Hell's Half Acre

We’re so incredibly black humoured.  Jamie and I have been sitting on our collective hands (not literally - that would just be weird) doing nothing about his ass thing and about my head thing.  So today I took him to the doctor.  We went to the general doc ($28USD) who said, “hey you have a fatty mass deep in your ass.  You should have someone look at it.  Here’s the name of a doc.  Go see him.”  So we sat on the referral and did nothing as is our standard mode of inactivity.  Jamie would nag me about my ‘brain cancer’ and I’d nag him about his “ass cancer” and I’d tell him that if my brain cancer comes to fruition he really needs to remarry and I want him to figure out a wife to replace me.  So we figured that Deb (I don’t think she reads the blog anymore so I’m sure the secret will be safe to share with the internets) will be the the winner in the repalce-me-as-mom category, the only problem is that we’ll need to do away with Jeff (it won’t be too messy, I promise, but hey, I’ll be dead, so I wouldn’t bank on that promise).  Details, details.

So, I keep nagging him about ass cancer and how I’d much rather have brain cancer and even die than have ASS cancer - I mean, what a horribly embarrassing cancer to have, ASS CANCER?!!!??  And we finally got his ass to the doctor this morning.  This referral doc ($35USD) was a gastro doc who verified that the tumor is really not anywhere near the gastro devices (well, geez, *I* could have told him that) and that it is hard and fixed and since it waxes and wanes in size related to Jamie’s cycling, is probably cycling-induced and benign and maybe a fibrous tumor.  But we definitely need to get it checked out.  So he refers us to an orthopedist (which is who we should have gone to in the first place if we’d been thinking and all, but what with my brain cancer…) and tells us while we’re at it to get a pelvic x-ray and take that to the ortho.  He called the ortho and explained the whole situation and I left a message with the Ortho to get an appointment in the next couple days.  We hope.  So we’re on top of the ass cancer situation.  Except we really don’t expect ass cancer.  I mean, cancer is bad enough, but to say you have ASS cancer would REALLY suck.  If it were me, I’d just change it to something less laughable.  If you’re unfortunate enough to have cancer it would really suck to have people laugh at you when you told them what kind.  And ass cancer isn’t really something people are going to respect.  I told you our humour is dark.

While we were out doing our doctor tramites we decided to try and follow the very vague directions the receptionist gave me for the ENT referral and see if talking in person might give some insight into the exam and prices.  After the last doctor visit, I called the ENT I was referred to, was told the consult fee was $500MN (but depending on what he did it could be $500 or $700 but I really had no idea what made the difference).  They gave me vague directions to find the place - 5 blocks from Bodgea look to the left, something about 2 green houses, something maybe about Plaza Chihhuaha, something I obviously missed - and strangely enough we could NOT find the place!  I know!  Surprised me too!  So we stopped at Bodega and got some groceries and headed to Hospiten to see if they have an ENT and what they charge.  Their ENT is at a congresso (I’m guessing a convention or something) but they have an ENT coming down from Cancun on Tuesday and Thursday to cover.  Their charge is only $495MN and I took the bait.  The boys have a dentist appointment tomorrow so I’m sure we’ll be bleeding pesos really soon.

The vertigo is getting really really bad but I’m pretty sure it is bad-attitude vertigo and not brain cancer, though jamie has his money on brain cancer.  Considering that SSD would pay my dependents about $3000USD/month and I have a $300K USD life insurance policy on my head, he’s picked the winner.  I think it is time to knock-off the mommy.  I’m worth MUCH more dead than alive.

In other news, due to the Grito and my vertigo getting incredibly worse, all our routines pretty much fell apart.  I stopped tracking my food intake (but am hanging solidly at 79 kilos - didn’t check this morning - could be I’ve regained all 11 kilos overnight - you never know), stopped exercising (vertigo much worse towards the end of day and due to the heat, we always exercise at the end of the day), stopped reading to the kids, stopped all academics, and yesterday decided to start getting back on track.  Pikey, however, has been motoring right along, continuing with his math, copywork and reading.  I can’t tell you all how incredibly proud I am of that boy.  He learned to read around 10 (just didn’t put it together well until then) and then only read for information; never for pleasure.  I accepted that; I didn’t really like it as I really would have loved to share the joy of reading with him, but accepted that it was just different for him.  The last couple months, however, he has developed a joy of reading.  He picks out books and enjoys them.  I am so happy he has found this little world of reading good books - it just warms my heart.  And he continues to methodically work through his math, even when it is difficult, and strives to understand and master the concepts.  He’s not just going through the motions.  I am just so very very proud of him.

