Waiting for the other shoe to drop :-)

If it were only so easy. No, no #2 yet, at least outside Sam's belly. He's making himself known inside, however. In film it would be "Return of the Kickboxer".

So we're in limbo. Sam finishes her teaching this week, none too soon. Her ankles are dissapeared by the time she gets home at the end of her teaching day, too much fluid. J's question today was "Are you seeing the midwife today" "No, next Monday". "Oh, will the baby come out then?".

Eli is going to jump on here when #2 is out safely to post something so that globetrotting Aunt Emma will know ASAP. So, any other readers who are in the mood for an update, here is one place to check...

Life in the tidepools

Mom was kind enough to share a copy of a cartoon with me, by Roz Chast, of a man sitting on a straightback chair surrounded by household objects scattered evenly across the floor. You can find it if you go to www.cartoonbank.com and enter "low tide" into the search engine. Or you can come see it on the door of my office at work.

I can't help but think of our Bandit as the Tide. When he departs, it seems that everything in the room is spread evenly across all available surfaces. When one is with him, one can follow the narrative; the hose wand used as a weedwacker, the sticks that become rockets/guns/wands, the couch cushions that are more often used as construction materials than as seating. If one only witnesses the results, the situation is unfathomable :-)

I can only imagine that the arrival of #2 will serve as a "storm tide". We can only learn to swim cross-current, as opposing such force directly is hopeless.

So, come see my starfish impersonation. But don't expect to be able to sit on the couch.

Home Stretch

We're coming down the homestretch to two young Cameras! Hard to believe it has been almost four years since Jonas arrived. He is very excited about having a younger brother, and very well-informed. Last visit to the midwife he looked up at the posters and said "that's the baby, and that's the uterus, and that's the pelvis, which is right here" (pointing to his own hip bone). Didn't know we had been so thorough.

I should have guessed, though. He picks up *everything*. Recently came the day I'd been waiting for, "that toilet is F******* loud" (to Sam in the grocery store bathroom). Of course, it had to be the weekend of a visit from his Great Grandmother Camera. We had the requisite conversation about how some words can hurt people's feelings, and he seemed to take it all in. I'm just waiting for a report from school, though.

He's also taken in quite a bit about birds and their calls. He falls asleep to a birdcall cd every night. In fact, we measure how sleepy he was by how many species it takes before he drifts off (last night was a four-bird bedtime at 7:00 'cause he didn't nap).

This has led to several funny exchanges with Sam:

(on the swings in our backyard)
S: I wonder what that bird is? I'm going to go see.
J: It's a black capped chickadee, mom, keep pushing me.
S: No, honey, it doesn't sound like a call I know.
J: It's a chickadee, mom, keep pushing me!

You guessed it. He was right.

(another day a few weeks ago in the backyard)
S: What is that call, Jonas, I don't recognize it?
J: That's number nine.
S: ???? No, I mean, which bird is it?
J: Oh, a Northern Flicker.

Anyway, Lang Elliot, wherever you are, thanks for teaching our son so much, and helping him fall to sleep for so many nights in a row!