Holy moley, Where the heck did the month go??!

I wish I had a lovely grand excuse of why I haven't blogged in a month - say, a trek to Antarctica or a month in the Pyrenees - but I don't. The school year started and, attendant upon that, all manner of other obligations which have essentially shredded any free time I have into unusable ribbons.

Katie started Kindergarten! The good news: she loves it and her teacher says she's a role model in the classroom. The bad news: I now have to get up at 7:15. Now, I know, 7:15 isn't all that early but, when you work evenings until 1 a.m. or so, it's pretty damn on the 0:dark:30 side of things. It's been hard, too, on Evie who both needs more sleep than she's getting and misses her big sister. She's adjusting slowly but surely. We've started music class again and gym starts next Wednesday; that will help. She has discovered she likes having Mama to herself... and would Matthew please not get in the way! I now am in the astonishing position of having my children fight over who gets to sit with/on me. As annoying as it can be at times, I'm grateful they want to.

Speaking of Evie... I got an awful lesson in my own need to slow down mid-month. The girls had been put to bed but were raising holy Hell. John went to a meeting. I went upstairs to put them back to bed so I could go to work. Livid is probably an accurate term. The crazed whooping should have warned me what I would face. The room, which had been tidy an hour before, was calf-deep in *stuff* from bow to stern; the girls had stripped their pajamas and their beds, strewing bedclothes and bed clothes around like so many crumpled newspapers on a windy evening. I made a (sorry assed) attempt to clear a path and finally just waded into the center of the room. I put Evie's mattress back on her bed. I put the sheet back on the mattress. I couldn't find the pillow or the top sheet or the blanket or Fuzzy Blankie.

I grabbed Evie from where she stood screaming on Katie's bed and, turning around, intended to put her in her bed. I should have moved instead of just turning. It was a little too far and she slipped out of my hands and hit her mouth on the metal of the bed (the girls have wrought iron beds). It was second only to the time I found Katie putting a plastic bag over Evie's head in heartstopping moments. Blood. Everywhere. I was having such a hard time getting it stopped that we called 911. They took one look (and not even a bend down and look kind of look) and said, "she's going to need stitches". By then she'd stopped bleeding (it actually stopped while I was still on the phone with the dispatcher- I looked down and Little Miss Neatnik was stripping her blood-covered shirt saying "ucky!!") so we refused transport and I called John. I'm sure I scared the shit out of him since he couldn't hear much over Evie's screaming other than "I need you to come home". He called 3 times on the way from his meeting and still couldn't figure out what was wrong until we got home.

We gave Evie a choice of who took her to CCMC and, amazingly, she chose me. So, John stayed with the other two and got to clean up the blood and I went off to the hospital for the next 6 hours. (I can't say enough about the staff at Children's - they are wonderful.) She wound up with a radiograph, an iv (for the ketamine), 6 stitches - two under her lip, two on her lip, and two between her upper gum and the inside of her upper lip.

And I wound up with a mother lode of guilt. If I hadn't have been in such a hurry, if I had been more patient, if I hadn't been furious... would I have been more careful, would I have cleaned the space first so I could move, would I have moved more slowly? I don't know. I am clumsy by nature and do overestimate what I'm capable of; I also like to think that, even angry, I'd never hurt my children but then something like this happens and I can't help but wonder. Needless to say, I'm a heck of a lot more cautious about moving children now and keeping a closer guard than ever on my temper. She is doing well now, fortunately, and it doesn't look like there's going to be any scarring. And she still loves me. A fact for which I am SO incredibly grateful.

What else happened this month... dance started up as did religious ed. We're, so far, handling our induction into the public school system with only minor bemusement (shocks me that kids don't go to Open house but do go to parent-teacher conferences - makes no sense to me at all!). The amount of paper that comes home from school is just... something else.

Two choirs have been up and running for a month and I go to my first CONCORA rehearsal tomorrow. October is going to be as bad as December usually is for vocal commitments - this week: 4 rehearsals (2 of which are 3 hours apiece) and 2 services. Next week: 3 rehearsals (but only 1 3 hour jobbie!) and 3 services... etc., etc. Don't get me wrong; I love every minute of it but it's exhausting!

I got and finished an order for 7 bridesmaids necklaces, got another custom order, and a donation request from a repeat customer. I really wish I had more time to create. It makes me a little crazy when I can't.

Then, of course, Katie officially turned 5 and Baby Matthew is no longer a baby, having turned 1 on the 16th.

And that pretty much covers September. October anyone?

