When You Come Back Down

Oh Nora! How much I need to tell you. How much I don't want to forget!

In keeping with your crying theme from the previous blog...

Your first three months? You HATED riding in the car. Hated with a passion. You would SCREAM and screech in your carseat. I'm not sure where it stemmed from. Maybe it was your first carseat experience that you remembered with such disdain:



So car rides with you were no fun. It was pure torture for me. My boobs would hurt because you would fuss so much. We tried to keep trips short. Your doctor's office was only half a mile away. Good. Grocery shopping? Target? Babies R Us? Half a mile as well. Whew! We could do this...
Grandma and Grandpa's house? 20 minutes. Ok... we can deal.
Nonni and Nonna's house? An hour away!!! Dear Lord help us!!

The hour drive was horrendous. I would pray you would just exhaust yourself and sleep. Most of the time you just wailed.
I was on edge from this. Your screaming cut through me like a piercing gun. Straight into my gut and tore me apart. It hurt me that you were so uncomfortable.

I thought babies liked their carseats? I thought a trick to getting a fussy baby to sleep was to drive around the block. Not you.

I thought we would go through this your entire infancy. But never fear... your father found an antidote. Completely by accident, of course (your father rarely does things on purpose. I swear divine intervention intercedes into his life all the time).

His Audi has a six CD changer in the trunk. It's a pain to change the CDs so once one is in... it stays for months, sometimes years. CD #4 in his player would be our God-send.

Nickle Creek's debut album, "Nickle Creek" (creative, huh?).

This CD would start and you would stop crying within the first two minutes. It was like magic. Pure magic. You would hear the beginning of the second song and you would stop screaming. By the fourth song you would be out. Out like a light. Sleeping like... well, a baby.

I forget the moment where we discovered this. It was probably on a long trip home from Nonni & Nonna's house.

My sanity returned and fear of driving in the car with you subsided, as long as we had Nickle Creek with us.

Soon we went to the Outer Banks in North Carolina and a longer road trip to Michigan and Wisconsin (which adventures will be saved for another entry). Everything was hunky dory as long as we had our CD #4. It became your bedtime songs. You would wake up in the middle of the night. You would eat in the dark and then your Nickle Creek would be put on and off to sleep you would drift.

Nickle Creek saved us. You still love their CD. We have expanded your music selection since then... but Nickle Creek is still the favorite. It might always be.
It's funny, to date, we have probably listened to that album at least a thousand times. Probably significantly more... maybe two or three thousand times. I'm not exaggerating. I can see you rolling your eyes at me.

MULTIPLE TIMES A DAY... sometimes 10x a day we would put this CD on. And the miracle of it all? IT ALWAYS QUIETS YOU DOWN. I swear when you are spazzing in high school about some test or social crisis, I will put on this CD and you will instantly melt into the couch and go into some type of relaxed trance.

My favorite song from the album is "When You Come Back Down" and I bolded the line that always makes me tear up thinking about you. Remember the blog entry about embarrassing moments? Deal.

You got to leave me now, you got to go alone
You got to chase a dream, one that's all your own
Before it slips away
When you're flyin' high, take my heart along
I'll be the harmony to every lonely song
That you learn to play

When you're soarin' through the air
I'll be your solid ground
Take every chance you dare
I'll still be there
When you come back down
When you come back down

I'll keep lookin' up, awaitin' your return
My greatest fear will be that you will crash and burn
And I won't feel your fire
I'll be the other hand that always holds the line
Connectin' in between your sweet heart and mine
I'm strung out on that wire

And I'll be on the other end, To hear you when you call
Angel, you were born to fly, If you get too high
I'll catch you when you fall
I'll catch you when you fall

I'll always be here for you, Nora. Even when you are older and have a family of your own... I'll hold that line connectin' in between your heart and mine.

I'll always be strung out on that wire to my dying day. I promise you.

I love you. And I'll always love Nickle Creek for saving my sanity.