It's Windy...

As you can all probably assume, I have been completely swamped with school and parenting for the last week...so I have been a really bad blogger. Forgive me, please:-)

The babies are awesome, and sleeping a little bit longer at a stretch all the time, which is very good news! The Boy and I are also thinking about what ridiculously giant present we are gonna buy his mother for Mother's Day, but that is another subject entirely (ideas?).

I am completely changing subjects here for a second, though, and doing some politics/public policy stuff. In case you missed it, the wind farm in Nantucket Sound was finally approved yesterday and will go ahead after years and years of opposition from some very well heeled NIMBY opponents.

Long story short, this is the perfect place to build a wind farm, save for one little problem...it will be visible on the horizon from the vacation homes of some of the country's richest and most powerful people. With some well-funded and very well connected opponents, the project ran into a whole series of ridiculous roadblocks and a massive public relations fights.

The key opponent was always Ted Kennedy. The "Liberal Lion, promoter of green energy, opponent of fossil fuels, friend of the environment and Great Progressive Voice" managed to use all kinds of shady tricks and back-room dealings to stall this in hopes that the builders would simply run out of money and give up (he had the authority to issue the permits transferred a couple of times to have the whole process started over again...at various times, it was the province of the EPA, Army Core of Engineers and Department of the Interior, and he filed legislation to change it whenever the project was close to approval).

You see, as it turns out, Mr. Kennedy was maybe just a little bit self-serving from time to time...and maybe didn't believe in liberal causes so much when they appeared in the view from his beloved Hyannisport estate or that of some of his big donors across the Sound. The Great Environment Fraud himself, Al Gore, even refused to stand up to Tubby, once saying that he would defer to the judgement of his friend.

The President finally pulled rank on everyone and basically ordered that the permits be issued, and I think he was right to do so, and I am glad he did. (And yes, in case you are wondering, we will be able to see it from the most beloved beach house). Would he have done it if Ted Kennedy was still alive? I don't know...he went against the wishes of some other powerful people (like John Kerry, for example) but none of them were as vested as Kennedy or as entrenched. I guess it really doesn't matter.

Anyway, I don't laud the President enough, so I figured that I would:-)

Meet the girls!

As promised (which is unusual, considering how often I have under-delivered on the photo front...)

Here are my baby girls from last week! Sleeping soundly, but the bibs will evidence my suspicions that they would throw up on themselves really soon thereafter...

LK is on the left, and MA is on the right...and Mom's gigantic boob makes an appearance, too! Seriously, they are enormous...

8 Days Old

Did I mention that I went back to school yesterday? So yes, I had major surgery that didn't go great, had two babies, brought them home and missed a grand total of four days of classes (Monday was a state holiday).

Pretty good, huh? Yesterday and today were not really full days since we had no afternoon classes, so I was only gone from 8-12 both mornings. Starting Monday, I will be back on basically an 8-3 schedule five days a week. I was a little worried that I would feel neglectful or depressed, but it wasn't too bad. Leaving the babies at home with their Dad and Grandmother is pretty comforting...

So far, they have been super babies! They really only cry when they need something, and have been sleeping for solid hour and a half blocks and eating on pretty much the same schedule. And I just want to cuddle with them non-stop;-). Sure, everything we own was covered in spit-up by Wednesday, but that is to be expected...

And we have done pretty good with rotating sleep and napping a lot. Again, having St. Mother in Law around has allowed us to nap during the day, which makes the overnight feedings a whole lot easier. The Boy is still off work next week, so he is gonna handle the overnight duties and sleep more during the day, and then when he goes back to work, his Mom will do the overnight shift for the next couple of weeks until school is over.

I guess that is all for now...I will post some pictures soon, I promise. How can I not...they are perfect!!!

And then we can start to get excited about Baby Big Sis' arrival in a couple weeks!!!

Back!!!

Greetings blogland! Smoking Hot Roommate did a fine job of filling you in on the big details of the big day, so by now you have all of the particulars.