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

Matthew William Patrick Kelly
8 lb 5 oz, 19.5" long


















Evie at 17 months
Yogurt is good! Spoon usage? Not so much. ;)

















Katie at 4 years
All imaginative sociability

















And my heart is in your hands too, my own dear children.

Today

All went well, thank goodness, though I suspect Evie's enmity toward Dr. Valdez may be of the enduring variety. The nurse told me they do 50 ear tube surgeries a week - a week!! It was quick and the hardest part (for me) was restraining her little hands as she tried to pull the anesthesia mask off. But then she went to sleep and I trotted my tearful person out to the bathroom and it was over almost before I got back.

I really don't know how parents whose children have to have "real" surgery take it. LJ, my hat's off to you!!

So, there's a family waiting room where you're supposed to wait. And the waiting room has a monitor who checks you in. And the monitor has all the warm fuzzy demeanor of a middle school gym teacher. I swear, it felt more like detention than a place for anxious parents! (Though I don't suppose detention offers coffee and tea...) It just struck me kind of funny. Everyone else was so nice and friendly, including the nurses in recovery who have to listen to wailing children all day, and the waiting room monitor was as dour as a Scotsman who's had his golf clubs and whiskey taken away!

In other news... the concert tonight went well and I didn't make a fool of myself either in my aria or in the choral bits, fortunately. Always a good thing.

And for those who are curious, the new baby is a boy!

Tomorrow

Tomorrow, tomorrow, we'll start the day tomorrow
with a wail or two...

Well, it's scheduled. Little Miss Evie is having tubes put in her ears tomorrow morning. Now, as surgeries go, this is incredibly minor - the surgery itself takes only 10 minutes though she does get put out for it. BUT I have to take a year old baby to the hospital by myself, a baby that hasn't eaten or drunk in more than 12 hours, and that, I expect, will be the hard (and loud) part.

That and watching my baby get put under...

Still, hopefully this will resolve her hearing loss. We'll be seeing the audiologist again in a month to check back on that.

In other news, the *new* baby appears to be baking away quite nicely, my BP is remaining stable, and I'm not loading on the weight. Joined a gym and have made it a goal to swim twice a week for 1/2 hour. I know it's not all that much but it's what I can manage so I just try to keep my heartrate up for the whole time and enjoy the heck out of having a shower all by myself at the end.

Tomorrow's a busy day in a lot of ways. Anyone in Central CT is cordially invited to join us tomorrow evening for a concert of Mendelssohn works at Center Church at 7:30 p.m. I'll be doing "O Rest in the Lord"; it's low for me but the space isn't cavernous and the accompaniment is piano so hopefully it will go well.

Honestly though, I can't think that far ahead. Right now, I'm just focused on getting Katie to the sitter tomorrow before 9 so Evie and I can be to the hospital at 9:30. If you hear persistent wailing about that time, you'll know from whence it cometh.

The Turnabout Intruder

Happy belated Columbus/Native American Day. Hope everyone enjoyed themselves. Life keeps plugging here.

We went to my brother's outside Wilmington, DE (about a 5 hr drive) Thursday last. My eldest refused to sleep that entire night. Friday, we drove to DC (about a 2.5 hr. drive) to see my great aunt.

Despite being over 45 minutes late, I had to pee so badly I made John stop at a hospital so I could use the bathroom (seriously, I was suspending myself over the seat so that I didn't burst in his car - he'd kill me!). Lucky I did, turns out we were more lost than we thought we were.

At any rate, Aunt Catherine is 93 and she's still plugging away. She's in a retirement community but maintains a garden and so on. Gotta love it. I hadn't seen her since my junior year in high school; it was a delightful visit. The trip home... well, let's just say the 2.5 hour drive turned into a 6 hour drive due to traffic. Then Friday night, the poor baby had a fever and didn't fall asleep until 6:30 a.m. It was funny though - not the fever, those are never funny - but she started crying an hour before we got back to my brother's and the 3 year old took it for about 5 minutes then started wailing "STOP CRYING! STOP CRYING!" I didn't know whether to have John stop in the middle of the road so we could just abandon ship and leave them there or laugh my ass off. I chose the latter. Turnabout is fair play, Miss Difficult!!

So, we're home now. My fall zing hasn't kicked in yet. Usually, my energy level and mood spike in the fall and I'm finding it kind of frustrating that they haven't yet. Soon, I hope!! Maybe then I'll blog more. I hate slog-blogging. I just figure all y'all probably have enough depressing shit in your lives that you don't need to read about mine!

I have a new piece up at the site and a WIP at the jewelry blog if anyone's interested!

Cheers all.

Through the Verticals of Trees, in a Small Suburban Town

What I've Been Up To...

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'nuff said.