Just Powers

Bethany 2010, originally uploaded by Justpowers.

We got back yesterday from our annual trip to Bethany Beach in Delaware. Can’t wait until next summer so we can go back.

I have been so neglectful of my “monthly updates” for William. I hope that one day he forgives me and reflects on how well-adjusted and healthy he is as a result of his mother’s slacker blogging during his youth.

So I am going to count this as a mini-monthly update for our sweet William.

What he can do:
- Sleep through the night. Most of the time. Except last night of course, but really, most other nights - sleeping much better than his 12 month old self.
- Run. He does this awesomely adorable waddly-running thing where his legs splay out ever so slightly and he giggle because he just knows someone MUST be right behind him.
- Eat with a spoon. Most of the food actually makes it into his mouth. And what doesn’t he allows me to scoop up and put back in his bowl to try again.
- Kiss. He loves to give kisses and hugs. Especially to Emma. He loves that Emma.
- Yell. He has, ahem, found his voice. And it is really loud. Sometimes his yelling is really cute, like when he sees Mike at the end of the day and shouts with joy. And sometimes it is just loud, like when I don’t get the yogurt fast enough.
- Sign. He soaks up sign language super fast these days. He knows and uses the signs for more, please, thank you, bear, plane and shoes.

We aren’t sure how he ended up so blonde (hello to the Beach side of the family!!) or so sweet, but we just can’t get enough of him these days. Those blossoming temper tantrums we could do without.

Brownies!!, originally uploaded by Justpowers.

William helped us make brownies today for the first time. Well he helped us lick the bowl anyway. He’s getting to be quite the little person.

A couple of weeks ago a friend asked me if I would be interested in performing with her in a staged reading of a play to raise money for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. It has been years (and years and years) since I last performed on stage, but I said yes immediately, excited at the opportunity to help an important cause and get back on stage, not to mention the added bonus of getting out of the house.

So tomorrow night I will be brushing off my acting shoes to perform in a staged reading of “Pirates of the Chemotherapy” with five other local actresses, two of whom are breast cancer survivors themselves and are walking in the Avon walk. It is a play about a breast cancer support group and the issues the women in the group deal with as they struggle with their illness. It is a tough topic and rehearsals have been emotional for me. I turn 40 this year and will be having my first mammogram. Hitting middle age and having young children has made me much more aware of my own mortality and the play raises issues that frankly I would rather not think about.

Don’t get me wrong, despite the topic, the play is actually very funny at times. It would have to be, with a title like “Pirates of the Chemotherapy.”

So if those of you in the DC area are around tomorrow night I would love to see you - here are the details:

STAGED READING OF AWARD-WINNING DRAMATIC COMEDY
“PIRATES OF THE CHEMOTHERAPY” TO BENEFIT THE
WASHINGTON DC MAY 1-2 AVON WALK FOR BREAST CANCER

** SATURDAY, APRIL 24TH **

Doors open 7:30 PM
Staged reading 8:00 PM

Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church (www.cedarlane.org)
9601 Cedar Lane, Bethesda, Maryland

Suitable for adults and teens

Admission is FREE, but donations to benefit the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer will be gratefully accepted

This month marks my sixth anniversary as a blogger.

When I started JustPowers it was a blog mostly about politics - my first posts in April 2004 were about a new congressional race in NY 29, the female Chief of the Park Police being mistreated by the Bush administration, and the power of grassroots organizing.

Nowadays, my posts are all mommy all the time. I am still aware of politics and active when I can be, but the things that fill my days are sleep schedules, diapers, discipline and documenting it all for friends, family and the future.

Someday I may get back to politics as my main focus, or maybe my world and my life has changed so much that I will now always be more focused on my family, hard to say really. It will be interesting to see what the next six years bring…

SPRING!!, originally uploaded by Justpowers.

First swing of spring. Thomas bike helmet and all…

I am beginning to despair that my family will ever EVER be healthy again.

