Progress Progress Progress

Lots of progress lately for Mr. David. He is walking more every day – walking more often than scooting, and walking longer distances. He is learning some new signs, sort of. He’s still doing his version of “please” and he makes sort of a general, almost-clapping sign for most everything else. That makes sense to me, because the other signs (help, more, finished) all begin by bringing your two hands together, so it’s not surprising he has not differentiated them just yet. He’s also taking a more active role in mealtimes, shaking his head when he doesn’t want something and pointing at what he does want. He wants to feed himself more and getting frustrated when his skills don’t quite match up to his goals. His first word, “okay,” has progressed from “m-kay” to “okay” and he seems to be using it to convey actual agreement (before he would say m-kay or shake his head in response to a question, no matter what his answer really was). He still shakes his head plenty of times when he doesn’t mean it, but he is usually grinning when he does that, and it’s quite cute. He’s also making the silliest, cutest faces, and gives kisses upon request. It’s pretty great.

Not so great for me lately: Asheville, NC. I previously loved Asheville about as much as anyone (I went to college not too far away, and lived there for a year), but since David was born I’m basically over it. He was in the NICU at Mission Hospital for 92 days, and it was when Matt and I went to the ER at Mission that we learned my last pregnancy had stopped developing. David and I both received excellent medical care, so it’s not that, but … just bad vibes, you know? Thursday we went shopping for Simon’s school uniforms (he started Kindergarten this week) in Asheville and we drove past one of the three places we stayed while David was in the hospital. It’s on Sweeten Creek Road, and driving north toward downtown, I was hit with all these memories of how we drove up and down that stupid road so many times, the stupid hospital parking garage and this mile-long hallway you had to walk down to get to the elevators for the NICU. All the different restaurants we went to, the home health agency, the specialists’ offices … as stated above David is doing fabulously so it was worth it a million times over, but … yeah, just bad vibes. It’s similar to Atlanta – we had the chance to go down there a few months after David’s heart surgery, but I couldn’t do it. That also was (ultimately) a successful experience, but almost soul-crushing in its stress level, so I need a little time/distance from Atlanta, too.

“Soul-crushing.” Pretty good. J

This has been a really busy parenting week. I’ve had both boys full-time – Simon doesn’t go to school all day until next week, and David’s Mothers’ Morning Out program is not in session. Mama is pretty tired, and is living for Saturday when grandparents will be here to help (Matt has had lots of meetings). My respect for single parents has been affirmed once again – I’m so exhausted after just a few days – how in the world do people do this all the time?

These two are so handsome I can barely stand it.