Jam and Bread

Owen was up early this morning. I first heard him at 6:30. I waited and continued reading down at my desk for about 5 minutes, but the noise didn't abate. 

"Little stinker." I muttered.

I went upstairs in the dark, cracked open his door, and walked inside. 

He stopped squalking, popped up, and declared "Uh-oh!"

I changed his diaper, turned off his space heater, and brought him downstairs for a quiet hour of reading and sipping coffee at my desk while he gently drowned against my chest under the blanket.

Just kidding, of course. Really I took my increasingly cold coffee in unsatisfying gulps between his lunging swipes at my coffee, my pen, and my book.

Eventually I gave up. I packed up my desk, turned out the little lamp, and brought him into the dimly lit dining room. It was just starting to get light outside, but all the blinds were still drawn. The heat had kicked in, and it was pleasantly warm and dark.

"Owen, would you like some breakfast?"

"Unh!" <vigorous nodding>

I set him down in his high chair and explored our dwindling end-of-month breakfast options. No more bananas, no more clementines...hmmm. 

"Owen, do you want bread?"

"Unh!" <vigorous nodding>

Julie has been making homemade bread a lot this January, and there were four pieces of delicious white bread left on the counter.

"And a little jam?"

"Uh-oh!" <bucking excitement>

I put a thin scraping of jam on his bread, cut it into Owen-sized bites, and placed them on his tray. He munched on them bit by bit, occasionally dropping one onto the floor "accidentally" ("uh-oh!") while I ate a bowl of cereal.

I checked the time, and realized that I needed to start getting ready to leave for rehearsal. I stood up and flicked on the dining room light, then looked at Owen and gaped.

The haircut.

He and James had their hair cut last night while I was practicing. I'd cleaned up the floor and the little tufts of dark hair around James' seat while J bathed them, but she must have cut Owen's hair in his high chair. It was dark when I cleaned up, and I must have missed the fine little clippings of light blonde hair.

The light blonde hair that he'd been eating in for the last 20 minutes. Eating raspberry jam.

He grinned at me.

"Uh-oh!" <extends arms>

...

...

...

"Good morning sweetie, I've gotta get going to rehearsal. Here's Owen, by the way."