Now, some more of the specifics... Mommy actually had kind of a rough go of it...turns out that I developed pre-eclampsia right before Thursday (maybe even that day or the day before). Also learned how to actually spell it;-). When they checked me in, my blood pressure was a little bit high, but we all kind of assumed that it was just the stress and excitement, as I still felt great.

The operation went great, too...it was kind of surreal and trippy, but not the least bit uncomfortable, and The Boy and I chatted the whole time. Once I was prepped, they let him in the room and sat him next to me and started cutting. About ten minutes later, they held baby #1 up over the sheet for us to see, and a minute later, the second. Twenty fingers, twenty toes and absolutely 100% perfect!!!

They cleaned them up and The Boy held them next to me while they sewed me up (incidentally...he defied all of the advice he was given and peeked at he when he walked around the curtain to see the babies. He said it looked like they had a brisket laid out on my stomach:-)).

Then shit started to go sour. I got nauseous near the end and threw up in the OR. Then, as they were wheeling me to the recovery room, I felt like someone was driving a spike into my forehead and everything started spinning. By the time we got down the hall, I couldn't open my eyes because I was super light-sensitive and everything was spinning and gyrating. I could hear all kinds of doctors talking but I couldn't even open my eyes to look at them. And I couldn't even look at my new little girls!!!

Meanwhile, my original blood and urine tests had come back and they had the proteins that indicate pre-eclampsia. My blood pressure had also spiked and wasn't coming down, so they were pretty sure that was it. So I got all kinds of new drugs which made me feel terrible (Magnesium Sulfate...good at stopping seizures, bat at making you feel like you are not the subject of an episode of Intervention).

I didn't end up going up to my room until almost 9:30, when I finally got a chance to cuddle with my two perfectly adorable baby princesses:-). That made me feel much better! But not totally better, and my headaches and nausea and high blood pressure remained throughout the day on Friday, so I was on the horrible medicine until Saturday morning. Once they took that off, though, I started to feel much more like myself, and by Saturday night I was back to almost normal. That is when I noticed that my stomach really hurt:-).

That, however, is totally manageable. And now it is a complete zoo!!! We came home Monday and have been feeding, burping, changing, holding, wiping up spit-up, pumping doing laundry and repeating pretty constantly!

They sleep pretty well, and we have both done pretty good so far with getting enough sleep. Having The Boy's Mom around is absolutely fantastic...she has spent most of her time cooking and doing laundry and stuff...just things to make our lives easier and to let us be with the babes. She is now officially and permanently St. Mother-in-Law from here on out:-)

True to form, I started writing this at about 9:00 yesterday and just finished it now...I guess that is just how we are gonna roll in these parts for a bit!!! Thanks for all the well wishes, and I will get back to regular writing as soon as I can!!!

Welcoming Baby AMs

AM successfully delivered two adorable baby girls yesterday at around 1:00pm.

Baby 1, LKM, weighed in at 6 pounds and 13 ounces, and Baby 2, MAM, weighed in at 6 pounds 6 ounces. Both are happy, healthy and as far as I can tell, completely perfect!

Mom had some complications after the surgery, and in fact only The Boy was allowed to see her until they moved her to her room last night at about 10:00, but she is doing just fine and will fill you in on all the details next week.

Continue to send good wishes, and think happy thoughts about my two adorable little (almost) nieces and their Mom!!!

~Ciao,
AHH
(SHR)

Thoughts

I finished class at 2:30, and the realization that I have done everything I need to do before tomorrow hit me like a freight train. Whoa...I am having two babies tomorrow.

I don't want to say that I haven't thought about it, because I obviously have...but it just suddenly really set in that this is happening, and it is happening in approximately 20 hours. Like a sudden wave of "Oh shit".

I am just a little bit nervous about the surgery, but not terribly. I would say that I was probably more nervous about the surgery I had in the summer of 2007 than I am about this...although this one has a lot more lead-up to it. I think that I feel better knowing how common this kind of surgery is...it makes me feel better knowing that the doctors do it all the time.

