Last night I dreamt the baby was growing in her molars. We were so focused on her front teeth growing in, we had forgotten to look in the back of her tiny mouth. There they were, the lumps of molars coming in. I felt guilty for not starting her brushing her teeth earlier. When I awoke as usual the two tiny tooth buds in her lower front were the only new visible teeth.
I had similar dreams of intense growth spurts when she was just two months. I dreamt twice about her getting up and walking on her wobbly small legs. She was almost like a muppet in these dreams, moving in a sloppy, to fast, drunken baby manner around the room.
My daughter likes adventures, just like her parents. We are currently on a road trip that took us to Memphis Tennessee, a 10 hour drive from our home in Austin. We knew taking an 8 month old on such a long road trip was risky, but she did swimmingly as she always seems to do. Spending her time napping, cooing and charming each new person we met at the various restaurant and road stop attractions that make up a good road trip. We also started at 2 am Saturday night in the hopes she would sleep most of the first half of the drive. it worked! Me and daddy were a bit bumfuzzled the next day but the wee one was all smiles and laughs which helped with the drowsy stupper of our first day.
I had never been through TN or Arkansas and was ready to take a gander at this new part of the country. I have called both coasts home but have never really claimed the gulf coast as mine. This is where some of my people entered into the America's. Drawn by the idea of a better life and cheap land to farm. I came back to this part of the country with questions about heritage, what can a place mean to someone who's ancestors have lived and died upon it? How did we end up so far away from the villages we had lived for thousands of years and what of this village life did we bring to the wilds of Texas, and the severely independent nature of a capitalist democratic USA?
I am lucky to have been able to visit the old country in Europe, to have lived on both coasts of this massive country and had the choice and desire to move back with my new family to the place of my people. Beautiful, wild, independent and rare Texas.
When I left Olympia I had my favorite hairstylist give me a mullet, shedding the long locks I wore through my commitment ceremony and pregnancy for a look I knew I could rock in my new home, the live music capital of the world.
This blog is about heritage, its about watching a baby grow and figuring out how I want to raise her, its a prose document of this one Czech, Scottish, Russian, Irish, German, Polish, Normandy French, Cherokee womyn's experience being an artist, mother, adventurer, grower of greens and lover of life. Enjoy!
Mullet Mom
ps. Memphis has the best BBQ ribs I have ever has in my entire life! Dry rubbed at Central BBQ, really worth it.
