Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Pool boys
Ok, there've been too many words lately. How about just some pictures? (Thanks, Bill - You rule!)
Monday, November 17, 2008
A leg to stand on
We're in Palm Springs now, and somehow we seem to have continued living our life in a protective bubble and missed the devastating wildfires that have been destroying big swaths of Southern California. We drove right past them on the way out here; now we're east of the fires and while the beach is getting all of the soot and ash, our air is clear, warm, and dry.
Things feel a little strange right now. On the one hand, we're hanging out in a wonderful paradise with some of our dearest loved ones (parents from both sides, Suzi and Boom-Boom) and enjoying every minute of it. As Dad put it, "If you don't think you're going to make it to heaven, you should at least plan to spend some time in Southern California."
At the same time, I'm feeling like we're a little...untethered. With Dave's future wide open, all kinds of different options might be on the table, and it's hard to picture where we'll be or what things might be like six months from now. That said, I'm just trying to keep an open mind and be a little freer in letting myself enjoy things. Like having a margarita at dinner (ooooh...). Or taking a wild and crazy 45-minute trip to the casino last night and losing nine dollars (which is OK because Dave won $90).
Luke seems to have taken on a new obsession and we're not exactly sure where it came from. Apparently he was asking my dad about artificial limbs; then yesterday at the zoo Luke happened to see a man with an artificial leg, and he went bananas (Luke, not the man.) (When the man left the cafe, Luke let out a "Hey! Where'd the man with the artificial leg go!?!?!?"). While Luke's not busy in the pool, he seems to want to spend most of his time with Dad searching the web for pictures and videos of artificial limbs. Tonight at dinner he asked me, "Was Zach born without a hand?" and when I told him no, Zach has always had both hands, he seemed almost disappointed that our family was so completely boring to have all of our limbs and other appendages intact.
Zach is doing well and we have quantitative measures to prove it. We took him to an 18-month speech assessment the other day, and the occupational therapist did a whole range of tests and exercises to make sure he is on track. Apparently he's right at the 18-month level for speech and he's at the 20- and 21-month level for fine and gross motor skills. He's still saying "ba" for most words but he's adding new expressions all the time. "Ding-dong!" "Ning-ning-ning!" (for wind chimes) and "Wow!!!" Yesterday he successfully pointed to his nose, and today we all swear he correctly asked for a grape ("bape").
He loves the pool almost as much as Luke, but the funny thing about this Palm Springs house is how much he loves the rainbow towels. Zach can't wait to get out of the pool to play peek-a-boo under a big snuggly towel. Life is good, right?
...Just took a one-day break during which we did more swimming, I did tons of shopping, and I'm finally getting a chance to get back on the computer. Dave drove me and my parents out to the end of the Indian trail tonight to look at the stars. As soon as we got out of the car I could see a big white swath across the sky that I knew was the Milky Way. There were tons of stars, and it was one of the quietest places I've ever been. It's a nice preparation for tomorrow, leaving day, which should be plenty noisy.
Things feel a little strange right now. On the one hand, we're hanging out in a wonderful paradise with some of our dearest loved ones (parents from both sides, Suzi and Boom-Boom) and enjoying every minute of it. As Dad put it, "If you don't think you're going to make it to heaven, you should at least plan to spend some time in Southern California."At the same time, I'm feeling like we're a little...untethered. With Dave's future wide open, all kinds of different options might be on the table, and it's hard to picture where we'll be or what things might be like six months from now. That said, I'm just trying to keep an open mind and be a little freer in letting myself enjoy things. Like having a margarita at dinner (ooooh...). Or taking a wild and crazy 45-minute trip to the casino last night and losing nine dollars (which is OK because Dave won $90).
Luke seems to have taken on a new obsession and we're not exactly sure where it came from. Apparently he was asking my dad about artificial limbs; then yesterday at the zoo Luke happened to see a man with an artificial leg, and he went bananas (Luke, not the man.) (When the man left the cafe, Luke let out a "Hey! Where'd the man with the artificial leg go!?!?!?"). While Luke's not busy in the pool, he seems to want to spend most of his time with Dad searching the web for pictures and videos of artificial limbs. Tonight at dinner he asked me, "Was Zach born without a hand?" and when I told him no, Zach has always had both hands, he seemed almost disappointed that our family was so completely boring to have all of our limbs and other appendages intact.