I am going to miss being pregnant a little bit. Had I been able to be more up and about, I would really miss it, but I have basically enjoyed it. I feel great and have never really had the thoughts that I hear from a lot of women about just aching for it to finally be over with.

Mostly, I just feel ready...and I am not afraid to report that this is a new feeling as of, oh, about this morning. I don't have any loose ends to tie up or errands to run or anything that I have to do before the babies get here, I am just plain ready to go to the hospital and have it all done.

Now, am I ready to be a mother? Not quite as sure about that part...I will let you know in a week or so...but I am ready to have the babies.

In the meantime, though, this is all you will hear from me for the next five days, at least. Smoking Hot Roommate has my password, so she will post the details Friday or Saturday if she remembers, but I don't envision myself blogging from the hospital:-P

And when I come back, I am bringing two baby girls with me!!!

Gifts

At least five very generous people have sent me emails about sending me (or the baby girls) some kind of a gift, so I would kind of like to address it here.

First of all, Thank You all very, very much. It is extremely touching and makes me feel very legitimately warm inside. I have a hard time really describing how wonderful it feels to have strangers care that much and be willing to reach out like that.

I guess I just don't really feel comfortable accepting gifts, though. And yes, part of it is definitely a hesitancy to send my address out to people (although three of you are long-time readers that I wold probably feel OK about that with).

Mostly though, I feel like your generosity could benefit some others more dramatically. And no, I do not intend to tell people how, when, and how much they should choose to be generous...it is entirely your business. But I can tell you that I would feel much better if you told me that you wanted to send me adorable little baby hats, but instead gave them to your local church, shelter or other charitable organization. There are all kinds of people with babies (one or more) that do not have nearly the support or the resources that we are fortunate enough to have.

I actually tried to find a national or regional organization focused on helping single mothers with multiples, but I didn't find one. As this has approached, I have thought about those people that are facing the same thing that I am...only without a wonderful husband, a super-awesome sister, fantastic friends and family and a saint of a mother-in-law to help them. I can't even imagine how scary it would be to be staring at this alone.

So, I will make that my official Funny Thing plea: if you feel moved to send me or the babies something, please think about directing that generosity towards someone needy who is closer to home. Churches are probably a great place to start...I may not be terribly religious, but I can certainly recognize that a lot of the nuts and bolts charitable work is done very quietly and unceremoniously by churches. All of their efforts to provide clothing, emergency housing, counseling and rudimentary food and necessities to the truly needy are probably feeling the economic squeeze as much as anyone, and could use whatever you can give. And I would love it if you sent me a picture of whatever super cute baby clothes you give them:-)

And finally, for those that offered, I am incredibly touched at the offerings and flattered and thrilled by your gestures. Many, many Thank Yous to all.

When exactly should I schedule this meeting?

I had a phone message from the Vice Principal at Munchkin's school on Friday, asking me to call her first thing this morning. So I called her on my way to school and we talked for a minute.

She wanted to schedule a time when I could come in to talk with her, the teachers and Munchkin about whether or not it makes sense to put her on a track to finish high school in three years rather than four. She is already ahead of most of her classmates because she has taken a couple of Freshman classes this year, and her teachers are concerned that she isn't being challenged. Academically, I don't think it would be a big deal...it really just comes down to having to make up a couple of classes over the next three years where she hasn't already caught up with the grade ahead of her.

Age-wise, it would work fine, too...she is one of the older kids in her grade, and while she would be on the younger end of the next class up, she wouldn't be the youngest. When she moved her, we were a little concerned about her being behind and trying to adjust, so she repeated fourth grade...which turned out to probably be unnecessary. Then a few years ago they suggested she may want to skip seventh grade, but she didn't want to do that at the time. This wouldn't really be a total skipping, though, more like a gradual phasing up.

I don't have all of the details, but it sounds like they are proposing that she jump one grade per year in one or two of the subjects that she still is behind this year's 9th graders. So, she has already taken 9th grade science and math, so next year she would continue with 10th grade science and math, but would also jump to 10th grade in history, English or her foreign languages. She would stay with ninth graders for the others, and then in the following years she could do the same jump in whatever subjects were left.

