not to call him and take him up on his offer.