scenes from october-november

gary and lij at storytime on tuesdays. g has lij, the x-factor, to sweat it out with... and i have a half day to look forward to. you'd never think daddyhood would be so well accepted here. we've found more support for him staying home than what we thought was expected: dad-has-job-for-sake-of-it-and-pays-nanny-equivalent-wage. phone pics i receive during my day remind me i'm truly blessed.

luci always complains that her brother is a copycat. we just call him "the parrot" because he mimics/reiterates everything we say, even if it's not what he wants. g bought lij the superman outfit (trying to get him out of the 'i want to wear thomas the train again' mode). when luci saw lij dressed up, she insisted on being supergirl. who's the copycat now, we teased.


















i'm basking in the time i'm getting with my kids. like holding my patient schedule open for an hour so i could be in luci's halloween school parade to the hospital extended care unit. *lucky* that the school is so close anyway, and that they were parading towards me. or lij's new tradition of keeping me company while i get dressed in the morning. really, he just keeps going in and out of my closet, then goes to the bathroom drawer to play with my big fluffy powdered makeup brush.

for now, the countdown to simon continues...9 days max. i was putting luci to bed last nite, spooning of course, and she giggled, "i can feel the baby kicking my back!" the plan for this weekend... helping her draw St. Lucy and the Prophet Elijah on good paper (no lines).

countdown: 17 days max

i thought last nite was the real deal. i had a couple of hard contractions, the kind i always describe to my patients, but never seem to be able to handle myself. my stomach got tight, my back felt crampy, i got a huge wave of nausea and started breathing pretty hard. i started scoring it in my head... about a 6-7/10. so i told gary i was going to take a hot shower. he said, "umm... i'm going to be right here. i've heard that before!"

the last time this happened i went to take a hot shower with luci, who was only 2 at the time. then when i went to dry off the water kept coming. "Gaaarrrryyyyy myy water brooooooke!" *luckily* anna and eric were there. and big isaiah. the whole thing is hilarious remembering way back when. anna was cash. eric was... very supportive. i was losing my mind. it actually helps when someone is freaking out with you. love you dude.

so last nite i shaved my legs (which was a struggle), considered painting my toenails (which would be almost impossible), and lay down in bed... waiting... timing them... luci was worried, so she sat with me. i told her what "labor" is. she asked if simon would have a cute cry like her or an angry cry like lij. i woke up still thinking about the answer to that question. so for now, he's still cooking.

oh, here's to some geekiness. gary and i happened to both wake up at the same time. since we don't have clocks now, we can't tell what time it is unless we go to pick up our cell phone. gary looked out of the window, saw orion's belt and said, "probably 6-ish?" to which i responded, "well, it's more to the left, so maybe 5-ish?" he picked up his cell phone. 5:30 a.m. baby.