Academically, it wouldn't be hard for her...she gets the same A's in her current 9th grade classes as she gets in her 8th grade ones. And as I have written before, she would probably fit socially a little bit better with the kids a year older than her current classmates. So, the idea has some merit on a couple of levels.

Obviously, this is not a meeting that will be scheduled in the next two weeks;-). But it is something that we will need to take care of before this school year is over (last week in May, roundabouts) and I am not real sure what to do about it. I will leave it up to Munchkin, but she will ask me what she should do, and I am not really sure that I have any ideas...anyone have anything for me?

One humorous part of this was the Vice Principal struggling over "I'd like to set up a meeting with the two of you and...um...maybe...well...um...I guess anyone else that you think should be a part of the decision." I guess "the rest of her unofficial web of parental figures" didn't roll off of her tongue.

Not really sad, but...

Munchkin has officially moved out, which fills me with all sorts of emotions. OK, part of that could just be my wacky hormones (I'm entitled!). And let's be honest, she is approximately two blocks away and I will see her every day, so this is hardly a significant breakaway. She is also staying in a home she lived in for over a year with someone she lived with for about three years...so we are not really pushing the envelope here.

Still, I will miss her! I always do when she is not around. I will miss seeing her when I wake up and right before I go to bed. And all of her funny Munchkin-isms that she throws out all day. It will be very quiet around here:-) It is also making me really anxious and excited...just making it all the more obvious how close we are now!!! I looked into the empty room and got some serious butterflies...

That's it, I guess.

I still love Canadians, but some Manitobans maybe just a little less

A much less serious topic to keep you interested for the weekend...Kari left this link in my comments the other day, and I demand that you all read it immediately...

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/to-have-and-to-hold-brought-to-you-by-89977017.html

She tells me that the idea of a "social" is something of a Manitoba tradition.

Well here is a small snippet of what she said "A social is just a big 'ole party that you sell tickets to to raise money (or sometimes just to cover the cost of the hall rental, etc). Growing up I remember going to socials when someone's farm burned down, when a father of a classmate died, to raise money for the local arena, etc."

Apparently, people sometimes also have them to fund weddings that they feel that they are entitled to but don't want to pay for. Their wedding party is expected to organize the event, drum up donations from local business and sell tickets to raise money for the wedding.

You can probably all kind of guess where I am going with this, but I will leave you a couple of questions to foster the discussion:

1) Is this a tradition that exists elsewhere, or is it just a Central Canadian thing?
2) Is it resourceful or is it tacky?
3) Would it be appropriate to invite someone to your wedding social but not your actual wedding? (Which is apparently not uncommon).
4) How about Mr. Friesen and Ms. Causton, who apparantly have no friends but want the financial benefits of the social.
5) Any other thoughts on them specifically:-P?

And really, anyone who has any other thoughts, just fire 'em up...

More on Bullying

I did a little research into the state's sex laws to find out if there are mandatory minimum sentences for statutory rape (there aren't) and came up with this gem:

MGL c.272, s. 4. Inducing person under 18 to have sexual intercourse.

Whoever induces any person under 18 years of age of chaste life to have
unlawful sexual intercourse shall be punished by imprisonment in the state
prison for not more than three years or in a jail or house of correction for not
more than two and one-half years or by a fine of not more than $1,000 or by both
such fine and imprisonment.

If I am reading that right, then having sex with someone under 18 is punishable by up to three years in prison...unless someone else did it first! Yes, we actually have laws that deal with taking someone's virginity.

That is not really apropos to this case (which is related to the laws for kids under 16), but it sort of sums up the absurdity of many of our old morals laws.

Back to the case at hand...I was a little bit surprised to get as few comments as I did, as this is a topic that tends to generate a lot of discussion. Which probably means that most of you disagree with me, since people speak up more when they agree. But really, I like it better when people tell me I am wrong. I can take it.

No one disagreed with the rape charges (at least out loud). So I am putting that to rest unless someone would like to speak up on behalf of the DA. Two interesting things did come up, though.