We do a Tuesday Tea Time each Tuesday (or Wednesday or Sunday - however it works out) and a Friday Freewrite (where the boys and I write for 10 minutes straight - no editing, no composing, a free-flow of words) for a few months now.  Last Friday (or whatever day it ended up that we did it) Jesse wrote some lovely prose about fireworks.  I’ll have to see if he’s interested in sharing, but it was so beautiful to see the writing come alive in him.

We’re still slogging through Japan and today I think we’re starting on Korea (but I’m not exactly sure).  I’m finalizing the plans for our stuides of the Ancient Cultures and can’t wait to begin and at the same time, wish I’d done a better job on World Cultures.  If nothing else, I’ll be able to do a better job with the girls on their 2nd go around.  I need to update the homeschool blog but that means I’d have to organize stuff on my end and that’s just not going to happen.

ARRRRR!  I have been so fracking sick I can’t even believe it.  I’ve been a wantin to stick my head in a bung hold and cover it with grog.  (and that will have to do for my pirate talk) I must have either picked up something at the cenote (with all the birds pooping in the cenote, I wonder…) or it was the dirty fork (ours) I used to make myself a slice of bread and peanut butter.  At any rate, almost immediately after getting home I started violently “expressing myself” and spent the next day sleeping.  All Day Long.  Last night I went to bed with a killer headache and finally piped it down with Motrin this morning.  I had a visit from a lovely reader but I was so nauseous the first time I’m not sure I made any sense and was in the throes of “ejecting” the second time I didn’t even get to talk to her.  I’m so sorry …

I also headed to the doc today to check in on my vertigo issue and he’s done.  He’s sending me to a specialist ENT, for whom, strangely enough, we saw advertisements for on the shopping carts at Mega.  Not sure if that is a good sign or a bad sign.  I’m starting to think that maybe it is time to hit Merida as their medical care is well known and respected.  He gave me exercises (that I’ve seen recommended on the Internets) for benign positional vertigo in the event that is the problem and also to help me deal with the effects of the vertigo.  When it is bad (some days and all evenings) it is really bad and I have trouble walking.

So…

We really really really enjoyed Valladolid.  It is just the perfect sized town for us - not too big and not too small.  We loved the colonials, the colors, the return to Real®Mexiconess, did I mention the colonials?, the plaza, the laid-back evening plaza time, the colonials, the colors, I could go on and on, but we really saw only such a tiny glimpse.  We were deluged with thunderstorms both afternoons and only got out and about during the mornings and late evenings.  So we definitely need to make a return trip.  I don’t know how I forgot one of the most wonderful things about Valladolid - the lack of mosquitoes!  We were able to sit outside, long after dark, watching the stars and chatting and not once did we swat a mosquito.  It was heavenly.

We had amazing breakfasts and I don’t know if it was the extacy of feeding the entire family for $70MN (um, YES matey!  That was the TOTAL for all SIX for breakfast buffet!!!  AHOY matey!  Avast that sailor!) or that the food was actually that good, but we FEASTED on 3 different types of eggs (eggs with chorizo, eggs with ham, and eggs with tomatoes and onions), french toast, panqueques, bolillos (frenchish breadish rollish things), freshly made papaya jam, amazing coffee (we brought our own but the house coffee was the first coffee I’ve ever had anywhere in Mexico that was Good Enough To Drink), freshy squozen papaya, piña, and orange juices, regional sausage (Sissy was the only one who liked it), tamales (dry the only time I tried one), The Best Beans in the Free World (even Jamie who HATES beans loved these beans), and conchita pibil, and fresh fruits of piña, watermellon, melon and papaya.  Pike who never liked papaya before has converted.

