No baby
For the curious, I went over to my neighbor’s house today and she was still pregnant. I was very relieved! She is on medication to keep her from going into early labor. I don’t really know all the details because her English isn’t great. The babe would have been about six weeks early. Doable, I know, but not ideal. I don’t know how she would handle a NICU stay with the baby plus deal with her two toddlers. Logistics gets so difficult when you start adding multiple children to the mix.
I went over to offer to watch her girls if she needed rest, but I was happy to see another neighbor was already there. When I first met the Pakistani girl I knew she could be friends with my Indian neighbor, but she didn’t even want me an introduction. There was no way she was going to become friends with an Indian. I know that the two countries have a lot of strife politically, but in our neighborhood people from both countries tend to flock together because the cultures are similar.
They finally did meet each other and now they hang out all the time. I am so happy for them because they both really needed a friend. I can’t fulfill that role for either of them more than on a superficial level because. . . well. . . I’m just not interested. I tried with both of them, but we were not kindred spirits.
Change of topic:
When my mom was here she brought a little SD card full of photos that I made for her a few years ago when I bought her a digital photo frame. I downloaded the whole thing to my computer and have been sitting her tonight, teary eyed, looking at pictures of Erik when he was a baby and toddler. I love who he is now and I love watching him grow up, but he sure was a cute little guy. I’m so glad to have these pictures back! I didn’t know they had survived the death of the old computer.
It was also fun to track the progress of his “tuft.”

Can you spot the tuft?
For the newer readers, Erik was born with a weird, purple birthmark on the back of his head. Even though he is a total blondie, it had black hair growing straight out of it. The hair just kept getting longer and longer and longer, sticking up higher and higher and higher until it finally got enough weight to fall over backwards. The doctor was so concerned about it that she ordered an MRI to make sure he didn’t have anything growing into his brain. I don’t know how parents with real medical issues don’t just curl up in a ball and die. Having my four month old put under general anesthesia was about the most stressful thing I’ve ever done. Granted, I think I had undiagnosed PPD, which made everything much worse than it really was.
He still has a big purple birthmark on the back of his head and the hair in that spot is darker than the rest of his hair. The ladies at the gym used to call him Patchy because it was really noticeable when he was younger. His hair is getting a lot darker now so it isn’t that obvious anymore.
You want to know the weirdest thing about his new soccer class? Almost every kid on his team is blonde! That just does not happen around here. This is such a culturally diverse area that my kids are usually the only blondes in sight. He was pretty upset about being the only one with blond hair and blue eyes in his kindergarten class earlier this year. He just wanted to be “more brownish.” He seems to be over that now, thankfully, because there’s not much I can do about making him more brownish. I find it’s very convenient to have a kid who sticks out. I was having trouble at soccer getting used to identifying him by more than hair color. I would be cheering for a blond head, but then the kid would turn around and not be Erik.
Someone asked about Erik’s dance class. He LOVES it. I love it! Instead of coming home and trying to kick us, like he always did with karate, he comes home and dances. It’s a break dancing class of all boys ranging from age 6-12. The teacher looked like he was about 15, but I am old so he could be much older and I wouldn’t know it. I sound like my mom, calling her doctor a kid. The boys get quite a work out and are exhausted by the end of the class. Unfortunately I can’t watch the class so I have no idea what’s happening. I just know he comes out with a big smile and cool moves that put me to shame.
bethany actually said,
May 8, 2012 @ 11:04 pm
I’m so glad to hear your neighbor was okay. Those poor kids, and poor you! You were a champ helping them all out like that.
Did you LOVE Castle!? What did you think? I had to watch the scene in Beckett’s apartment about three times in a row.
Jennifer said,
May 9, 2012 @ 6:53 am
thats awesome! I love when you hit on an activity for your kid that they absouletly love. There are just so many things we ‘make’ them do these days that its such a joy when they are happy with one of them. Glad to hear it!