216. Jibberish

I left William (and Diana and Aida) at Abuela's. They were all circled around him, amazed at what he was going to do next. Went shopping at Target and Baby's 'R Us. I was in the bathroom changing William, responding to the jibberish he was giving me. A guy said, "you should talk to him in words, I know because I talk to my dog in words and he understands." I didn't respond, but his basis of expertise was his experience with his dog?! And is it an either/or thing? Can't I do both? And what makes him think he has some right to comment? I do talk quite a lot to him, but I'm also mirroring what he says, in affect, approximating what he says. I'm hoping some day he will mirror what I do, and then he's hooked. I was ranting to Aida and Diana later. The nerve.

I stayed up with William till midnight last night, my eyes were closing. He was laying around with me, but wasn't going to sleep, so I took him to bed, and he saw Diana and started wiggling on her some. I did not mean to get her up, but she did not mind, I'd let her go to sleep. She's very kind about letting me go to sleep, but since she's gotten pregnant, she's been more tired. He slept with us some, but I was surprised to find he wasn't in bed with us when I woke up, hearing his cries from the other room. I think I'm the one who puts him in bed with us out of laziness, Diana is pretty good. I got up and let Diana sleep, though almost every bone in my body says I should stay in bed. I've been saying to myself, I'm going to be so tired when the next one comes, this will be nothing.

There's a Buddhist parable I was reading in Naghabodhi's book Jai Bhim!, which is an excellent book about the Buddhist revolution in India, instigated by Ambedkar's conversion, and his attempt to convert ex-Untouchables. A family was living in a terrible hovel. Ten people, no food, they were all wearing rags. They were very poor, life was intolerable. The father went to a guru and asked for advice. He said let a goat live with you for 30 days. So he got a goat. The goat ate their small food stores, made noises so they could not sleep, made the place smell filthy and even ate up their rags they wore for clothes. The father went back to the guru. My life is miserable, what kind of advice was that? The guru said that if he now got rid of the goat, his hovel would not seem so bad after all.

We walked him to KFC so Diana could grab a bite. He likes to eat ice, I think it helps with his teeth. I like getting outside with him, get some sunshine on his face. He's going to be so freaked out when it's summer time. I can't wait for the pools. Maybe it will be warm enough in New Mexico to swim when we go over spring break at the end of April. We're going to visit Di and Wes, at their place outside of Deming New Mexico, which is in south New Mexico. I'm excited, I haven't really been to that part of the country.