My son is one
Dear Ivan,
Of all the boys in the world I got the best one! Thank you for taking it fairly easy on me 12 months ago. I can't wait to see you grow.
Your mama
P.s. Please work on your sleeping!
Excitement alert code
in this household has been raised to level "through the roof":
(This is Veronika's countdown sheet showing how many days are left until we leave for Austria. She gets to stamp each day off in the morning.)
Posted at 11:37 PM on March 14, 2007 | Comments (1)A couple of years and I'll be buying that walking cane
Remember when you were little and sleeping or just lying in bed were so boring... so boring in fact it was occasionally used as punishment? "Go to your room and lie down until I call you". Remember the silence in your bedroom feeling like big heavy weight wearing you down when all you wanted to do was go go go? Remember how you saw your mother or father retreat to their bedroom to take a nap (in the middle of the day!) or read a book just because? Not because they had to but because they wanted to? How boring it is to be an adult I used to think. I would never grow up to be so boring I resolved.
It's 2007, Saturday night, 31 years since November 1975. I am lying in bed, awake with my eyes closed, I can feel the soft comforter and the sheets hugging my toes. "This is heaven", I'm thinking "I need to lie down more, I need to spend more time in bed. Next time in the afternoon, instead of the couch, I will just come up here and lie in bed. I will just read or maybe even fall asleep. Just as long as I can be here and not move. No movement and no noise."
Yeah, totally lived up to that resolution.
Posted at 11:01 PM on March 11, 2007 | Comments (1)Because all I really wanted was some long-term pain
"Yeah, you most likely cracked your rib", the doctor said "but there's not much I can do. It will heal on its own, but it will take 4-6 weeks. If the pain gets worse I can give you some medication for it." He was talking to me and unfortunately I don't have an exciting bar brawl story to tell. Still, I'm glad because now Lincoln really can't complain anymore about me going to bars because they are so safe compared to like, taking out the dog. (I told you so. Let me go to the bar already!)
So here's what happened (very boring, since I already gave you the ending). I was taking the dog out in the morning after the kids were already positioned at the breakfast table, after I had dressed and cleaned them against their will, after I was up with them several times the night before for no reason other than their need to cry at least once in a 3-hour-period. It was the second day of Lincoln's business trip. I was by myself and I was cranky. There was fresh snow on the grassy patches behind the patio. It was neatly covering the ice that was neatly covering the entire grassy area behind the patio. I stepped on the snow confidently, in a hurry, and also completely scatterbrained-ly. Immediately I started falling and as I realized what was happening I was thinking how annoyed I was going to be afterwards. Even more annoyed than I already was and I was hoping I had reached the end of annoyed. I am annoyed so much lately. So I'm falling on my back (ouch!) and somehow on my side (ouuuch!) and on my left elbow (wince) and the elbow cracks my left ribcage somewhere. I was in so much pain I couldn't breathe. I thought how this was probably what one of those TV fights must feel like. Anyway, I got up, Digby peed and we came back in and I was still in pain. After a few hours I had to get an Ibuprofen. Then later two more. I thought of going to the emergency room, but why ask a doctor when there is the internet? It said how there was nothing to be done but wait it out. Unless you punctured your lungs, then they might collapse. I decided I didn't puncture anything because the thought of dragging two toddlers to the emergency room for several hours seemed far worse. Also the emergency room is $100 upfront. So I didn't go. I just pretended it all didn't happen, except when I had to take a breath.
Then the next morning I woke up and the pain was still there only now I could actually feel my ribs cracking every time I took a deep breath or turned or yawned. It feels like pulling your finger joints, only I don't have any joints where the cracking was going on. The punctured lungs came to mind. Lincoln thought going to the doctor might be a good idea after all. Luckily he came home that day and I could go... only to find out that the internet was almost as good of a doctor. "Try not to lift too much" the real doctor said. Uh... yeah, sure. "Is sitting on the couch good for a broken rib?" I asked. "Yes, very. Sitting on the couch is recommended. I'm writing it down for your husband."
I suppose the real doctor has a better sense of humor.
Posted at 03:07 PM on March 09, 2007 | Comments (5)