Bird on the Street

Photo Silliness

11:10 pm

I’m back from a world-wind ABR trip to Miami and and working on a nice chunky update for you guys. In the meantime, I thought I’d share a little funny since I got so many nice compliments on the matching jammy pic.

This is the matching jammy picture as you guys saw it last week:

Looking Sweet and Innocent

I usually have to take about twenty pictures before I get one that I think is “cute enough” for the blog. This time only two out of three were looking at the camera, but everyone seems mostly happy. Charlie spends a lot of time giving the camera his look of doom, which never makes for a pretty picture.

When you take pictures of three boys, more of them look like this than the one above:

Three boys in striped pajamas falling over.

General Madness

So there it is–the secret to a cute photo–take a zillion and one of them will probably come out alright.

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Missing

9:42 pm

The other day I took the twins for one of those dreaded well visits. You know, the ones where you take a perfectly healthy child into a small enclosed space full of children with every conceivable illness? And then have strangers jab them with needles? Well, we went there and behind us in the line was a young man with a severe disability. I’m not a doctor (duh), but he had many of the characteristics of cerebral palsy: scissored legs, one arm pulled into the chest, head tilted to one side.

He was being escorted by a another young man who I assumed was his brother. I kept flashing friendly smiles, but they went unnoticed.

So I sit down and filled out those terrible developmental checklists about what your baby can do–often, I’m not entirely sure and just sort-of guess. Great barometer, no? As I walked back to the counter with their pen, I saw the caregiver lean over the man in the chair and say, “well, you’re quiet.”

And without thinking–because LORD KNOWS my mouth is often functioning without the permission of my brain–I say brightly, “he’s listening.” Because that’s Charlie all the time–his little antennae are constantly picking up on every little thing said around him. The boy is nosy with a capital N. And the man in the chair? He turned up to his brother and said, “I’m sneaky.” Turns out Charlie isn’t the only sneaky one in town.

I would have missed that little moment a few years ago. Would have felt too uncomfortable around someone who looked different than I do. So glad I’m not missing those things any more.

three boys in striped pajamas sitting on the couch

Charlie and Auggie see the camera. Louie spotted the TV.

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A Mommy Milestone

9:56 pm

An unexpected side effect of a difficult delivery is that watching TV can sometimes send you into a tailspin. All those adorable birth scenes in movies and TV are suddenly less so and more like instruments of torture. That great couple banter? Imagine complete silence as you and your partner realize that something is very wrong with your baby. Mom’s look of pure joy as she looks at her little one for the first time? Replace that with tears as baby is whisked away for treatment.

After an experience like Charlie’s birth, a movie like Knocked Up is a lot more like a punch a in the gut. I remember watching it with my husband and in the end he got up, cursed at the TV, and walked out. You can be handling things fairly well, and then BAM! something like that can remind you of what you didn’t get to have.

The other night, though, Hubby and I were watching the season finale of Bones–last season when Angela had her baby–and we found ourselves chuckling at this improbable TV delivery. The chatting, the complimenting. I mean, I wasn’t in labor for long, but GOOD LORD was that business painful. Like any strong, brave woman, I spent the time up until my epidural for the twins crying. I was thrilled to have them stick a needle in my spine.

It probably took me twenty-four hours to realize we’d made it through our first birth scene without wanting to kick someone. It’s really interesting because a lot of people would not consider the twin’s birth ideal. There was the whole six weeks too early thing, and the NICU stay, but they let us examine each boy when they were born and even gave a minute with each before they took them over to the NI. Seriously, when they presented us with August we weren’t even sure what to do. It was all so. . . foreign.

But it’s good too. We got to have a positive birth experience. It doesn’t erase the first, but it softens it. Provides us with another perspective.

I must say, I think it’s a Mommy Milestone.