So, amazing breakfasts that kept the kids fat and happy for many hours.  Maybe we need to start some of the same here - feast like a King at breakfast, Prince at lunch and pauper at supper.  We had a lovely dinner (of pozole, the day of the grito, of COURSE!) with an Italian who had a place in Tulum, then moved to one of the towns (you all know them) on the road to Coba, then to Valladolid.  He does art and now has a restaurant.  We went to Ek Balam and loved it and I was amazed that the kids picked out the ball field and where the hoops were missing and identified Puuc architecture.  Well, they didn’t identify it as Puuc, but noted the architectural differences between Cobá, Chichen Itzá and Ek Balam.  We found the furniture capital of Yucatan state on the road to Ek Balam but the styles were too fancy for us.  All in all, we barely scratched the surface and can’t wait to go back.  We highly recommend Maria de la Luz for breakfast, lunch or dinner; the rooms aren’t anything to write home about but they are clean, safe, have covered parking (where someone will wash your car and run a greasy rag all over your windshield for only a tip!) and eveything works as long as you’re not wanting hot water at night.

We can’t wait to go back!

I’ll keep typing as long as I can feel my fingers but I can’t be held responsible for typos as I’m typing from a FREEZER. Jamie and Pike keep the A/C set to “FROZEN” and when i’m in the trailer it works as Ellen and I simply load up the sleeping bags and wool caps and we’re set. Here in the hotel, however, we have a sheet and a thin bedspread. Add to the fact that Valladolid has a monopoly on the rainy season and you end up refrigerating a room that is cold (due to rain) to begin with. Last night Ellen and I wore all our clothes to bed and I am happy to say we have survived another night in the arctic temperatures of our room.

My monkey brain is going everywhere with events and memories so I’m not even going to try to be c

My previous memories of Valladolid were of dragging the trailer through town, one of many small towns we got lost in and dragged our monstrosity around, so the memories weren’t exactly happy. Mainly me yelling at Jamie asking WHY he directed me this way (he’s the navigator) and him yelling that signs and sinage in Mexico are nonsensical and I don’t think we even noticed it was colonial. But it is and it is absolutely LOVELY. Maybe I’ll get some pictures this morning as we get the sun in the morning. The hotel is nothing really to speak of - room is ok - but we have THREE beds (the main reason I got this hotel) and room for everyone. Of course, of the king, the double and the twin that the room holds, Ellen decides, after 6 years of sleeping ONLY with me, that she wants the twin. To herself. And then Sissy says the same. At home neither girls would ever consider sleeping alone but they love little beds in hotels. She realy needs the room, though, as she takes the entire middle of the king and has Jesse and myself clinging to the sides of the bed hoping to keep from falling off.

This was our first grito and as such, we enjoyed it immensely. We have spent a good amount of time in Dolores Hidalgo and have seen Hidalgo’s childhood home as well as the Aldondiga in Zacatecas, so the history was very palpable to the kids. I don’t think I’m wrong in supposing that they know the story of Mexico’s independence better than that of US independence from British rule.  The kids and I popped in and out of the zocalo most of the early evening, but the rain really either kept attendance down or this is a really low-key Grito.  There was a footrace around 8pm that I really didn’t get the significance (if any) of and there was a serious partay going on in the Casa de Cultura.  I supposed, due to our experience in Cozumel at Carnaval, that the action would probably be at the Casa de Cultura with their gracious balconies and all evening I kept expecting bead necklaces to come raining down to us peons below.  Pretty quickly a stage was setup (in the rain) and chairs put out in front of it (in the rain) and all the little food stands put tarps or plastic over themselves to protect from (yes) the rain.

Around 10pm the festivities began to begin, but people were still siting under inside areas and even those setting up left many plastic chairs out of the rain as it didn’t seem to ever let up.  I finally enticed Jamie and Pike out of the hotel room for the actual Grito.  It was definitely Low Key with 2-3 firework displays and not everyone in the crowd joining in the “Viva Mexico” shouting.  We happened to be savoring the most amazing pierna de puerco tacos ever presented to man during the actual grito and not one person stopped eating, taking orders, drinking or talking to look or listen.  I did hear one guy tell his date/wife that she was going to miss the Grito if she made another order, but she did, and they did.