First, there were a couple of people who argued that the kids should be charged with assault. I hadn't really thought of that, and I am not sure that I agree. Again, a lot of this depends on exactly what the kids actually said and did, which has not really come out yet save for some anecdotes here and there. In fairness to the DA, she has acknowledged that the case appears to be a stretch, but has promised that the actual evidence is pretty damning. So, all judgement is couched by that.

Tammy from Nebraska brings up another interesting point...or at least she kind of hints at it (I don't want to put words in your mouth;-))...this is all based on what Phoebe decided to do to herself. What if she just plain overreacted? I feel like we need to be careful to judge only the kids' actions, and not consequences beyond their control. Assume they were really evil, and the story somehow got out, but the girl didn't kill herself...I am sure there would be a lot of people calling their actions despicable, but the suggestion that you should put kids in jail for non-physical bullying would not generate much support at all. In other words...should we let Phoebe's actions influence our view of the other kids?

I don't want to sound like I am sticking up for the bulliers, or dismissing their actions as "kids will be kids". Kids that age can be downright evil by any measure, and as Me pointed out, the pressure has become 24/7...it is technologically inescapable. And I can assure you that I see this shit every single day as the (kinda) parent of a 15 year old girl.

What concerns me is the witch hunt that has to follow a tragedy. What other pressures was she under? What other problems might she have had? Was it really the actions of these other kids that drove her to take her own life? Had she been totally happy when she moved here? Suicide is an awfully complicated thing, and it may be overly simplistic and unfair to pin this entirely on these other kids. (It also may not...)

Second is the question of the responsibility of teachers. Unquestionably, teachers have a role to play. They spend a lot of time with kids and they exert a lot of influence. However, teachers are not substitute parents. They are not law enforcement officials. They are not expert psychologists. And, to the far-reaching aspect of technology, they can not be everywhere and very specifically can't do anything about things that happen outside of school. These kids were shouting insults at her in front of teachers? Yes, absolutely, they can't just pretend they didn't see it. But my intuition tells me that it is never quite that cut and dried or that obvious.

And to be realistic...think about how this would really go. Let's say Johnny is mean to Billy, and Mr. Teacher thinks he is bullying him. What does he do? Any efforts to discipline Johnny are likely to lead to nasty letters and phone calls from Johnny's parents wondering why their perfect son is being needled by nosy teachers. And what can you really do to the kid anyway? Only parents can really punish most kids.

I know I have some teacher's that read regularly...maybe you could tell us what happens when you try and give a kid a well-earned bad grade, let alone report their behavior as unbecoming. Kids may be really mean, but often it is because their parents are total assholes...

OK...this is way too long and doesn't make much sense;-) So someone else start talking, please

Bullying

Kind of a change of pace, and one that I am not really even sure that I have fully thought about. But, it is a worthy discussion topic, and will hopefully liven things up around here.

This has been a pretty big story around here, but I don't know if it has resonated nationally. The short version: a bunch of high school kids in South Hadley, MA harassed a teenage girl so badly that she ended up committing suicide. Late last week, the DA filed charges against a handful of the tormentors.

The girl's name was Phoebe Prince, and she was an Irish immigrant who moved here with her family at the beginning of the school year. The details are a little unclear, but it looks like she drew the attention of at least a couple of boys, and that the dissolution of those relationships started the trouble. She was then systematically bullied, harassed and insulted pretty relentlessly.

So, first of all...girls can be incredibly mean. Most of my readers are women, and I am sure that you remember what high school was like. We all like to look back and remember how mean other girls were...but if you search your memory honestly, you will probably acknowledge that you were no angel either. I know I wasn't.

Not only can girls turn on each other with incredible speed, but they can encourage others to do the same as well. I am sure that at one point, you hated some girl because your best friend and her best friend had a fight over...um...something. Now, imagine that you are a new girl in a new country who meets a couple of cute older boys and then suddenly finds that those boys friends have set about socially destroying you and nobody else seems willing to offer even the slightest help. It is not a huge leap to see where that would drive you to a pretty desperate place.

