Elizabeth’s Journal

Busy and not busy

Daddy arrived on Friday morning, and his little grandson was delighted to see him. Gram and I seemed to melt into the woodwork, and in the evening it was Boppa who was elected to get him ready for bed (not that that requires that much these days other than brushing teeth). Boppa was treated to a fascinating bit of information that Gram reported on their blog. Certainly made Dale’s & my mouths fall open!

Since then things have been reasonably uneventful. Boppa & Jonathan went off to the hardware store together to get a new dimmer switch for the light fixture over the breakfast table; Jonathan helped Boppa find the right circuit breaker by letting him know when the lights went out. Apparently he has the makings of a master electrician.

On Saturday there was an episode of Thunderbirds that is the same as a book that his Nanny & Grandad sent to him—Desperate Intruder. Jonathan was thrilled to see it acted out. I don’t recall what else happened that day . . . except that Dale not only mowed the front and side garden but also edged it and renewed the trench against our neighbor’s St. Augustine. This was necessary because my flaky cousin said he would come mow on Monday, didn’t show up, and didn’t even call. Finally on Tuesday night I sent an e-mail asking if all was okay, and he said he’d slept until 6 p.m. on Monday and maybe I’d better ask someone else. Which makes me wonder—if I hadn’t sent the e-mail, would he ever have let me know he wasn’t coming? Guess college kids aren’t as hard up for money these days as they used to be.

The reason Dale hasn’t been mowing the lawn is because of his degenerative disk & joint problems he’s having in his back; we were worried that the vibration of the mower and the push/pull would not be a good thing for him. Unfortunately, we were right—he mowed on Saturday, and Sunday he woke up and basically couldn’t move his head left or right. So Daddy & I took Jonathan to play miniature golf & ride the kiddie train, then we had lunch, and finally we stopped by Jason & Kathy’s (Kathy was my maid of honor) to pick up my breastfeeding pillow that I had loaned them when their son was born two years ago. In the evening my sweet father mowed the back garden and sacrificed a little bit of his blood to the mosquitoes in the process. At least it’s mowed—it had been four weeks and the grass was about up to my knees in the back.

Monday saw Mom taking Jonathan to CAPS and picking him up; it gave me a nice break, although Jonathan was mildly disappointed—not because it wasn’t me taking him but because he wasn’t getting to ride in the new Odyssey. Until we sell the Civic, Mom is using that as her car (she’s scared of her son-in-law’s wrath should anything happen to the Pathfinder while it’s in her care!). It’s working out quite well having one car per driver at the moment, what with our three cars and the truck. Mom also had her first visit to P.F. Chang’s, as she, Daddy, and I went there for lunch on Monday. And the maids came again! Such a glorious thing, having someone else clean your bathroom and your floors. I could get used to this.

Daddy has discovered Kerbey Lane for breakfast (he took himself off there for a bite to eat Monday morning), and I bet he’ll go back again before this is all over. He came back with quite a good review of it. I had suggested it over IHOP, and I think he was pleased he took my advice.

I decided to do something nice for myself in the afternoon and went to see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind at the Arbor theater. Nearly choked on the ticket price—$5.75 for a matinee! I’m becoming an old fogey. It was very pleasant to sit in the theatre and watch a movie. I did enjoy it, although there were a couple of times that I thought the point had been made and was getting belabored a little bit, but I like Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet, and I also liked Being John Malkovich by the same writer (Charlie Kaufman), so I was prepared for the strangeness of it and had gone to see it with an open mind.

Today I took Jonathan for a haircut, then we met Dale at the birthing center for our appointment with the midwife, and then I got him off to lunch bunch. I came home for lunch myself (found Mom having a go at the pot roast leftovers from the other night) and then took a very pleasant nap. I’m having to keep my feet elevated as the pitting edema had gotten much worse over the last few days. I had this terribly with Jonathan but it hadn’t popped up in this pregnancy until the last couple of weeks; in hindsight it seems that standing up for so long at the mini-golf course, in the hot sun, was possibly not the best thing for me to have done! But having my feet elevated has helped greatly, and I slept with my feet up on couch pillows last night and saw good results this morning because of it. Of course, my hip that I’d been lying on was pretty achy and my knees complained a bit, but that’s the trade-off, I guess. Anyway, after I got up I went to collect my child, and on our way back home we got to wave at Mom, who was heading out to do the shopping.

Mom has been marvelous doing things like grocery shopping while I nap at home, fixing wonderful meals, doing dishes, playing about ten thousand games of Sorry! with Jonathan, etc. And keeping me company! She likes sitting in the rocking chair by the piano for reading and listening to her German tapes, and I’m starting to think of that as her chair now. It’s nice having company that I can sit companionably with while we read in the evenings; Dale doesn’t read much as he’s generally too busy with the studio.

Now then, this is all I’m going to say. My membranes released (some of you may know this by the phrase “my waters broke”) about 45 minutes ago, but NOTHING HAS HAPPENED YET. This is not like in the movies where everything goes all dramatic; it could still be a few days before the baby comes. So please, please, please, don’t call and ask how things are going or if the baby’s come yet, because I am most heartily sick of that (you can ask my dad for details if you feel the need). When something happens, you’ll hear about it, I promise! In the meantime, you can send me, Dale, Jonathan, and the baby happy thoughts for a peaceful birth.