The ayutamiento brought a great band in from Mexico - their best stuff was Cuban-infused and they really wanted EVERYONE On Their Feet Dancing and would call you out or “encourage” men to dance with willing partners.  The girls joined us for last of the band, we ate cotton candy, amazing tacos, cheese filled crunchy crepe like things and watched fireworks exploding directly over our heads and raining debris down upon us.  Unfortunately, since we’d gotten up at the imposible hour of Nine O Clock, we were exhausted by midnight and went to be early.  With our hotel directly on the zocalo and bordering the libre running directly through town, we were able to wake at 1am, 2am or 3am and still enjoy all the music and noise of the celebration.  At 9am the next morning, we were all JOLTED from deep sleep by the military beginning their desfile (parade) RIGHT OUTSIDE OUR WINDOW.  We were quite happy to be awake though and ran down to the sumptious breakfast buffet and occasionally outside to see the parade.

We are LOVING Valladolid and will definitely be back!

Jonna and I have had a couple discussions on the fact that although we live in Mexico it is a different Mexico from much of the rest of the country.  She is quick to correct me that while it is Real® Mexico, it is a Real®Tourist Mexico.  And she is right.  But the other day it struck me, again, just how different life is here from Real® Mexico.

The police have TRAFFIC CONES!  (runs around picking up all the Mexican bloggers who just fell off their chairs).  I know!  It is crazy-talk but it is true!  They have cans of fire also, but they actually use traffic cones to creat a road block or revision or inspection or speed trap.

WE HAVE SPEED TRAPS.  Well, not really speed traps, but (ok, everyone from the rest of Mexico take a deep breath, hit of something, and brace yourselves) the transitos and state police have Radar guns (just lost the Veracruzanos), HowFastIsYourSpeed displays (just lost the Cozumeleños), and ENFORCE THE SPEED LIMIT (just lost the rest of the country).  It is crazy-talk, I know, but the Solidaridad cops really want you to drive 80(kph) and make no bones about it.  And they TICKET people (shit, just lost Minnesota).

We have 4 lanes of good road and it is (shhhhh) illuminated.  Insanity, I know.  It is absolutely insane.  When you drive at night, you can See The Road.  I’m still coming to grips with this one and each and every time I see the streetlights I’m amazed all over again.

We have a season.  High season (many many toursits, locals are happy, money is flowing) and Low Season (no tourists, money is tight and people get desperate).  This year we had a bottom-of-the-barrell season when the low season was impossibly low.

English is spoken EVERYWHERE.  There are countless radio advertisements on the radio and much English music on the radio.  Very little to no banda.  But we also, since our radio station comes from Cozumel, have an entire day of Cuban music (Sunday).  Billboards along the carretera are in English.

Supers have amazing variety of food.  It used to be, before we came to Quintana Roo, that there were some staples (whole wheat flour, cheddar cheese) that you just were not going to find until you hit Costco.  And even then it was iffy.  Here almost all the supers carry ORGANIC food.  Imported, of course.  This blows my mind so badly but then I remember the Superama just north of Queretaro that had organic food and the organic coffee you can (or at least could) buy all over San Miguel de Allende.

No-one jumps on your hood and washes your windshield.  I remember some particularly aggressive guys in Mazatlan and just south of Ciudad Valles, but generally, I really appreciated these guys - especially since the van has forever had a gigantic hole in our windshield water holder thingie and we rely on these guys to get our windshields clean, as, like most of Mexico, the Pemex station NEVER has windshield cleaning stuff available.

The deli folks don’t yell at you to come try this or that.  In most of Mexico if you happen to stray anywhere NEAR the cheese and deli area, the deli ladies will yell out to you asking you what you want.  i have NEVER left a store without something from the deli, whether I wanted it or not, when the deli ladies yell at me.  And they love to give you samples and especially love to give the kids samples.  You can still get this in the smaller stores (San Francisco and Super Maz) but it just never happens at the bigger stores (Mega, Chedraui, Bodega Aurrera, Soriana).  I actually don’t buy deli food anymore and blame it on the lack of people yelling at me.  Go figure.

We have no preferico.  Neither does Cancun.  Merida does and even Felipe Carrillo Puerto does, but we don’t.  Maybe because of the 4 lanes each direction.  That is just wrong.  I’m sure this must go against some a law of nature.

No municipal market.  Though, I think I caught sight of something close to that in the Colosio but I wasn’t sure.  We have relied on municpal markets everywhere else for cheap, good produce, waching futbol for free, amazing homemade chorizo, cheeses, chicharones and other stuff we didn’t even know we needed.  It just doesn’t feel right without one.