My real concern with all of this is in the charges being filed. While it is easy to see a tragedy in all of this, and there are plenty of people to be blamed at various levels, what are we hoping to accomplish by charging them?

First of all, charging the boys with statutory rape is outright ridiculous. As a brief primer, the law in Massachusetts says that if a person over age 16 has sex with a person under 16, it is rape. In most states, there are laws about the difference in age between the two people (so, you have to be at least two years apart in age, for example) but not here. And that, to be perfectly frank, is asinine. As the legal guardian of a girl who is very much the subject of this law (she is now 15 and draws intense attention from boys her own age, slightly older and much older), I am as sensitive to it as anyone and I am completely convinced that it's a foolish law.

Think about what this actually means: there are two boys who aged 16 and 17 that had consensual sex with a girl who was 15. Nothing coercive or underhanded...they met like high school kids meet, maybe went out on a couple dates, and decided to sleep together. (And no, not at the same time...two totally separate relationships). That is a sophomore boy and a freshman girl. Clearly, by the letter of the law, they are guilty, but is that really what we wrote statutory rape laws for? To make every single high schooler who has a younger girlfriend of boyfriend spend years in state prison and then register as a sex offender in every place they live for the rest of their life? We are going to start prosecuting 40% of high school kids now?

The other charges are a little harder to understand, so I am not real sure that I have an opinion on them...they largely relate to violating her civil rights by making it impossible for her to go to school. Seems like a huge reach to me but I will leave that to the legal minds. While there are some reports of people shouting things at her in the halls, and some reference to "Facebook bullying", it is not completely clear what their bullying consists of. And that makes it a little hard for me to judge their actions as well.

Then there is the issue of the school. There are all sorts of reports that the teachers and administrators knew what was going on and stayed out of it, but I am not really sure what the truth of that really is. The larger question is...what is the role of teachers in this? It is easy to assign teachers at least some role in monitoring or preventing harassment or bullying, but how much? Is that really a teacher's job? Do they really have the training and skills to do that? Because that really has absolutely nothing to do with teaching kids.

So, it is a really complicated case with a lot of different faces and I am not really sure that I have strong opinions on a lot of it. There is clearly a tragedy, and clearly some actions that are despicable and reprehensible...but before we go throwing people in jail, we should think about what that really means.

I expect a lot of thoughts on this one...send 'em by email if you would rather...

Sun, sun and more sun

I spent most of today out and about, and don't feel at all the worse for wear. This is very good news, seeing as the next week or so is going to be just as spectacular and there is absolutely no chance that I will be spending a beautiful spring week cooped up in my house or on my couch at school.

There is just something about spring in the city...the trees and flowers have started blooming, the grass is finally green, and mostly there are just TONS of people out. People walking and running and rollerblading and biking and laying out reading and walking dogs and playing Frisbee and sunning themselves. Sure, everyone is just a touch too pale to be wearing their summer clothes from last year, but that is OK...it is just refreshing to finally see some skin and some bare feet and some more flattering clothing.

And of course, it is great to be able to spend the afternoon of your baby sister's birthday sitting at an outdoor cafe on Newbury Street with her, your two pretend sisters, oversized salads and iced tea and some very dark sunglasses (you know, so you can stealthily check everyone out;-)). Honestly, I could have sat there all day.

Special note: it is the first time in my entire pregnancy that I have really, really wanted a drink. Big Sis claims to have been jonesing for a glass of wine the whole time, but I have had no real urges at all. But, oh man, I would have committed some pretty heinous crimes to have a Long Island, or a Margarita this afternoon. Actually, a cold beer would have been pretty freaking awesome, too. Or a Mojito. I am getting carried away...

Anyway, we had a super lunch full of people watching, gossiping and chit chat:-). I went home to rest for a bit so that I could go to Munchkin's party, and Smoking Hot Roommate took her to do some birthday shopping and they found her a party dress that is simultaneously super cute and super hot...everyone was happy:-) Then they came home and a couple of Munchkin's friends came over so that they could get ready together.

