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Dec. 5th, 2006 11:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaI have had a cold for twelve days now, which is about eight days more than I consider to be reasonable. Towards the end of last week it looked like it might be clearing up, but the symptoms came crawling back. I hope that doesn't mean that it's turned into a bacterial infection.
When you have a cold, you're supposed to rest. So, twice in the last two weeks, we've travelled five-plus hours to my parents' house in upstate New York.
Thanksgiving, of course. Some elements of this were great: savoring my mother's cooking, being there for my father's 70th birthday, getting to hang out with my brother and his family. But overall I have to admit that it was a nightmare of a trip. Alex decided that she wanted nothing to do with our bizarre expectation that she sleep in a strange house, and was whiny, clingy, and demanding in the daytimes as well. There was massive family drama. And all three of us caught an awful, raging, miserable cold that Alex and I still have.
We crawled back to Baltimore on Sunday, utterly exhausted and seriously questioning the plans we'd made to return to Elmira the following Friday. It seemed like utter craziness to make the trip again, just after we'd gotten Alex back into her normal sleep schedule. But my mother was throwing a surprise birthday party for my dad, and I couldn't imagine being within driving distance and not going. My closest sister was going to be there, and we hadn't seen each other in a year. Other relatives were coming whom we hadn't seen in even longer.
So last Friday, proving that we are incapable of learning from experience, we loaded up the car and headed north again. And I'm so glad that we did. Except for a few bedtime struggles with Alex, the whole weekend was just about perfect.
My father was all the fun words you can possibly use to express surprise. Dumbfounded. Flabbergasted. Hornswoggled. He had no idea whatsoever that anything shady was going on until the moment that he found himself in a roomful of 40 of his closest family and friends. Fortunately (because this doesn't work on everybody) he was also incredibly pleased. And he was touched that we'd come all the way back for his party.
His buddies - a bunch of old guys who have been hiking together in the White and Adirondack Mountains for 20 years or so - put on a little performance in the middle of the party. They came in dressed in backpacks and hats and with hiking poles in their hands, gave a funny little talk about my dad's history as a hiker, and then performed the filk song I wrote back in 1995 when my father nearly severed his ear in a fall on a mountain.[1] I had sung it with my dad a couple of times, but never heard it really performed - so that was great.
Saturday was my little sister's baby shower. To say that her pregnancy has been a matter of great surprise and concern to the family is putting it mildly, but she's done beautifully so far, and it was a lot of fun to share in her excitement about the birth. She's due next month, and getting around amazingly well for someone so far along - she did an awful lot of work helping my mother get ready for Dad's party, and was up the next morning hard at work getting ready for her own. I had fun ogling all her tiny little baby things.
Completing the Wald Family Baby Boom is my oldest sister, Debbie, who stopped by for the party weekend on her way to Guatemala, where she is adopting a baby. She's been down to visit three times already, but this time she will be bringing her little girl home. It's been a much longer and more anxious road than anticipated, so we all just basked in her joy. I helped her install her carseat, passed on bits of advice (where to find whole milk in an airport, what to do if the airplane bathroom doesn't have a changing table), and helped her put together an album of baby pictures for the baby's birth mother, who wants to stay in contact. I can't wait to meet Jessica Paola! She's the second-cutest baby girl ever.
Alex had a great weekend. We had dreaded interrupting her schedule again, but this time she slept through the night, napped well, ate well, and stayed cheerful and charming throughout the entire visit - even at Dad's party, when she would have had every right to be shy, whiny, and overwhelmed. I think the difference was partly that she felt better, and partly that she had a firmer grasp on the whole concept of visiting. It's easier to take a weekend at Grandma's house if you know you'll be going back home at the end.
It was a great time... but I'm glad we're staying home this weekend. Maybe I'll even rest.
[1] Yes, I know that it's kind of odd to make a joke out of a disabling injury. But he liked it. And I was almost certain that he would.
When you have a cold, you're supposed to rest. So, twice in the last two weeks, we've travelled five-plus hours to my parents' house in upstate New York.
Thanksgiving, of course. Some elements of this were great: savoring my mother's cooking, being there for my father's 70th birthday, getting to hang out with my brother and his family. But overall I have to admit that it was a nightmare of a trip. Alex decided that she wanted nothing to do with our bizarre expectation that she sleep in a strange house, and was whiny, clingy, and demanding in the daytimes as well. There was massive family drama. And all three of us caught an awful, raging, miserable cold that Alex and I still have.
We crawled back to Baltimore on Sunday, utterly exhausted and seriously questioning the plans we'd made to return to Elmira the following Friday. It seemed like utter craziness to make the trip again, just after we'd gotten Alex back into her normal sleep schedule. But my mother was throwing a surprise birthday party for my dad, and I couldn't imagine being within driving distance and not going. My closest sister was going to be there, and we hadn't seen each other in a year. Other relatives were coming whom we hadn't seen in even longer.
So last Friday, proving that we are incapable of learning from experience, we loaded up the car and headed north again. And I'm so glad that we did. Except for a few bedtime struggles with Alex, the whole weekend was just about perfect.
My father was all the fun words you can possibly use to express surprise. Dumbfounded. Flabbergasted. Hornswoggled. He had no idea whatsoever that anything shady was going on until the moment that he found himself in a roomful of 40 of his closest family and friends. Fortunately (because this doesn't work on everybody) he was also incredibly pleased. And he was touched that we'd come all the way back for his party.
His buddies - a bunch of old guys who have been hiking together in the White and Adirondack Mountains for 20 years or so - put on a little performance in the middle of the party. They came in dressed in backpacks and hats and with hiking poles in their hands, gave a funny little talk about my dad's history as a hiker, and then performed the filk song I wrote back in 1995 when my father nearly severed his ear in a fall on a mountain.[1] I had sung it with my dad a couple of times, but never heard it really performed - so that was great.
Saturday was my little sister's baby shower. To say that her pregnancy has been a matter of great surprise and concern to the family is putting it mildly, but she's done beautifully so far, and it was a lot of fun to share in her excitement about the birth. She's due next month, and getting around amazingly well for someone so far along - she did an awful lot of work helping my mother get ready for Dad's party, and was up the next morning hard at work getting ready for her own. I had fun ogling all her tiny little baby things.
Completing the Wald Family Baby Boom is my oldest sister, Debbie, who stopped by for the party weekend on her way to Guatemala, where she is adopting a baby. She's been down to visit three times already, but this time she will be bringing her little girl home. It's been a much longer and more anxious road than anticipated, so we all just basked in her joy. I helped her install her carseat, passed on bits of advice (where to find whole milk in an airport, what to do if the airplane bathroom doesn't have a changing table), and helped her put together an album of baby pictures for the baby's birth mother, who wants to stay in contact. I can't wait to meet Jessica Paola! She's the second-cutest baby girl ever.
Alex had a great weekend. We had dreaded interrupting her schedule again, but this time she slept through the night, napped well, ate well, and stayed cheerful and charming throughout the entire visit - even at Dad's party, when she would have had every right to be shy, whiny, and overwhelmed. I think the difference was partly that she felt better, and partly that she had a firmer grasp on the whole concept of visiting. It's easier to take a weekend at Grandma's house if you know you'll be going back home at the end.
It was a great time... but I'm glad we're staying home this weekend. Maybe I'll even rest.
[1] Yes, I know that it's kind of odd to make a joke out of a disabling injury. But he liked it. And I was almost certain that he would.
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Date: 2006-12-06 06:02 am (UTC)But it finally crept away. I hope yours creeps off to join it. Someplace far away from both of us.