Besotted
in Giggles on January 12, 2024
Happy New Year!!
I sincerely hope that 2024 is off to a wonderful start for everyone. It is hard to believe that we are already at the halfway point in this first new month!
The holidays at my house, as I am certain they are at most houses, are in a word: Insane. There was the usual cooking and baking. Allll the decorations, both inside and outside. The sending of Christmas cards—but first, composing those cards to include the highlights of the passing year. We cannot leave out the prep work associated with impending houseguests…cleaning, dusting, and the never-ending supply of LAUNDRY.
Intermingled through my television moods of sleighing and slaying (if you know, you know) I reacquainted myself with some of history’s most beloved books through my audiobook app. I’m embarrassed to admit, that during this season I truly listened to the whole of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, and Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women for the very first time. I also slid into rotation two of my old favorites, Pride and Prejudice and Wuthering Heights. I was enamored by the wonderful use of vocabulary. The authors painted such vivid pictures through their words, that their readers could not help but to see each and every event, person, and place. They used words like: esteemed, persuaded, perfectly amiable, and besotted.
People don’t write like that anymore.
Now, I told you all of that, to tell you this: I got a grandbaby for Christmas! Many of you remember that my oldest son married his high school sweetheart last June. The wedding and all the events surrounding it was a terrific source of material on this site! As happy as I was about the wedding, nothing—and I mean absolutely nothing compares to the delight, the joy, the overwhelming sense of exhilarated excitement that a new baby brings.
Those are simply MY feelings.
My son…well…he’s on a completely different plane than the rest of us. His enthusiasm for his unborn baby is what Austen and Brontë (both sisters) wrote about. In a word, Ethan is simply besotted. I’ve never seen a man so over the moon for anything. He has enjoyed his job, he looked forward to their move (several states away) and is utterly devoted to his wife; but his affection for his child makes all of those things pale in comparison. Well, all except his devotion to Adeline. If anything, the mere fact that she is carrying this baby, has him all-but tripping over himself to attend to her needs.
It is beautiful to watch.
The Littlest Louis is due around the end of July. A big shout-out and thank you to my longtime readers. We’ve traveled though elementary, middle, and high school together. We navigated colleges. We can’t stop now! Stayed tuned as we journey together down a brand new path: The Grandparent Track.