Ordinary Time

I finally did it. I completed TM's lifebook after saying I was going to do it for the past 1 1/2 years. It was a surprisingly difficult thing to do. Not the putting together part...putting pictures and text on a page isn't that difficult...but the emotional part. I knew everything that went in it; there was no new information about TM's early life that was surprising to me. But I also hadn't visited all this information in a conscious way for quite a while. There were two things that struck me. First, TM is now more my son than he was the last time I really thought about his background in more than a cursory way. All those early events didn't just happen to some child, they happened to my son. Looking at his (very cute) baby pictures, I'm overwhelmed with the desire to go back in time and scoop him up and save him from so much. But I can't. It's his history and I can't go back and change it no matter how much I want to. Second, I am struck once again...

I suppose my streak of never having to call poison control in over 15 years of parenting had to come to an end someday. At least when I did have to call it didn't result in a trip to the ER. It was one of those moments when everyone thought someone else was keeping an eye on K. When we realized it and located him, he was covered in some smelly purple-type stuff, with most of it being around his mouth. By smell alone I knew what it was...the antacids I had been keeping next to my bed. (It seemed better to keep them there so I didn't have make more trips to the bathroom in the middle of the night than I already was.) Since the bottle was half empty and had been nearly full the last time I paid attention, I decided I should call poison control, but really hoped that I wouldn't be making another ER visit. At 2 visits to the ER in less than a year, I feel K has fulfilled his quota. The very nice woman at poison control said that K should be fine, he may have a stomach ache and p...

I just came back from the Social Security office where I applied for K's social security number and changed TM's name on his social security card from his Vietnamese name to his US name. With this, I have officially finished the paperwork associated with TM's adoption. Hallelujah! (I'm afraid we're not even close with K's paperwork. When we can scrape the money together we will do the re-adoption so he has a US generated birth certificate with his US name, then we can apply for his US passport, then I can go back and change his social security card.) Doing all this paperwork and being pregnant has me pondering the differences between birth and adoption with regard to the hassles of government and documentation. I have to say, for my first five children, I didn't fully appreciate how easy it was. Essentially, I gave birth, filled-out a few forms which were brought to me in my hospital room, and several weeks later a birth certificate and social security card ...

According to Ann at Crazy for Kids , I'm fabulous. (Thanks, Ann!) This is particularly nice right now since 'fabulous' is certainly not how I would describe myself at this particular moment. Here are the rules for this award:1. Pass it on to 5 fabulous blogs, and include the one that gave it to you (and link them) 2. List 5 of your fabulous addictions. First, to fulfill rule #1...here are five blogs which I read everyday, some I think everyone must read judging from the double and triple digit number of comments which appear on them and some are less widely known. In no particular order: 1. His Hands, His Feet 2. One Thing 3. Pleasant View Schoolhouse 4. A Baker's Dozen: Daily Life in a Large Family 5. Making Home Now to fulfill rule #2...five of my addictions. I will have to do a pregnant/non-pregnant list since some things that I love when I'm not pregnant, I really don't care for while pregnant. Non-pregnant addictions: 1. Books and other reading ...

GIRLS! I had my (first, of probably many) level II ultrasound today. Both babies look good...four chambers in the hearts, complete spinal columns, all the right blotches (at least that's what it looked like to me) in the brain, complete lips, and the correct number of limbs. And both the tech and the fetal specialist MD thought they were both girls. (Although we'll refrain from using gallons of pink paint anywhere. We have a nephew whom the tech was 100% sure was a girl. We were all a bit surprised when she was a he.) But, of course, because it seems doctors as a whole are always on the lookout for pathology, I will need to go back for another level II in a month and a half or so. Both babies' kidneys had fluid in them, though still within acceptable parameters. But even so, we were told in serious tones, that it can sometimes lead to surgery after birth (although rare) and that it is a soft marker for Downs (though there were no other markers present, other than my ...