Sunday, February 19, 2012

A Return to Reality

How I miss the deep blue skies of the week before!
I've been back now nearly a week. Most of winter is gone with a possibility of just a few bad weeks. We are awaiting Baby Girl's birth. At 39 weeks, she is coming out, ready or not but with Shanna's early birth history, she'll probably come early. Just stay in there 10 more days Baby Girl for all our sakes! Shanna is hoping for 37 weeks. She is nearly at 35 weeks right now so Baby Girl's lungs should be in better shape than Daniel's (see Wimpy White Boys). Everyone is eagerly waiting to meet Baby Girl who the OB reports is 'not small'.

Steve thoughtlessly signed up for working the Republican Primary (we get robocalls from Romney daily driving me crazy..wish I could opt out of them somehow). If he does not show up at this point, it is a misdemeanor. One is allowed a documented 'medical excuse' but it is not clear whether the birth of a grandchild counts. On the day of the primary, Baby Girl will be at 36 weeks. This is a  preventable worry that I didn't want to have.  Magical thinking on his part. It takes all my willpower not to hound him about this beyond what I did already when a notice came in the mail. Why!!?!

Much of the week has been spent trying to straighten out a particularly annoying situation that I won't go into. Suffice it to say, it didn't go away without throwing large amounts of money at it. I tried to block it out of my mind while on the cruise.

I have been running faithfully though in less than ideal conditions. A business park nearby is fairly reliable about clearing its drives and parking lots (unlike the city streets..it won't plow unless there is 4 inches so the three inches turns  into ice wreaking all sorts of havoc leading to the 'big worry' alluded to above)so I went there.

One of the days I was running on the bike path that is along the now busy street that goes behind my house (it was a small dead end when we moved here, not the major conduit to the freeway for all these new subdivisions-cars drive as if they are already on the freeway) and a car slams its brakes stopping beside me. I assume it is someone wanting directions but instead of rolling the windows down, the driver gets out of the car and runs towards me to hug me. It was an old friend who had recently returned here but slightly racist me just saw an African American man coming quickly towards me and for a second I was taken back .. technically he is African). It was fun catching up with him though we were blocking traffic and my t-shirt is warm only if I am moving not standing still when it is only 30 degrees.


I have also had lots of Maya time in part to the 'situation'. One day I took her to the indoor playground. She is such a cute little thing. She did well in her therapy, at least with all her signing. Actually spoken words still aren't forthcoming..she may have only 2-3 words depending on how one interprets them. One shouldn't compare kids but I diligently recorded Shanna's milestones. At this time, she had a vocabulary of 150 words. But Maya is eager to learn and tries to copy us. She now has the hair of an average 6 month old. Good thing for her that she has an especially attractive head shape. The hair is growing more quickly in back than in front. She seems to have a mix of hair types. She looks much more like her daddy than her mom. Fortunately for us all, she has his mellowness.

The other night we had a Mom's Happy Hour, which was fun at the $2 cosmo place.

One of my skills is being able to recall maps and quickly became oriented. I would not have even called this a talent until I was made aware that many around me seem to lack this sense of direction. And it must be an inheritable trait, one that did not penetrate the genome of my offspring as they are like Steve, especially Naomi and Josh. (basically, my kids did not inherit squat from me other than certain personality traits-each one having a different one) Even around Ann Arbor, Steve needs to be reminded how  to go. I get a call Friday night from Josh. He had to get off Lakeshore Drive in Chicago and was completely turned around despite the city having key landmarks and despite him making 5-6 trips/year  there since he graduated. With a lot of long distance help, he eventually got back on the right track. Yes he has a GPS thingy but he didn't bring it. Assuming he does not get lost going out of Chicago, we'll meet for a late lunch later today.

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