Traveling.

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Boys have gone to Jeremy’s 25th Haverford reunion for the weekend.  Has it really been 25 years?Yes, it has.  The next 25 years will go quickly as well, I’m sure.  Jeremy is trying to set a good example for me.  I did not go to my 20th reunion last year, so Jeremy’s hoping I’ll go in four years to my 25th.  Maybe then it will be time to see all the new buildings and get reaquainted with some old classmates.   Or maybe not.

Eye exam.

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Shall we continue to float down the vein of medical updates?  Two months ago, I took Vince to have his eyes checked for glasses and his eyes measured high for pressure.  What does that mean?  Oh, just early blindness – no biggie.  Or it could be nothing!  Some people just run high forever.  So the doc suggested we come in two months later to have his eyes remeasured.  Yesterday (which is two months later) we made it in to have the pressure remeasured, everything is OK – smack dab in the middle of the range.  So then I ask, do I come in again in two months?  Nah – bring him back in a year.   Hmmm…  how do I know that yesterday’s measurements were any more accurate than the ones two months ago?   I’m spinning myself in a medical conundrum circle.  At least Vince got many compliments for the t-shirt.

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Edda’s Lyme-bullseye-rash is dissipating under the spell of antibiotics.  A relief.

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What else is going on?  NOTHING.  Absolutely nothing.  Just turn around, nothing interesting here to see.

Funk

Seems like we are all in a funk. Doris is in a funk. I’m in a funk. It’s no bueno. Work is dragging for me these days. Clients can be pretty demanding beyond any sort of reasonable measure. It’s not very motivating for me. That’s all I gotta say about that.

Lyme.

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Edda has Lyme.  We saw this bug bite about a week ago and it’s morphed into the “classic, textbook” (<- doctor-quote) bullseye rash.  No need to do any bloodwork, the bullseye is good enough to make the diagnosis.  (I might have to take a photo of that <- doctor quote #2 (because it’s so “classic, textbook”))  I was assured that a three week course of antibiotics should clear it right up, but I must admit I cried about this last night before I saw the doctor today.  Just the thought of chronic Lyme piled on top of Rett Syndrome was just momentarily too much for me.  Why Edda (really, why me?)? I ask the universe.  Of course, the universe replies in a calm voice, why not?  I got the $5.25 dollar antibiotic prescription, gave the first dose and hopefully in three weeks, I can forget about the stupid tick I never saw.  

Anyways, in the middle of my little meltdown last night, I really, really wanted a cookie.  One of those oversized, undercooked gourmet cookies that one finds in overpriced bakeries.  (There is a good reason I make every effort to not have cookies in the house.)  Jeremy, the kindest of the kind, was at a meeting today which had the precise cookies I had wanted last night and got a bunch of extras which did not go the hips of his co-workers, rather he brought them home to me and my own hips and they were even more delicious than I imagined because not only were they the exact cookie that I had wanted the night before during my moment of crisis, but they were FREE which made them infinitely more tasty in my own worried mind.

Mom, Dad, do not call and wake me up.  We can talk later.  Everything is FINE.

Misc.

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We hosted Sunday night dinner.  Jeremy made his wonderful Peruvian chicken with the spicy green sauce.  I made dessert and managed to slice my thumb.  I had just sharpened the knife and I was peeling some apples and the knife cleaning sliced off the very tip of my thumb.  It didn’t bleed very much, but I’m quickly learning that the tip of your thumb is used in many very important daily living activities.

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Spoke with Donald today about the merits of Uber vs Lyft.  Jeremy, while he was in LA last week, used Uber for the first time and was quite pleased and impressed.  But somehow we are not suppose to use Uber because the CEO is a jerk?  I haven’t looked it up yet, I’ll do it soon…

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Edda and I napped in the middle of the day.  Really, I want to nap, and I use Edda as my excuse.  Mmmmmm…. nap.

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Going somewhere

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It’s a beautiful holiday weekend, could not have ordered up a better looking day than today.  Edda and I spent the day with all the windows wide open reading, watching movies and making an apple cake.  I’m hoping that turned out OK, I’ll try it after I finish this entry.  No vanilla ice cream on hand, so it’ll be missing something.

We went to Dulles Airport this afternoon and we were stuck waiting a couple of hours, so I bought this book I was recommended called “The Martian” which starts with the line – I’m pretty much fucked.  I think I made it through a third of the novel while I was waiting around.  Fast, easy read, but be warned, it’s nerdy.  Matt Damon (dreamy) is starring in the movie version.

I actually love waiting at airports.  The perfect intersection of order/chaos and boredom/endless possibilities.  Where do you want to go today?

