You've got to put one foot in front of the other, put the other foot down, down, down

Whew! Long time no post. Sorry about that. My excuse is two-fold:

First, we were out of town from Wednesday to Saturday last week at my mom's down in New Jersey. I know, I know, you can post to Blogger from any Internet-enabled computer, but who wants to blog when you can watch your mother's brand-new High Definition Plasma Super Duper Extra Fabulous 48" screen television? Seriously, it's the nicest thing in her condo. I was afraid to ask how much it cost in case it was more than our car. We actually didn't spend all our time watching TV (although we did watch The 40-Year-Old Virgin, which was hysterical, and criminally under-represented at the Oscars). My dad's parents (Mom-mom and Pop-pop) came up to visit with us one day, and KB had his Penn fellowship interview the next day, and then we drove home the following day, so it was a short visit.

Secondly, both Nolan and I came down with a cold on the Sunday following our return from my mom's. I'm not sure who the vector was, since my mom and my grandmother also reported having the same cold, but I'm going to blame it on Nolan, or, more specifically, another baby in his playgroup. We spent all of Sunday (yes! my first Mother's Day!*) sniffling and snorting and moaning about our sore throats (well, I moaned. Nolan was just a snottier, slightly less-energetic version of his usual self). Now we're feeling better but KB is feeling not-so-hot. Sigh. I guess we can expect...oh...a hundred or so more viruses like this before Nolan starts pre-school.

Thirdly (three! three main weapons!), Nolan is seriously crawling. Like, freaky speed-crawling. And climbing. And pulling up on things. He has morphed into a small demon overnight. I keep thinking that there's another baby around here somewhere - didn't I have a baby named Nolan who was a little bundle? Who stayed where I put him? Who ate what I gave him? Where did he go? Seriously, not in a misty, metaphorical oh-where-has-my-baby-gone kind of way, but in an actual, physical way. I keep having these moments of panic, thinking, "Ohmygod, where did I put the baby?" until I realize that THIS IS THE BABY. This small child pounding on the oven door with a spatula and trying to shove his hand through the screen door. It's the same person. I suppose it will sink in eventually, but in the meantime I feel like I'm babysitting someone else's toddler and waiting for the REAL parent to come back. The one who knows everything.

When are they coming?

Thanks for reading.

*Thanks for the cards and phone calls on Mother's Day, my non-baby-having friends! It's so nice to be remembered and appreciated by people who don't have any kidlets running around! Since KB was working all day, it was truly the highlight of my day.

You said go slow...I fall behind

Ugh. No computer for almost a week now. We finally, FINALLY seem to have resolved some computeralogical shit around here (but only by hiring a $50/hour consultant who had to TAKE THE MACHINE AWAY last Tuesday to work on it at home and bring it back later).

Also, KB's fabulous brother KA rehabbed my old Titanium Powerbook (yay!) and sent it to us a few weeks ago*, but I could not for the life of me figure out how to get it hooked up to our wireless router. That was finally accomplished today, at the exact same time that the consultant finally brought back KB's computer that is now working. Finally. I'm just going to say FINALLY a few more times, because it seems like this has been an ongoing saga for, oh, I don't know, months. Finally! FINALLY!

Okay, anyway. So also last week, KB was working at a different location than his normal T-accessible hospital, and needed to take the car to get there. If I wanted to use the car during the day, I had to drive him there in the morning (a 45-minute trip one way) and then pick him up at night. So that's a minimum of three hours in the car just getting KB to work and home, and then any other driving during the day (say, to the Y for swim class) that was the whole reason I needed the car in the first place. Not to mention that KB was also moonlighting most every night last week, which, if I had the car, meant going to pick him up, driving to the moonlighting place, and then driving home again. So I'm kinda sick of the car.

Which is a bummer, because we're driving down to my mom's in Dirty Jers on Wednesday, which is a minimum five-hour car ride. KB has a fellowship interview in Philly, and my mom is about 45 minutes away, so we'll stay with her for a few days. She's all excited to see Nolan, of course. I'm hoping the drive won't be too too painful, but you never know. The last time my mom came up to see us, she made it up here in 5 hours, but the drive back home took her 8 hours. Bleah.

Plus you have to factor in the releasing-Nolan-from-the-car-seat-purgatory time, 'cause I know he's not going to be happy. He hates the car seat on ten-minute trips across town, much less a marathon. I think part of it is because he's crawling now, and he's so thrilled to be mobile, he just wants to go everywhere. When we take our swim class now, he's constantly trying to push my hands off of him, as if to say, "Let me down so I can crawl, Mom! I know if you'd just let go of me, I'd be across this pool in a flash! Just watch me!"

So I'm feeling bad because I haven't been able to read anyone's blogs or comment or anything, so I'm going to try to catch up in the next couple days before we head out.

Whew. I guess that's about it. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

Thanks for reading.

*Just to give you an idea what a huge deal this was, the man is working full time and his wife is expecting TWINS at like, any second. She had a blood-pressure scare a few weeks ago, so she's confined to bed and he's taking care of her. And he STILL made time to gussy up my old Mac for me. What a guy, huh?

Don't speak, I know what you're thinking

OH. MY. GOD.

I'm probably late to the party, but have you seen this?

Stephen Colbert is my hero.