Presto Switcho (and back again)

What a crazy, backwards day! Sleep, quiet inside, noisy (& chilly) outside.

I got relatively good sleep last night and a nap this morning. The house was quite and empty for most of the day. And outside it stormed and rained and thundered and lighteninged off and on all day. We even lost power for a few minutes.

Avery went to daycare today. It was red hat tea party day, and that always involves milk and something chocolate. That was after she and Nana Noma played cards & colored turkeys for a coloring contest at the local supermarket. (Cards = a game called Slap Jack, modified to Slap All of the Cards -- hey at least she knows all the suits and all the numbers.) We're not on any particular schedule, so there's no pressure about getting to Melba's by a certain time. We go when she's ready (i.e. awake & not crabby).

Jordan and I slept through these early-morning activities. Yes, slept. What a glorious concept. I think she's enjoying it as much as I am these days. Since I was up fairly early to feed Jordan and pump I was able to get a few phone calls in to the PET scan folks in Detroit, and went for my morning nap with a fairly uncluttered head. Nice.

Then Nana Noma headed out for the day to run errands and take care of things at her house (and let Daisy out for a good run around the yard). Devon wasn't home either (he gets home tonight), and people must have known that because the phone hasn't rung once for him yet today. I think this is a record since, well, forever. I was enjoying the peace and quiet so much I didn't even turn on the music until 2:00pm. I didn't turn on the TV at all, and I usually like to watch a little Ellen or HGTV during the day, if I'm home. But it was just too peaceful and quiet and calm to destroy the atmosphere with that kind of static today.

My head was finally so clear from the silence. I think all of the Jordan screaming in July & August really did a number on me. Today I was actually able to follow up with more docs, get some things cleared off the table (three days worth of mail), and do some research on the internet (I got copies of ALL of Jordan's diagnostic reports, so now I need to become an expert on the brain so I can ask meaningful questions while in Detroit).

I had a wonderful chat with a woman in North Carolina whose daughter is almost exactly one year older than Jordan, and seems to have exactly the same thing. Eerily the same thing. We talked for 45 minutes. She told me how things are going for her & her family now that they are one year farther along in the process. We compared feelings, thoughts, & ideas, and dished on a few docs as well (they're such easy targets when they're such boobs). It was so wonderful to just sit and hold Jordan and talk to her about the good and the bad and the unknown. I can't believe I found someone else with a child so similar to Jordan. They must have the same disease, whatever it is. Let's see, that's 2 of them. . . .

But then it was all lost. Chaos crashed through the door just after 5:00pm when Avery came home from Melba's. What can I say, she's two. And she's obviously a little off-kilter now that Devon has been gone for 4 full days. My fuse was short (it was traumatic to go from silence to chaos), and her mood was defiant, so she spent a good amount of time in her crib for TIME OUT tonight. Admittedly it was a bad combination (her cranky defiancy, and my loss of peace and quiet). Luckily Nana Noma was around to help get through the evening. And for once in my life I can appreciate the shorter days -- it means I can get Avery to go to bed a bit earlier (she won't go to bed until Mr. Sunshine goes to bed. . . . we had some lonnnnggggggg summer days these past few months).

So, as much as things change they seem to stay the same as well. Now the colder weather & shorter days are here, and summer is fading quickly, and every once in awhile I get a quiet, relaxing, easy day at home. But not very often. And it usually doesn't last. That's life, eh?!