Incredibly high prices.  Everything here is so much more expensive than the rest of the country but where we really feel it is in medical costs.  I haven’t yet found a consulta for less than ($275MN (con IVA) - about $27.50USD).  If someone ever gets really sick here, I’m taking them to Merida.  Even though Merida is expensive (compared to other Mexican cities, it is quite a bit cheaper than Playa.

I’m sure there is more; what have you found and does any of this ring true for you?

We are headed to Valladolid for a couple days to experience the Grito from Real® Mexico.  We’re staying at a hotel on the square and hope to watch the festivities from the rooftop and zocalo, depending.  I’m really looking forward to rediscovering my camera.  I’m hoping to drag the kids back to Dzitnup too see if it has changed much and also Ek Balam.  And of course, the jail.  For hammocks, what else!!???!

Oh, and if you’re still following along, 79 kilos.  I ate about 3 kilos of chocolate chip cookies last night though, so I’ll probably be working all this coming week to get rid of that plus whatever is involved, calorie-wise, with Chiles en Nogada.  After all, it wouldn’t be independence day without Chiles en Nogada.

I’ve just upgraded to 2.6.2 - let me know if you have any problems.

This morning was the first time in 3 days that we are out of the bands of Ike. Yesterday we had roaring seas and wicked winds. My heart is breaking for my friend Jody, and I can only hope that she experiences a miracle.

Galveston radar

Mississippi pleads with hard-headed Galveston residents

Cuban 5-story building takes a wave

Haiti devestated

Another plug for the Lambi Fund

Light reading - riding out Hurricane Hugo in a sailboat

What do you do when the southern bands of a hurricane start flowing over your sky? You go snorkeling, of course! We headed out for Tuesday Tea Time this morning but it was so hot and sticky and still and the still calm waters called to us so much that we threw on our suits and headed out to the fish and the sea.

Ike is blowing over us after decimating Haiti and hitting Cuba in exactly the same area that Gustavo did, but here we have cloudy skies, occasional rain and calm seas. Yesterday we had wickedly rough seas but now that Ike is overhead the sea is calm. I took Sissy, Ellen and Pike out past the reef and then towed Ellen back on the boogieboard (I attach it to my ankle and she surfs in). Sissy was FREAKED by the “dog fish” that have been trained by the cruise ship guys with dogfood to swarm around and the current was deceptively strong out by the reef, out of the shelter of our cove so I struggled to get both frightened Sissy and tired Ellen back to shore. Pike was having a blast and the sun came out just long enough for me to get some pictures.

I’m really impressed with the boys’ continued dedication to challenging themselves. We started dictation this week and instead of doing (easy) fill-in-the-blank dictation, they asked to do pure dictation with no hints or help. I started a homeschooling blog and will probably move this there but right now the stars have aligned and all is well here along the sea.

Suckerpunch Number One
Way back in the Spring, or sometime in the past, honestly, my memory for non-numerical items has never been anything more than decent, I was made aware of the Randy Pausch Last Lecture.  Since our internet is satellite, we cannot download anything, even a 2-minute YouTube video, without getting our bandwidth spanked and put in timeout (this is called FAP).  So I ordered the DVD and it has been sitting in South Dakota waiting for us.  When our neighbors from Canada came back to PaaMul they brought not only the video, but all our mail since November 2007 and all the books I have ordered.  They also brought a sewer valve gate I had shipped directly to them.  It was like Christmas all over again.  The boys and I watched the DVD of The Last Lecture and discussed brick walls, idols and dreams.  Jesse downloaded Alice and has run the tutorial and we’ll see where he goes with that.  The sucker punch?  His last line.  The lecture got a bit dry at times when he wandered all over his experience and people in his field but it definitely held the interest of a 12yo and 14yo and made this 47 year old cry.  Highly recommended.  If you can’t get the DVD free anymore, leave me a comment and I’ll mail it to you when we get back to the US.