Six weeks. We have been sick for six weeks. Back at the end of January it was Emma who struggled with a cold and fluid filled ears. Then Will caught the cold which garnered him a double ear infection. Both went on antibiotics and I breathed a sigh of relief that life would soon be back to normal.

Then we had back to back blizzards. Nothing to do with being sick I know, but still, 10 days of fun but wacky and housebound schedules. Once we dug out it seemed pretty clear that Will hadn’t quite kicked the ear infections, so off to the doctor we went again and brought home a second round of antibiotics.

Then we all got a stomach virus. Emma and I were laid up with it first and Mike followed closely behind. Will was the only one spared, but less than a week later he developed a fever completely out of the blue. Then Mike developed a fever and flu-like symptoms and was flat on his back for three days.

The fever stuck with Will for a few days before the cough and runny nose hit. The lingering fever and hacking cough took us back to the doctor for the third time in a month where we found that Will’s lungs were clear, but his ears were still not. The ears, coupled with how long the fever was lasting, prompted the doctor to give us yet another antibiotic, stronger and longer this time.

Then the annoying cough turned into difficulty breathing and asthma-like symptoms for Will. The doctor put him on oral albuterol to open his lungs. Now, four days later, Will is still coughing and still has a fever, and, of course, now Emma has started coughing.

So off the doctor we went again this morning to figure out why Will has had a fever going on 12 days and still can’t seem to breathe. The doctor gave him a nebulizer treatment in the office to get his breathing back to normal and sent us home with our very own, brand new nebulizer with a fishy face on the mask, hoping that the fever will clear up in the next few days if his lungs will “calm down”. Needless to say, Will was not happy about the nebulizer, but the doctor said Emma’s lungs are clear. At least there’s that.

So the saga continues, but we are all exhausted. Illness brings with it not only discomfort, but crankiness, poor(er) sleeping, the inability to get out of the house, the cancellation of normal activities, and general chaos. Did I mention the inability to get out of the house? It was so much easier to be sick as a single person, or even a childfree married couple. You just turn on the tv for a week, eat saltines at every meal and get better. This “family” illness thing is much much more complicated and exhausting, not to mention there are more of us to share the diseases.

And the irony is that as much as I want things to get back to normal and to be able to leave the house, is it not the leaving of the house that is the problem? The only week this month when none of us were sick was the week we were housebound as a result of the blizzards. If we were total hermits it would be a little tough to pick up the germs in the first place.

I will be glad when winter is over.

After Snowpocalypse/Snowmageddon 2010 we built a snow slide out of the mound of snow created by shoveling the driveway.

Emma was a fan.

I am ashamed to admit that I have mostly avoided the coverage of the Haiti earthquake and its aftermath. It was an avoidance I have been conscious of even while I haven’t been sure of the reason behind it.

Tonight, watching the Hope for Haiti Now fundraiser the reason became clear. It’s my kids. As I watched the images from Haiti and heard the stories of loss and families torn apart I realized that I have been avoiding it because I just can’t stand it. I can’t stand the knowledge of the children who have lost their parents, of the parents who have lost their children. I can’t stand the hundreds and thousands of people coping with grief, loss, hunger, fear, pain, and death. I can’t stand the thought of my own family having to face these challenges or of my children finding themselves suddenly scared and alone in the world. It’s incredibly selfish of me, but that is the truth.

Watching the coverage left me sobbing with grief - for the people of Haiti, for its children and for its future. It also left me feeling guilty that I have avoided it until now. If the people of Haiti can stand what is happening to them and can find hope in the rubble, how dare I say I can’t stand simply watching it.

We have contributed to the relief of Haiti. Now I want to wrap my arms around everyone there, especially the children, and hold them and tell them everything is going to be alright. Since I can’t do that I want to call someone and tell them that we can take in some of the children they might be sending to the US soon. Since I can’t do that, I am going to go hug my kids.