You look like a happy mama

I was walking home from the furniture store with Leif this morning when a kind-looking, middle-aged man walking towards us said something in Swedish. "Jag pratar inte svenska!" (I don't speak Swedish) I replied as he passed by, and he said, in English, "You look like a happy mama. That makes me happy!" I kept walking, he kept walking, and the encounter was over.

My first thought was, How un-Swedish of him to say something (kind!) to a stranger! My second thought was, Well, yeah! He's right. At the exact moment he said that to me I was fantasizing about couches (we bought one!), but I am, in fact, very contented with my life as a mama. With my babies. With these boys who fill my days and nights with wonder and joy, poop and snot, contended sighs and tiny voices.

And it helps - oh, how it helps! - that Leif's sleep has miraculously, instantly improved! The night I wrote bemoaning the situation, it changed. Three overnight wake-ups instead of five; last night Leif did two four-hour stretches of sleep. He's connecting his sleep cycles and I'm finally completing sleep cycles! Here's hoping this trend continues even through our intentional travel next week....