Month: May 2008

I was planning on going to work today for a few hours, but the sun was shining and it was a beautiful breezy spring day, that I decided to forgo the examination of patents and go outside with my family.

Today, 28 embassies in DC held open houses, so in the space of an hour, we visited Paraguay, Madagascar (in which they were showing the animated movie by that name which happens to be one of Edda’s all time favorite movies) and Korea. We tried to get into Japan, but we needed to make reservations and we are just not that organized.

In Korea, Vince played the traditional drums and Edda spent some time admiring the Samsung large flat-screen TV. I swear she was telling us that we needed one of those gracing our walls.

Video watching.

Chicken dance with Emy.

Jeremy had to see if he could guess which one was Vincent by feeling all the children’s hands.

Finally asleep.

I think Edda’s starting to have seizures. I have always put “seizures” in quotation marks because I am the Queen of Denial and I think, oh, she can still drink water, she is still looking around, it’s not a seizure, it’s just a hiccup, a little bump in the road, she’s daydreaming! But I have to admit now that – even though she’s having episodes only every 2-3 days – I think something is going funky in her noodle. All her teachers see it, all her therapists see it, I don’t see it so much because perhaps I’m in denial. So I asked around and found a recommended doc and we are going to see her.

This is what I predict – 24 hr EEG and then medicate with Depakote if we want. The appointment is in a month, we will see if my prediction is right.

(I love diagnosing a la the internet. I’ve been having some jaw pain over the past few weeks, I typed in “hurts to open my mouth wide” and I found out I have temporomandibular joint disorder! Who needs the doctor!)

A few notes:

I’ve decided that waking up at 4 am is for the birds, I’m back to my waking up at 5 am and if I don’t make my 40 hours at work, I’m taking vacation.

We didn’t get the house we put a bid on – they wanted more $, we wanted to pay less $. You know how it goes. I am kind of relieved.

A few great articles to remind myself that great medical miracles can happen everyday.

Gene therapy for childhood blindness in first clinical trial. This I am excited about because they use a viral vector to insert healthy genes into retina cells which were unable to function correctly and it works! They can see better.

A Child, a Bizarre Tumor and a Perilous Operation. This is completely not genetically related, it’s a surgical solution for a tricky brain tumor, but I just love stories of little girls (and their amazing doctors, didn’t I just say who needs a doctor?) triumphing over seizure disorders.

Classic Edda move. This is how she goes from standing to sitting on the floor, she sits on the couch and then oddles down to the floor.

I thought I would go back in time and grab some photos from the day that I first became a mother and Kiki and Pua pua first became grandmothers! (Don’t I look a bit bewildered? Sometimes I still feel that way.) Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers past, present and future!

I am feeling much better this morning, just in time for Mother’s Day. Yesterday I went to work and finished up some things which, of course, took more time than I thought it would. Also, Emy came by train from NY to help babysit on Monday and I picked her up from Union Station which I consider a great accomplishment on my part because I dislike intensly driving into downtown where one way streets abound, the traffic lights are on the corners and not hanging overhead, and I don’t know my way around and I haven’t yet splurged on a GPS system which I think is so fabulous, but I only need once every 3 months.

Also, last night when I was going to bed, Jeremy mentioned to me that whenever I post about housework, I always post in the first person implying that I am the only one who ever vacuums, launders or cleans the bathroom. For the record, Jeremy does more than his fair share of the housework.

We usually split the housework into our own preferences:

I like to: take out the trash, declutter magazines & papers (which I have learned over the years, is best done without asking too many questions), loading the dishwasher, loading the washing machine and cleaning the bathrooms.

Jeremy likes to: wipe horizonal surfaces, fold and iron (although lately he’s been doing all the loading too), cooking and grocery shopping

In terms of paperwork: I tend to do all the medical insurance and reimbursing paperwork for child care/medical expenses. Jeremy does the bills and the taxes.

We are a rockin’ TEAM!

I am lucky that my job is flexible enough to allow me to basically determine my own hours and it’s coming in awfully handy right now. I know that lots of people work different shifts so that they don’t have to pay for childcare – but I have to say, after 2 weeks of this and looking at 2 more weeks, I’m running on fumes.

This no childcare thing, plus the fact that I moved offices and switched computers which has led to one software nightmare after another (hours and hours of walking back and forth between two computers – outside in the snow, uphill both ways, calling the help desk and waiting and waiting and losing hours of work into the ether of cyberspace), plus the fact that I had my first attorney interview this week to discuss the “merits of my arguments”, plus the fact that I’m getting up at 4 am, plus various other crazy things in the background behind the blog, has led to some emotional moments where I just want to sit in my chair and cry.

Nothing terrible has happened, it’s just that everything just seems little overwhelming to me (including the huge pile of laundry that needs to be done).

I think I’m about to join a church. Do I believe in an all powerful being (a.k.a. God)? Not really – but I believe in community, hard work and the miracle of human interaction. I’m looking for a group of people who get together, have potlucks and help each other through good times and bad times. I figured out that that is pretty much what church is, so I went off looking for one that I would like.

I started looking for a church about 6 years ago, right after Vince was born. I went to the Unitarian Universalist church and the Quaker church, both in Austin, TX for a few weekends – it kind of wasn’t the right fit or the right time.

The UU Austin church talked too much, the Quaker church didn’t talk enough. So I stopped going. I didn’t do any more searching for 5 years.

Now that we are back in the States, I found the local Unitarians. I went to a a month of Sundays by myself; they were a fun mix of family, singing, meeting and greeting – lots of kids, lots of families, lots of older folks.

Last week I brought Vince to Sunday School (!) and sat in on his class, where they talked about ecology, recycling paper, saving the Earth and did a Maypole dance.

He wants to go back.

I have to say, the other reason I’m looking for a church is so I can find some folks who will be part of Edda’s community of friends which is separate from her school friends.

Everyone has been enthusiastic about Edda joining Sunday School, I just have to work on my own nervousness.