Zach is doing well and we have quantitative measures to prove it. We took him to an 18-month speech assessment the other day, and the occupational therapist did a whole range of tests and exercises to make sure he is on track. Apparently he's right at the 18-month level for speech and he's at the 20- and 21-month level for fine and gross motor skills. He's still saying "ba" for most words but he's adding new expressions all the time. "Ding-dong!" "Ning-ning-ning!" (for wind chimes) and "Wow!!!" Yesterday he successfully pointed to his nose, and today we all swear he correctly asked for a grape ("bape").He loves the pool almost as much as Luke, but the funny thing about this Palm Springs house is how much he loves the rainbow towels. Zach can't wait to get out of the pool to play peek-a-boo under a big snuggly towel. Life is good, right?
...Just took a one-day break during which we did more swimming, I did tons of shopping, and I'm finally getting a chance to get back on the computer. Dave drove me and my parents out to the end of the Indian trail tonight to look at the stars. As soon as we got out of the car I could see a big white swath across the sky that I knew was the Milky Way. There were tons of stars, and it was one of the quietest places I've ever been. It's a nice preparation for tomorrow, leaving day, which should be plenty noisy.
Sunday, November 09, 2008
Join the circus
Still no pics. Sorry 'bout that.
Since I last wrote, there have been some historic things happening. Like voters failing to approve Prop. 5, and voters somehow getting convinced to approve Prop. 8. Oh, and the Obama thing.
We spent election day afternoon getting situated in a super-large primo suite in the L.A. hotel where all of the Democrats were stationed. After the boys took a bath in one (!) of our suite's bathrooms, we got all dressed up to go to Dave's party in one of the meeting rooms downstairs. The party gave each boy an opportunity to experience his own version of heaven (Luke = a room full of people to talk to! Zach = a room full of balloons!). At about 6:30, Dave had the foresight to take Luke down to the giant ballroom where there were some 8,000 Obama supporters getting revved up for a big night. When the two of them came back to our party, I went down to take a look myself. I could barely get down the escalators, and when I got to the ballroom level, they had cut off access to the ballroom and there were long lines winding in every direction to get in to the ballroom. So I turned around and went upstairs, and at that point they had even cut off access to the escalators. Good thing I wasn't hung up on getting in. Besides, there was plenty of good stuff at Dave's party, including appetizers, room-service dinner, and a giant sheet cake.
Eventually I brought the boys back up to our suite. By 7:59 I had both boys in pajamas, and I had just started putting Zach to bed in the dark bedroom, when the most raucous, joyous sounds of celebration started bursting out from down below. That made putting a baby to sleep a little awkward. ("Sleepytime, Zach..." "YAH! YAH! WAHOOOOO!" "Shhh...Sleepytime, Zach..." "HONK! HONK-HONK-HONK!" etc.) After I managed to get Zach to sleep I brought Luke over to the window where we looked out and saw people streaming into the streets. We later learned that the fire marshal had actually shut down access to the hotel because there were so many people in the lobby at that point.
Luke and I read a book together and then I let him curl up against my chest and I tried to explain to him what an important night it was. He's old enough now that the big memories are the ones he'll carry with him forever, and I hope this is one of them. We talked for a little bit, and then he slowly drifted off to sleep on my chest, with the party still going on below us. I don't know if he'll remember that night but I always will.
(Side note: Here's hoping I'll forget the worst part of the night: Zach had such a bad cold/cough and was so jangled by the strange surroundings that he could not get himself into a deep enough sleep. Every 20-40 minutes he kept waking up. He had a miserable night of sleep and so did we.)
The next morning Luke's vision of heaven continued, with Imagination Movers on our big-screen TV, and a full room-service breakfast set up in front of him so he didn't even have to move away from the TV. Then he and Dave went for a swim down at the pool...and by that point he had declared that we needed to go back to our house, get the fish, and move into our hotel room because he never wanted to leave.
In fact, when it was time to leave, Luke was so completely bereft that he could not stop weeping. "This is the most beautiful hotel in the world, and I never, ever, ever want to leave" he kept declaring. We finally got him into the car, but he was allowed to keep the key card from the room - and he carried the card around all day, and the next day, when he brought it for show-and-tell at school.
I think part of the reason Luke had been so happy was just having the opportunity to spend some real fun-time with Dave. I mean we've seen Dave mostly every night, but he's been so busy that it just hasn't been the same. Now that the campaign is over, I can feel things steadily returning to normal, and Luke becoming just a little bit happier and more at ease.
