Catching Up
1) I'm finished with the winter term! Now I just have to get through four more days of work (spread out over nearly three weeks), and then I'll have my table cleared of everything except gestating and The Big School Project. (My Big Project teammates, incidentally, are cool with the whole giving-birth-in-the-middle thing. One of them has infant twins, and cheerfully expressed the opinion that "you can do anything with just ONE baby at a time!")
2) Things are changing in Uterus Land. I'm not going to give any grisly details, but I will tell you that I am aware that my body is moving into the home stretch. This does not at all mean that I will give birth any time soon (the kid needs to marinate a few more weeks), but Anaximander and I have turned a corner.
3) I fell down this morning, crossing the street at higher speed than was wise.* I scraped my hands and knees, gave Anaximander a good thump (on my jacket-filled bag, fortunately, rather than the asphalt), and generally scared the bejeezus out of myself, Dutch, and a whole lot of horrified bystanders.** We all seem to be fine - it wasn't at all a serious fall, and the impact to my torso was pretty gentle. If it had happened to somebody else, I would confidently reassure them that everything is surely perfectly fine. But I felt shaky and scared all morning. Thinking about it right now is giving me the cold sweats. The world is a dangerous place! Also, I remembered that I fell while crossing the street when I was more or less this pregnant with Dutch,*** and I had the exact same horrifying sensation of crashing down and forward in slow motion, my legs scrambling under me like Wiley Coyote's, unable to recover myself because of my ridiculous center of gravity, the pavement coming up toward me... ugh.
4) I realized that the three days I have coming up with Dutch next week (her daycare is briefly closed during my spring break) will be our last sibling-free time off together. I'm going to try to be as mindful as possible for at least SOME of that time - it sounds silly and new-age-y, but I'd like to spend some time just being with her, without any agenda, to see what she's all about. I'm looking forward to it. I'm sure I will spend lots of time trying to rush her along on my agenda, and being irritated, and trying to avoid playing unicorn games, but I'm going to do my best.
5) I've found a fabulous summer camp for Dutch! It's located very close to us, and involves lots of outdoor-in-nature time (though they have a slightly alarming warning on the website that you shouldn't send your kid to this camp unless s/he "can be a real kid" - I'm hoping Dutch doesn't turn out to be a fake kid, because I've invested a lot in her, and that would be a bummer), AND has camps for 4-5-year-olds with the sort of themes that could have been custom-tailored for Dutch. I mean, really - giving her a choice between "Big House in the Little Valley" (aka "Old Days Camp") and "Faeries, Elves, and Mostly Friendly Dragons" (aka "Mom, there aren't really fairies, right? Right? Camp") is basically like giving her a choice between pink glitter and silver glitter.**** I told her she could go to one session (mornings only!), as I'm desperately going to need some time off from at least the one kid this summer, and we can't afford more than one week. She has chosen the first option, in spite of the fact that I told her firmly that they will not have horses and wagons available,***** and decided she'll do dragon camp next summer.
6) Dutch has declared her ambition to be, when she grows up, "a mom who lives on a farm and rides horses a lot." My girl dreams big. (Though, in fairness, this ambition is probably temporary and fueled by the reading of this series.)
*In my defense, I was engaged in playing, at Dutch's behest, a newly-minted game called "The Wife and The Unicorn," which requires some frolicking. All the unicorn games do.
**Apparently the sight of a massively pregnant woman crashing to the ground in the middle of the street is not a happy one.
*** NOT playing unicorn games; just attempting to cross the street before the light went red...
**** There's no right answer here. We just love glitter.
***** I've requested Little House in the Big Woods from the library, and am expecting to spend the next six months playing homesteading games. Which I think I'll probably like better than princess and unicorn games.
2) Things are changing in Uterus Land. I'm not going to give any grisly details, but I will tell you that I am aware that my body is moving into the home stretch. This does not at all mean that I will give birth any time soon (the kid needs to marinate a few more weeks), but Anaximander and I have turned a corner.
3) I fell down this morning, crossing the street at higher speed than was wise.* I scraped my hands and knees, gave Anaximander a good thump (on my jacket-filled bag, fortunately, rather than the asphalt), and generally scared the bejeezus out of myself, Dutch, and a whole lot of horrified bystanders.** We all seem to be fine - it wasn't at all a serious fall, and the impact to my torso was pretty gentle. If it had happened to somebody else, I would confidently reassure them that everything is surely perfectly fine. But I felt shaky and scared all morning. Thinking about it right now is giving me the cold sweats. The world is a dangerous place! Also, I remembered that I fell while crossing the street when I was more or less this pregnant with Dutch,*** and I had the exact same horrifying sensation of crashing down and forward in slow motion, my legs scrambling under me like Wiley Coyote's, unable to recover myself because of my ridiculous center of gravity, the pavement coming up toward me... ugh.
4) I realized that the three days I have coming up with Dutch next week (her daycare is briefly closed during my spring break) will be our last sibling-free time off together. I'm going to try to be as mindful as possible for at least SOME of that time - it sounds silly and new-age-y, but I'd like to spend some time just being with her, without any agenda, to see what she's all about. I'm looking forward to it. I'm sure I will spend lots of time trying to rush her along on my agenda, and being irritated, and trying to avoid playing unicorn games, but I'm going to do my best.
5) I've found a fabulous summer camp for Dutch! It's located very close to us, and involves lots of outdoor-in-nature time (though they have a slightly alarming warning on the website that you shouldn't send your kid to this camp unless s/he "can be a real kid" - I'm hoping Dutch doesn't turn out to be a fake kid, because I've invested a lot in her, and that would be a bummer), AND has camps for 4-5-year-olds with the sort of themes that could have been custom-tailored for Dutch. I mean, really - giving her a choice between "Big House in the Little Valley" (aka "Old Days Camp") and "Faeries, Elves, and Mostly Friendly Dragons" (aka "Mom, there aren't really fairies, right? Right? Camp") is basically like giving her a choice between pink glitter and silver glitter.**** I told her she could go to one session (mornings only!), as I'm desperately going to need some time off from at least the one kid this summer, and we can't afford more than one week. She has chosen the first option, in spite of the fact that I told her firmly that they will not have horses and wagons available,***** and decided she'll do dragon camp next summer.
6) Dutch has declared her ambition to be, when she grows up, "a mom who lives on a farm and rides horses a lot." My girl dreams big. (Though, in fairness, this ambition is probably temporary and fueled by the reading of this series.)
*In my defense, I was engaged in playing, at Dutch's behest, a newly-minted game called "The Wife and The Unicorn," which requires some frolicking. All the unicorn games do.
**Apparently the sight of a massively pregnant woman crashing to the ground in the middle of the street is not a happy one.
*** NOT playing unicorn games; just attempting to cross the street before the light went red...
**** There's no right answer here. We just love glitter.
***** I've requested Little House in the Big Woods from the library, and am expecting to spend the next six months playing homesteading games. Which I think I'll probably like better than princess and unicorn games.
Comments
forgive me if this is all fresh in your mind. sometimes a reminder is good. at least for me it was.
this is when i decided to stop wearing my clogs, which have always been precarious shoes for me. way easy to turn my ankle and fall down. no good at 32+ weeks gestation.
baby!
yay!