Gone Too Long

For the past month and a half, we’ve been living in an alternate reality. We’ve been a traveling circus of couple, toddler, and dog (and for some of it, trusted friend and carpenter extraordinaire David) sleeping in vacationing friends’ beds (including a Murphy bed!), traveling from apartment to apartment while we wait for our own to finally be habitable. And then, in the midst of it all, we up and left for Austria, where we spent two glorious weeks in, variously, a former hen-hunting schloss slash former finishing school slash current family home of a wonderful friend; a fairy tale vineyard aerie of said friend’s sister; very modern spa overlooking a very old little town in northern Austria; and finally a swank hotel in downtown Vienna. Now, we are in New Jersey, staying with Guy’s mom and stepfather, while Guy and I commute into the city daily and Elio has fun hanging out with Grandma. There’s so much to say about these last few weeks, mostly about the ways Elio is blossoming before our eyes—physically, emotionally, verbally, mentally—but not enough time right now to give it justice. Hopefully soon. Until then, here’s a picture of our little guy after he had fallen asleep between our friends Stephen and Beat, during one of our magical nights in Grundlsee. The way he’s clasping that block seems to sum up so much of what he’s up to right now—grabbing hold of life, even as he sleeps.