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Flowers & Construction Work

Look at the rhododendron flowers at our door steps.  Really pretty.  Pictures 2 and 3 show the installation of the 9 vertical posts of our new deck.  All other woody beams are just temporarily in nature. They will be removed once the concrete at the bottom of the posts dries up.  The new deck will be connected to the old one on the left (picture 3) and stairway will be on the right against the wall of new addition. I also fixed the right fence and fence door (picture 4).  Picture 5 is the two-screen fences erected on the side ready for clematis.  One on the left (or front) is in full bloom.  The middle and right ones need time to grow 🙂 

It goes on.

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I found myself squeezed between Vince and Edda early this morning.  I went over to Edda’s room at 5 am when she got up (as she usually does) and snuggled up next to her and within a few minutes, Vince came over too and took up whatever space was left on the bed.  It’s nice to have a sleepy child tucked under each armpit to somewhat erase whatever bad feelings I had leftover last night from feeling generally inept at parenthood.

Jeremy’s coworker has a newborn and at some pause in reimagining the energy consumption of the industrialized world, he asked around when do babies sleep through the night?  Jeremy kept his mouth shut – no one wants to hear – well maybe never?   Just the night before the question, Edda was up at 11:30 pm (30 minutes), 2 am (15 minutes) and 5 am – for good.  <- This is no longer the usual case, in her defense, she was slightly sick (as we all are this week).  The usual case is a straight shot from 9 pm – 5 am which to me is an awesome amount and is totally a full night’s sleep for the Edamame – but I’m not really sure it counts as “sleeping through the night” with the 5 am wake up call.

Vince was up early (he, in typical teenage fashion, is generally a late sleeper) because he knew he had a friend coming over at 6:10 am to pick him up to go to school to go to Hershey Park to perform with the school orchestra.  So the kids go, play and then go crazy on chocolate for the remaining hours of the day.  Vince has been dreaming of a particular roller coaster for days.

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He gets back at midnight, crashes at a friend’s house and then is suppose to be up at 5:30 am to go rappelling and caving.  It’s just craziness (but luckily, I’m not chaperoning any of this).

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So the boys are out at the beginning of this Memorial Day weekend.  Me and Edda for at least the first little part.  What are we going to do?  I have this idea that we’ll go see Pitch Perfect #2, but I suspect that we will just hang out around the house and make some chocolate frosting.  Look! I’m going to get a peony this year!   Very excited.

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Onward.

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Back to the old, big camera.  Let’s try that for a little while.

Vince and I have been arguing.  Over what?  Well, just about anything.  Pasta? Socks? Ibuprofen?  All topics I used to think would have no amount of conflict in them, but somehow we find a way.  I’m a low-conflict kind of girl, so this constant arguing and then making up like 45 minutes later only to continue it all over again 6 hours later is not a mud pile I’m used to playing in.  Tonight, after the last make-up of the day (hopefully, I’m not asleep just yet so there might be room for one final round of the cycle), we hugged, apologized, laughed and acknowledged that this was going to last at least another five years and that we were in it for the long haul.

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I took Edda to the PT for her slightly disordered feet.  We ordered her some chipmunks. Not the little, brown furry types – just little foot orthotics that will go into her shoe which are called chipmunks.  The PT recommended that we not order the taller AFOs because even though it might straighten out her ankle, she’s lose mobility and muscle mass in her calf because there would be too much support.  I used to think only in terms of progress forward for Edda.  Lately, I’m just hoping we don’t go backwards.  I want her to keep walking!  Keep walking Edda.  We are so lucky to be able to walk, it’s always a good day to be standing on our own two feet.  Forget about stairs, forget about jumping.  Let’s just put one foot in front of the other and move through the day.

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In college, when I was working in an organic chemistry lab surrounded on all sides by carcinogenic solvents, I remembered dispensing acetone from a squirt bottle.  Me and my lab mates would spell out our names on the floor with the acetone and then set the whole thing ablaze with a bunsen burner striker.  Now I use the same squirt bottle to give Edda water as she’s falling asleep, it’s perfect, just the right amount of squeeze, just the right amount of liquid – it feels so familiar in my hand, the muscle memory.  I just spent 20 minutes tonight slowly feeding her 16 oz of water as she had just climbed over the ledge into a restful sleep and I could feel her body relax against mine.  I don’t think she gets more than 8 oz of fluid a day these days, it takes a long time to hydrate her.  No one else really likes doing this little nighttime task – it’s a little tricky, she is drinking while she is asleep and I don’t do it all the time.

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