Low pain = high gratitude

Thursday night in Chicago. I confess to being very very tired. It's a happy tired, but I'm tired. I was spot on to shorten my stay from 2 weeks to 1 week.

I've not had a painful day since Tuesday. (Much gratitude.) Wednesday in fact, I felt terrific and everything was moving pretty good. I went to Starbucks for coffee for me and Annie and a paper, parked on the street, and did the whisk into the car with 2 hot coffees, my purse and a paper in between fast moving vehicles on a narrow street without a twinge. I was amazed when I was behind the wheel. Where's the easy button? "That was easy."

Today I'm a little stiff but not sore. I do think that I get tired from the extra energy it takes to move this stiff body around. I get up around 7 or 7:30 as Conor is leaving and after the kids are fed and dressed. I go to bed when Harrison heads for his bath around 7:30 in the evening. I am usually asleep by 9 which is in 7 minutes. ha ha.

We walked to Julius Meinl this morning, Annie and I and the two kids. The only trick was maneuvering that long double stroller with one hand, since the other hand was carrying my hot cup of coffee and the sidewalks are so uneven that the coffee spills out of the cup holder on the stroller. This afternoon we went to the park and Harrison spent nearly the entire time in the swing. Annie chatted with another young mother who was there with her mother and young daughter and in utero baby boy. I think it is lovely to live in this neighborhood full of similar families.

I had to look up the spelling of maneuver since I no longer spell as reliably as I used to. Dictionary.com showed almost 18 million searches today. Apparently I am not alone. I think sometimes it's easier to look it up than to retrieve it from my overcrowded brain. The techno age impacts all of us.

I have taken loads of pictures of these babies. Ella changes by the day. When I arrived Sunday and picked her up my first remark was "Oh! her eyes are so yellow!" I was really surprised at how yellow they were even though I knew she had the special bili lights at home. But today it's hardly noticeable. (The bili lights have been gone for a long while.)

Harrison seems to be trying to say Gram. I could have picked something easier to say I guess...for some reason that didn't occur to me when I was choosing a moniker. He says a lot of things and some of them are understandable. He definitely enjoys interacting with other kids and he is definitely frustrated by this new baby sister. I'm pretty sure though, that one of the garbles coming from his mouth is Ella.

I will be ready to lay about when I return to Kansas City. I will have to do some thinking and planning for that trip to Washington DC over Memorial Day.

Ok. It's 9:06; time to roll over and finish this day.
~Cathi