Today we took the boys to a little play about the circus. I hadn't really expected Zach to sit through too much of it, but wouldn't you know - Zach was possibly more entertained than even Luke was. During a scene with a lion tamer cracking a whip and four "lions" (actors dressed in funny lion costumes), Zach could not stop giggling. Luke seemed to be more impressed with a scene about a man being shot through a cannonball. Oh, and the mother of one of Luke's friends was in the play, and she was dressed up like a flea, singing a song about how hard it was to be a flea. So that was something to remember.
Now we're just settling in, trying to get back to normal again, and trying to get healthy. Both boys are on antibiotics due to a lingering cough/cold. We're just hoping to get rid of it all in the next three days, before Grandma Joan and Papa come and the excitement really starts heating up again.
Since I last wrote, there have been some historic things happening. Like voters failing to approve Prop. 5, and voters somehow getting convinced to approve Prop. 8. Oh, and the Obama thing.
We spent election day afternoon getting situated in a super-large primo suite in the L.A. hotel where all of the Democrats were stationed. After the boys took a bath in one (!) of our suite's bathrooms, we got all dressed up to go to Dave's party in one of the meeting rooms downstairs. The party gave each boy an opportunity to experience his own version of heaven (Luke = a room full of people to talk to! Zach = a room full of balloons!). At about 6:30, Dave had the foresight to take Luke down to the giant ballroom where there were some 8,000 Obama supporters getting revved up for a big night. When the two of them came back to our party, I went down to take a look myself. I could barely get down the escalators, and when I got to the ballroom level, they had cut off access to the ballroom and there were long lines winding in every direction to get in to the ballroom. So I turned around and went upstairs, and at that point they had even cut off access to the escalators. Good thing I wasn't hung up on getting in. Besides, there was plenty of good stuff at Dave's party, including appetizers, room-service dinner, and a giant sheet cake.
Eventually I brought the boys back up to our suite. By 7:59 I had both boys in pajamas, and I had just started putting Zach to bed in the dark bedroom, when the most raucous, joyous sounds of celebration started bursting out from down below. That made putting a baby to sleep a little awkward. ("Sleepytime, Zach..." "YAH! YAH! WAHOOOOO!" "Shhh...Sleepytime, Zach..." "HONK! HONK-HONK-HONK!" etc.) After I managed to get Zach to sleep I brought Luke over to the window where we looked out and saw people streaming into the streets. We later learned that the fire marshal had actually shut down access to the hotel because there were so many people in the lobby at that point.
Luke and I read a book together and then I let him curl up against my chest and I tried to explain to him what an important night it was. He's old enough now that the big memories are the ones he'll carry with him forever, and I hope this is one of them. We talked for a little bit, and then he slowly drifted off to sleep on my chest, with the party still going on below us. I don't know if he'll remember that night but I always will.
(Side note: Here's hoping I'll forget the worst part of the night: Zach had such a bad cold/cough and was so jangled by the strange surroundings that he could not get himself into a deep enough sleep. Every 20-40 minutes he kept waking up. He had a miserable night of sleep and so did we.)
The next morning Luke's vision of heaven continued, with Imagination Movers on our big-screen TV, and a full room-service breakfast set up in front of him so he didn't even have to move away from the TV. Then he and Dave went for a swim down at the pool...and by that point he had declared that we needed to go back to our house, get the fish, and move into our hotel room because he never wanted to leave.
In fact, when it was time to leave, Luke was so completely bereft that he could not stop weeping. "This is the most beautiful hotel in the world, and I never, ever, ever want to leave" he kept declaring. We finally got him into the car, but he was allowed to keep the key card from the room - and he carried the card around all day, and the next day, when he brought it for show-and-tell at school.
I think part of the reason Luke had been so happy was just having the opportunity to spend some real fun-time with Dave. I mean we've seen Dave mostly every night, but he's been so busy that it just hasn't been the same. Now that the campaign is over, I can feel things steadily returning to normal, and Luke becoming just a little bit happier and more at ease.
Today we took the boys to a little play about the circus. I hadn't really expected Zach to sit through too much of it, but wouldn't you know - Zach was possibly more entertained than even Luke was. During a scene with a lion tamer cracking a whip and four "lions" (actors dressed in funny lion costumes), Zach could not stop giggling. Luke seemed to be more impressed with a scene about a man being shot through a cannonball. Oh, and the mother of one of Luke's friends was in the play, and she was dressed up like a flea, singing a song about how hard it was to be a flea. So that was something to remember.
Now we're just settling in, trying to get back to normal again, and trying to get healthy. Both boys are on antibiotics due to a lingering cough/cold. We're just hoping to get rid of it all in the next three days, before Grandma Joan and Papa come and the excitement really starts heating up again.
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