Suckerpunch Two
I think my dysequilibrium is getting better but I’m not sure.  I’ve been taking the medicine prescribed and tomorrow will be my last day.  It has taken until yesterday (8 days of meds) to make me begin to think the meds are working.  But the suckerpunch is that the awful, horrible, no good, very bad cawfee that Jamie has been buying resulted in such awful heart palpitations that I ended up GIVING UP CAWFEE for a number of days until I realized I could do espresso, one shot, and be ok with that.  But I HATED that cawfee.  But I hated the heart palpitations more.  I missed my good Cubano roast so much, and jamie had nothing left to chop but the toes, that I finally headed into town MYSELF and picked up 2 kilos.  And today, I have had TWO CUPS of cawfee and life is good.  And I think the meds might be working.  I’ll go to the doc on Tuesday or Wednesday and see what is what as the dysequilibrium is definitely worse in the afternoon and really really bad during and after exercise.  But I’m hoping that is just low blood pressure.

Suckerpunch Three
Hurricane Gustavo wasn’t enough for the Haitians and apparently the gods have decided to send them Hurricane Ike to complete the one-two suckerpunch.  We’ll get skirted again, just like Gustavo and I am a firm believer in the tortugas.  The kids and I wanted to do something to help and found The Lambi Fund of Haiti.  Not only are they offereing aid, but they promote self-sustainability and don’t look tied to any religious requirements on those receiving services.  It always seems to unfair and wrong to tie aid to those desperately in need to belief or conversion.  So two thumbs up here.

Suckerpunch Four
Along with many books I’d forgotten I’d even ordered (and some were free and some I don’t even remember) we got books that USPS showed had not even arrived in South Dakota.  When USPS says the materials are still en route I tend to believe their tracking and figure I have time to figure out how to incorporate the books, especially if they are part of a curriculum.  Fortunately or unfortunately, the Story of the World I and II books arrived and while I’m aware of the claims of inaccuracy and editing issues, I figured they were good storybooks for the girls and they’ll get a second go-around at Ancient Cultures in 4 years anyway so they are “good enough”.  And then Jamie started reading Volume I and I’ve been scrambling ever since trying to tie in other books we have and internet resources to flesh out the book until I get the rest of the books I’d planned on using.  Hard to believe this unschooler is scheduling anything but I’ve decided we’ll try Classical Relaxed Eclectic Sometimes Homeschooling for a year (enough qualifiers there?) and see what the kids think.  I am thinking it will just not work with Jesse but it really seems to speak to Pike.  I have pretty much decided to keep a homeschooling blog to keep all this stuff there and dump it out of my head (since right now everything is on scraps of paper and links) but haven’t started yet.  Promises.

Suckerpunch Five
Pike damaged his foot on the trampoline and after a day of awful pain and bruising I decided to take him to the doctor. Same one who is working on my dysequilibrium. It was after 3pm so the receptionist called in the radiographer who took x-ray and declared the foot without break. Doc didn’t even check the x-ray but gave us lots of advice and caution and was a calm, soothing presence (aren’t they ALL here?). I could have done without the $250MN consult and next time I”ll probably decline it after hearing from a radiologist, but the bill was $825MN (about $82.50USD). I almost died from shock - that is high for Mexico but apparently, might be low for this touristy area. Next time he’ll have to tough it out with ice and ibuprofen.

Suckerpunch Six
I gained 2 kilo with Sissy’s amazing Apple Pie birthday “cake” and overate the next day (because one day of gorging myself was apparently not enough) but then kicked those kilos to the kerb and I’m back to 80 kilos this morning. Very happy I suckerpunched those kilos.

Cliff Notes version:
Jamie gets to keep his toes.
I’m in cawfee nirvana.
Kids doing the great year-long experiment unless they don’t.
Randy Pauch will make you cry.
Medical care is either expensive or cheap.
80 kilos.

Today it was Jamie’s turn to pick our destination but he decided he’d rather do it tomorrow and is still deciding the where. I think I’ll drag the boys out to the reef in kayaks as there is little sun for snorkeling.

Yup, they’re a little crowded, but that is One hurricane, Two tropical storms and One invest.  Oh, and Gustavo.  For some reason this year, all the storms are tracking north, over the Antilles.  I tried asking on Dr. M’s blog why (and I know that later in the season storms track more south) but so far I’m flummoxed.

