Tuesday, October 23, 2007

3 down, a kajillion to go

Happy Bananaversary, Josh. Yet another action-packed year, filled with mystery and mayhem and still not a single fight. And also not a single recent picture of just the 2 of us.

Monday, October 8, 2007

zombie baby

Our girl is walking. And falling a lot, and still crawling when she's in a hurry, but finally, really, truly walking. She's been taking a few steps here and there for a while, but one evening last week Josh and I just sat on the floor and had her walk back and forth between us over and over and over, and finally some little switch flipped in her brain and she figured it out, and started walking by herself all over the place. Just like that, right then and there. It was such a trip.

Her balance is very iffy and she looks like a zombie walking around, all wobbly with her arms out in front of her and her mouth open. She was walking toward me this weekend and Josh said "Look out babe, she's coming for your brain."

We got some little Delma-sized furniture from Ikea, because when I go to pick her up at school and she's sitting in a mini-chair at a mini-table with all her short friends, it's just so cute that I can't stand it. We got her a little table and chairs set where she will hopefully one day create adorable crafts. Or do puzzles. Or something. And we got her the new kids' size POÄNG, which in addition to being fun to say, is also really nice. We put it together and told Delma it was hers, and she's been climbing on and off it ever since.



We have a strict policy of not letting her walk around with a bottle -- she needs to be sitting in her chair to drink it, just like any other meal or snack. Normally we strap her into her booster seat at the table, but now that she has this chair she likes to sit in it for her bottle, which is fine. It's actually better, since she can get up by herself when she's done instead of us having to untether her. This morning she didn't finish her bottle, so I set it aside on the coffee table. A little while later, she was sitting in her chair and she got off of it, went and got her bottle, and went back to her chair to sit down and drink some more all by herself. I'm constantly amazed by how much she understands now, and all the things she can do.

A year ago she was barely focusing her eyes, grunting and squirming and puking on herself non-stop. And we thought she was amazing. I could not have imagined what kind of person she'd start to become, how fun she would be, that every single day she would give Josh and me reason to just look at each other and say "Babe, how CUTE is that??"

more babies to pray for

I made a huge tray of baked ziti for Morgan's family on Friday. I didn't know what else to do, we've never even met the parents I don't think. I included a note asking them to please call us if we can help at all with grocery shopping, errands, housecleaning, watching their boys... Anything at all. I hope they take us up on the offer, even though we are complete strangers.

And I recently started exchanging emails with an old friend of mine, we used to be best friends but drifted apart and haven't seen or spoken with each other in several years. His second son was just born last week, with only one kidney. They knew that he only had one kidney, from ultrasounds etc, but until he was born there was no way to know what complications there would be, if any at all. Just got an email from my friend this morning, saying the baby is not doing well, he was admitted to ICU because of problems with his heart and his brain and they're running lots of tests. Just a nightmare.

I know it's such a simplistic thought, but it's just so bizarre going through a major life event -- whether the tragedy of a death in the family or a baby in ICU, or a joy like a honeymoon or a baby being born -- and having the rest of the world just carry on and keep turning, business as usual... Your life is turned upside-down, and yet there are still bills to be paid and work to be done, and people all around just doing their own things like always. It makes you feel so completely out of sync with the world. I thank God for this level of normalcy that we have back in our lives now again, now that life with Delma just feels relatively predictable and stable. My heart breaks for my friend's and Morgan's families. I hope they can bring healthy babies home with them soon and find their ways back to normal, stable, blissfully boring days.

Thursday, October 4, 2007

counting our blessings

A little girl at Delm'a daycare was just diagnosed with Stage 4 Neuroblastoma. Morgan is such a doll, she has a head full of blond curls and always gives me the sweetest smile when I say hi to her. I can not even imagine what her family is going through, I've been crying at my desk all day and it's giving me a splitting headache. I just want to hug and kiss Delma all day long.