My ear has been plugged up for about 10 days now from a lingering head cold. Everywhere I go, I have to ask people to repeat themselves. “Eh? What did you say?”
Jeremy torqued his back two weeks ago (from what else? Getting Edda out of the car) and has been downing Motrin ever since. He told me last night that whenever he sees anything he wants on the floor, he gets all flustered thinking about how he’s going to manage to pick it up.
Vincent and Edda sleep in the same room on two twin beds shoved next to each other.
Last night was the eve of Edda’s birthday – the lights were off, Edda was snoring contentedly on her twin bed. Vincent was snuggled on top of the crack between the two beds (something he has been doing for the past few months to be closer to Edda) and I was on second twin bed.
Vince and I were chatting. Vince told me that maybe (for Edda’s birthday) in the middle of the night, fairies would come and (unlike doctors who would need to cut Edda’s head open) wave their magic wands over her head and fix the parts that were wrong with Edda’s brain.
I asked him if he believed in fairies. He said not really. I told him if fairies fixed Edda’s brain, then she might run around and steal his toys and yell at him to be quiet and maybe be an annoying sister sometimes. Vince thought about it for a moment and said that that would be all right with him.
Happy Birthday to You – Edda 🙂 & Love Always
from Grandpa Noel & Grandmom Rena (Washougal, WA)
After driving for a week, we are at Elko, Nevada. We will arrive at SF Friday afternoon. Along the way on route 80, we visited almost all outlet malls and several casinos. Mom won ~$40 somewhere in Iowa.
We plan to have a nice dinner with Donald and our friends Friday night. Saturday, hiking with Donald is in our schedule – I need exercise more. Saturday night, we are going to have a Bay Area college classmate mini-reunion. A lot of our classmates settle in the Bay Area. In addition, it is good that they are still pretty close to each other. Very glad to see them again. Last time, when we were with them, was during our niece’s (Andrea) wedding several years ago.
Of course, to be with Donald for a while is also worth the trip. While we will be in Washougal, WA, we will make our house there more livable. May be buying some furniture and make it a fully equipped place to live.
Take a break there and relax.
I went back on Lexapro today. It’s kind of a relief. I try not to hop on the medication bandwagon too quickly because I always say to myself that my depression will resolve itself in the next few days and it usually does, but now it’s been a few months of consistently feeling bad and swirling the same useless crap around in my head. A few weeks of not taking care of myself (like not brushing my teeth at night) and falling asleep at 8:30 pm fully clothed is not a good sign. Crying at work and at parties is not a good sign. Anyhoo – I hope to be a bit more cheerful soon.
Yesterday, Rena & I visited Uncle Louis at his place in Rockford, IL
He has been feeding a lot of cats around his house. Look at this picture and one can tell how many cats are there by counting bowls sitting on the deck.
Quite a sight! 🙂
Vince and Jeremy are out watching a high school musical called “The Baker’s Wife”. That (little) boy likes singing and dancing. Someday soon we’ll have to take him to a real Broadway show. I’ve never been to an actual show on Broadway, it might be kind of cool. Edda and I are soon going to go to bed with a nice book and some hot tea, I think I’ll spend some time massaging her hands and feet and tickling her tummy.
I made my way to Edda’s ballet class today. I haven’t gone in a few months because the last time I went, I ended up crying. I’ve been making Jeremy take Edda to the lessons.
For the past few months, Jeremy’s been reporting that he no longer has to calm Edda down and that he actually sits with the rest of the parents on the sidelines of the studio. Apparently, Edda has been actually enjoying ballet instead of crying and yelling 15 minutes into the whole thing. Jeremy’s been telling me for weeks that I should take her myself one weekend to see how much more tolerant she is of the whole ballet thing. I told him that I thought Edda was saving one disastrous class up just for me and that no way was I going to go by myself. (Yes, I know, I’m behaving like a four-year old. What can I say?)
Anyhow, we left Vince with the neighbors for a few hours this afternoon and trundled off to ballet class. Edda did pretty good!
Jeremy was on NPR tonight! He’s all famous now, go to the bottom of the story and click on the audio clip… To bad that Growth Energy – they are the group Jeremy’s disagreeing with – is headed up by Wesley Clark who is a little more famous than Jeremy (right now at least).
I have not been my usual chipper self. If there is anything that I could change about myself, it would be that I’d like to get rid of my depressive tendencies. I tend to focus on something that I perceive to be wrong with my life and then blow it all out of proportion so that I becomes the center of my attention for weeks. Of course, my focus these days is usually on Rett Syndrome and what a crappy thing it is, but I remember that even before I had kids, I would get the same feeling about something totally different – like maybe that I didn’t have a boyfriend or my job sucked or that everyone was having fun except for me… Then I wallow in self-pity and I feel sorry for myself. This takes up a lot of my time. Time when I could be off going on a hike and feeling the sun on my face. It doesn’t make much sense, but it’s a big part of me.
Jeremy is still a little on edge with the hives. He’s balancing different drugs and the different side effects, the steroids keep him hyper, agitated, awake and although the swelling of the hives do go down with the steriods, the itch factor shoots way up. Then, he’s also taking some prescription strength antihistamines which may make him sleepy or anxious depending on which ones they are. Anyways, he’s a little strange to talk to – a little more chatty and scatterbrained. I’m hoping to get back the regular Jeremy soon – I guess it’ll be about 4-5 more days of this.
Of course, today is Vince’s actual birthday and since we’ve spoken about it (too) many times in the past week already, I will gloss over today’s celebrations, and say that it’s my 7th anniversary of becoming a parent. So HOORAY for me for making it this far – 7 years and I have not yet shaved all the hair off my head, even though I have threatened to do so many, many times. I had no idea what I was getting myself into and still have no freakin’ idea where it’s going to lead. May we all make it through in one piece and in good health.