The party was pretty fun...I was just happy to be there and to be out of the house! They are at a funny age where they are all (even the boys) discovering the concept of "fashion" and are very cognisant of looking good. But, they don't really understand their own personal style yet, or the idea of dressing for an occasion...which leads to some interesting choices. Like...babydoll dresses and ballet flats. And way too many accessories. To a bowling alley.

To be a little more serious, a couple of the girls need some pretty serious advice on toning things down a bit. There was some seriously out-of-control cleavage, and a couple girls who just don't have the legs to be wearing the aforementioned babydoll dresses. I am a big believer in promoting healthy body images, especially for girls who will just never be super skinny...but part of that image is in knowing your strengths and weaknesses and being able to dress them appropriately. Whatever...they are all between 13 and 16, they'll learn.

As for the boys, Big Sis hit the nail on the head by noting that "They are clearly shooting for Chuck Bass. Only he looks ridiculous 80% of the time anyway, and that is after the benefit of professional stylists and makeup artists." It was fun, though, and Munchkin had a great time. She had a nice long talk with Frenchie this morning, but then after that she didn't pout at all about not being able to see him...which to me is perfect: no sense in fretting over things you can't change.

Easter tomorrow, which we are having at Twin Sister's place. Pretty low key, and I think just The Boy's immediate family. And who knows...I could have kids by then...:-D

You can just imagine what she will want for her next birthday

I am so darn funny, I just can't get over myself...my April Fool's humor is unmatched!!!

Another doctor's appointment this morning, and everything still looks really good. I am only a tiny bit dilated (which I have been for a while) and still no signs of labor or any contractions or anything. So, for now, it looks like the girls may stay put for a little longer:-)

Bed rest be dammed...I am gonna enjoy this weekend as best I can! A) It could be my last weekend ever of freedom, and B) It is supposed to be spectacularly nice! Today is beautiful, and tomorrow and Sunday are supposed to be even nicer. Not that I am gonna go hog wild, but I am definitely not keeping myself cooped up all weekend, that's for sure

And how could I, when tomorrow is THE BIGGEST DAY OF THE YEAR?!?!?! That's right...my original baby girl is turning 15 years old. I can't even begin to tell you how old that seems to me...and how fast time has flown. Packing her up in my car and driving from Chicago to Boston (and crying uncontrollably once she fell asleep) was nearly five years ago...a time span that seems completely incomprehensible to me now.

You know what? Sometime this August, around the five year anniversary of our little adventure, I am going to try and really write about that day and the weeks before and after it. Obviously, I talk about it a lot, but I am not really sure that I have totally spelled out the myriad emotions and fears and hopes and excitement of that time. But I will sum it up with a fragment of a conversation that I had with a mother of one of her friends last fall about my impending motherhood. She told me, about the babies, "No matter what, you will always know that this is the biggest, most important thing you will ever do." I remember thinking a lot about that statement, and being fairly certain that it was not completely true.

Anyway, I will save the sappy for later;-). This weekend is just about having a party! I would love to tell you that my big gift to her is a surprise visit from the boyfriend, but that would be lying...I am not quite that cool. He did send her a couple of things, including a beautiful pair of earrings that she was not supposed to open until tomorrow but already did and now will have to pretend that she didn't:-P

She is having a little bit of a party tomorrow night which I hope to get to for a little bit. Smoking Hot Roommate has really be a doll and taken the lead on this, and will be playing Mom/chaperon [spellcheck says there is no "e" at the end of that...for real?] for this. Nothing overly fancy, they are having pizza and then going bowling...although there will be boys involved, which changes the dynamic a little bit. And yes, I am aware that this could all be part of a ruse for SHR to steal Munchkin away from me and never give her back when she moves in with her next week:-P You can't fool me!!!

That's about it for the weekend. Still laying low, but I refuse to be housebound when it is this nice out!!!

Holy Shit

Remember when I told you I was having twins?

Turns out I lied. There's THREE of them...