The Po Show

And To All a Good Night...

I'm signing off for the year. We're leaving for CA before dawn tomorrow (so what did I do today? Pack? No, I spent too much time going to two Gymborees and buying yet MORE crap!).

Wishing all a wonderful holiday season and a healthful 2007. Holy crap, 2007. I haven't even gotten used to 2000 yet.

Last night I was commenting that it was almost 2010, and where was my dolphin in my livingroom? (Ross and I saw the movie "2010" together, before we were a couple, and I always talked about that dolphin in the character's livingroom.) I guess things have not progressed as far as Arthur C. Clarke envisioned.

No time for reflection on the year that has passed, other than this was the year I started to really get my sanity back (still got a long way go!), so that is very positive. Fingers crossed that the year to come will bring more of me back to myself.

See you on the other side...

Big City Sunday

We spent the day in the city, soaking in the holiday air and navigating the packed sidewalks of bustling tourists and shoppers. Actually it wasn't too bad, since we went early in the morning (we've found that New Yorkers don't seem to do much before noon on Sundays, so we always try to get to the city before 10 AM to scout out street parking).

We were at FAO Schwarz at opening, just in time to see the guy dressed like a toy soldier blow his horn. The place filled quickly, but Tessa only had to wait a few minutes to get a turn on the light-up piano floor. Man, I wish I'd had a videocamera, because at the end of her group's turn, she announced "And now for my big finish!" as she ran the length of the keyboard and flung herself to her knees, gliding across the last few feet like Roy Scheider in "All That Jazz."

We walked down 5th Ave., looking at the decorated windows (which only I was really interested in), and made our way to Rockefeller Center. The kids weren't too impressed with the tree, and only cared that we were near the Nintendo Center. We spent way too long in there (I marveled that there were people standing in tremendous lines to buy Pokemon cards! Dude, you can buy them anywhere, and not wait forever in line!), and got to see people playing on several Wii (is that the correct pluralization? Wiis? Wiiiii?). The lines were too long, and I reminded Matthew that he can play on his cousins' Wii in CA in a couple of days.

More walking, a stop at Barnes & Noble to buy books for the trip (not flying JetBlue! Will not have individual screens with DirecTV in front of each child for the entire trip!), and on to Grand Central. The kids loved the light show they have going in the main lobby, which was actually very clever and well-done. The kids haven't been to Grand Central in a quite a while, and they still think it funny and bizarre that Daddy goes there every single day. *I* still find it bizarre, that my Birkenstock-wearing California boy puts on a tie and goes off to labor in Manhattan, across the street from the New York Public Library, every weekday of his life.

Most of the days we go into the city, we stick to the Upper Westside (we did stop there briefly today so I could exchange some Gymboree stuff at 81st and Broadway). We go the Museum of Natural History, or Central Park Zoo. Occasionally we park in SoHo and take a taxi to Chinatown to have pho. We go early, and try to avoid the worst of the crowds. But today we did touristy stuff, and were reminded that we live very close to the New York City that they show on TV.

And since no one complained too bitterly about walking or being cold or wanting to buy stuff, it was a huge, fun, rousing success.

In Which I Try to Add a Scanned Picture

As part of our Mac deal, we got an essentially free HP printer/copier/scanner. I've never had my own scanner before, so this has been fun.

Here is the P.W.S. pic:

P.W.S.

This has me in hysterical fits of laughter every time I think about it! Last night I noticed a drawing on Tessa's art desk. It was in green marker, a picture of a building with red flames curling from the roof and a stick figure standing beside it, arms outstretched to the heavens and a face with a wide open mouth. The letters P.W.S. are written in the top left-hand corner.

I asked her today what the picture was all about. She said the building was on fire. Yes, I answered, but what do the letters P.W.S. stand for?

She said, "It's 'Problems with Science.' The student had some problems with science, and the whole thing got out of control."

OMG, I've given birth to a postmodernist!

Ten Years of Mommyhood

It was, almost literally, ten years ago that I found out I was pregnant with Matthew. It was about 5:15PM, December 9, 1996 (okay, I know, there's a three hour time difference between here and CA, where I found out, but give me a break).

Ten years! Ten years since I knew that my body was growing a human life inside it, at long, long last. I'd wanted to be a mother so desperately, to the point of tunnel vision, for years. That desire colored everything I did and thought about, for years. And I had given up on the idea of conception, of baking my own baby, and had refocused on the process of adopting a baby to mother. But instead the universe held its breath for a moment, and I found out I was pregnant.

4 years. About $10,000. 19 interuterine inseminations. 6 failed rounds of Clomid. 4 rounds of Pergonal. Dozens and dozens of trips to the Woodland Hills Kaiser to have doctor visits and blood tests and ultrasounds to check my follicular development. So much hope, and so much pain. So many tears of disappointment, my heart squeezed to the point of breaking.

But the ultimate result: my baby boy, born eight months and four days later.

And my life changed forever. Ten years ago.

Old Man Winter

can be a real bee-otch!

Wasn't it like 67 degrees last week?? And it isn't even really winter! We woke up to 18 degrees Fahrenheit, "feels like" 1. Yes, ONE DEGREE! That "feels like" temp the courtesy of 25 mile an hour winds, with gusts up to 35. Yay.

Of course I would have chuckled indulgently at someone getting torqued over 18 degrees, the winter we lived in MA (oh, so condescending, so quickly), but the abrupt change here is the killer. Plus today Tessa had yet another walking field trip to the alternative high school to see another play. Why must weather turn foul every time she has a walking field trip? I tried to dress her warmly, and tried to show her how to pull her scarf over her nose and mouth. We're CA folks; we have no clue about this shit. She kept saying she wouldn't be able to breathe, and that the scarf wouldn't stay up, and she would have troubles. I figured that once they started walking through this freezing gale, the scarf would be the least of her troubles.

I hope all the little kindergarteners held their mittened hands together tightly, so they wouldn't blow away!!

Bruins--The Next Generation

An extraordinary thing happened tonight: Matthew got totally into watching our beloved UCLA Bruins beating the much-despised USC Trojans. The fact that the Bruins won was extraordinary in itself, since they're unranked and kind of suck and USC is ranked #2 in the nation, and were contenders for the national championship. But what was so interesting was that Matthew took such a vested interest in their win.

He's watched UCLA football and basketball on TV before, and has shown some interest. (He actually went to a couple of football games when he was a toddler, but doesn't remember them. I am always happy to tell him the story of how he once threw up three times on the way to the Rose Bowl. The first time, I caught the whole load in my hands--go mommy!--but the subsequent bouts ended up all over the back of the car.)

Tonight he watched the whole game, and was so overwrought, joyous when the Bruins did well, anguished when they performed poorly. I finally had to tell him that if he was going to get so upset, he would have to stop watching. "It's just a game," Ross told him. Yeah right, dude. Ross bleeds blue and gold, and suffers greatly when the Bruins lose.

His dad called the second the game ended, like he always does when UCLA plays. Matthew actually wanted to get on the phone, and rapturously asked Grandpa if he'd seen the game. Matthew said that it had been a great game, and that the Bruins had played so well. Obviously, a new fanatic is born.

Tessa got on the phone and said we'd gone to Pizza Hut for lunch today, and that during the game they'd had popcorn. Have to keep working on that one.