It took a lot of convincing.  He wanted a hot tub in exchange.  Can you believe a HOT TUB in exchange for about 2 million sperm?  Of course, it was so well worth it and he never did get that hot tub.  After the boys, and after we could see the light at the end of the tunnel that was Pikey’s toddlerhood, I really felt that we had a girl waiting for us.  Not because i really WANTED a girl - I was very happy with my boys and felt very comfortable with boys.  It is hard to remember and even believe this far out, but in the trenches of diapers and nursing and up every 2 hours at night, you think that you get used to one sex.  So I was comfortable with the boys and wasn’t really wanting a girl but thought it might round out the family nice and I’m always up for something new and different.  But I really felt, deep within me, that there was a girl waiting.  I had no idea there were really TWO waiting.  So, for 18 months (I honestly think it was that long) Jamie and I discussed and went back and forth and hemmed and hawed and cried and fought and finally decided to go for Number Three.  I had read Taking Charge of Your Fertility by then and was charting and knew my fertile times and yadda yadda.  So I identified a week of Prime Time and harrassed the man, even when he was sick, for some of the moibile members.  Can you believe any man who would refuse the request for “intimate time”?  By the end of the week he was DONE.  Why I thought we needed to TRY to get pregnant after never trying for the first two, I had no idea, but this girl had my brain in a whirl.

I’d had preterm labor with both boys and actually gave birth to Pike on week 35 day 6 of that pregnancy, AND had been hospitalized until week 35 of that pregnancy AND stayed bedridden until week 35 day 5 of that pregnancy, so we were somewhat concerned that I really did have preterm problems.  So my midwife (I had homebirths for Pike, Sisssy and Ellen) declared me disabled at around 6 months and I never went back to work (outside the house) after that.  One of the best decisions of my life.  The kids have never been in daycare and having them home and being WITH them has always been very important to me.

I never had preterm with Caroline.  I knew she was a girl from conception.  I never had a clue with the boys, but I KNEW Sissy was a girl and we had no diagnostic testing.  Crunchy folk, we are.  I did, however, begin leaking amniotic fluid one day, after i had passed the 40 week mark and since I had broken water before going into labor with both boys, expected labor to begin shortly.  It didn’t.  I went to bed that night wondering when she would come.

I went to bed the next night wondering when she would come.  I took my temperature every 4 hours, kept hydrated, boosted my immune system and took much Vitamin C and probably other stuff.

My midwife began to get anxious on the 3rd day even though I had a very certain inner calm.  I’d been GBS+ with Pike and we had just decided to treat me as if I were GBS+ again with Sissy by boosting my immune system and a shot of abx when labor began.  I decided after still no labor this day to get have Pike nurse really really well and see if that wouldn’t kick-start labor.  It started the contractions up but nothing really settled in until just before we were supposed to pick Jesse up from his first day of Kindergarten.  Finally labor started in earnest and I went from no labor to giving birth in 3 hours.  It was a wild ride and she was born in the water (we had a birthing pool setup in the livingroom) with Tata keeping the boys entertained.  Of course she was a she and perfect in every way.  She had a VERY tangled cord, however, and it was wrapped everywhere, looped all around her body, her neck, from torso to crotch, it was almost impossible to detangle her.

We celebrated the birth with spinach, chicken and tomato Zachary’s pizza.

She has turned into a horse-crazed girl who kills me with her physical beauty and softens my heart with her tenderness.  She is the best big sister her little sister could ever have and is constantly following her brothers around, trying out their maturity and sometimes besting them with her insight and responsibility.  She LOVES iguanas and early on named so many “Ralph” that we frequently will call the backyard and any iguana we see “Ralphie”.  Like her brothers at this age, she is addicted to anything Harry Potter and cannot go to sleep without one of the zillion CD’s we’ve burned playing in the background, narrating yet another adventure from Hogwarts.  Until she was about 3 she was my faithful companion and would NOT let her father do ANYTHING for her, but around 4 she decided that he was her main parent and now cannot stand to have him out of her sight.  I remember him asking me, “WHEN will she let ME do something for her?” in frustration and now it is *I* who sing the same lament.  :)  She LOVES to be waited on and doted upon and would probably have done much better as an only child, but then I think that about each one of them. 

I am SO glad she decided to join us and she shows us the straight and narrow path daily.  We would be wild and uncivilized without our little Sissy and I cannot imagine my life without her light shining through.  Happy sweet birthday my girl.  I love you more than I can say.