Monday, May 19, 2008

It takes a village... or at least a Grandma

I knew that our luck would run out eventually. Isa B was lucky to come home without any health issues whatsoever. She didn't have the upper respiratory infection that most of the Toukoul babies were coming home with, no abnormalities on her blood work, not even any trouble with jet lag! We've had some trouble with her bowels now that she's on solid food but that's been fixable with diet changes. (FYI- yogurt is constipating.. who knew??) I also came home from Ethiopia without a single bug.

Well, Friday afternoon I started to feel a bit sniffly. By that night it was definitely worse. Saturday I just got worse. Bad enough for Nyquil before bedtime. My mom had been planning to come up on Monday to help with some outdoor chores but when I spoke with her Sunday morning, she just dropped everything and came up a day early.

I was functional most of the weekend- mowed the lawn, helped with weeding and laundry, etc. But, gosh was it nice to have the extra set of hands around to help with Isa B!! It meant that when I felt really crummy this afternoon, I could take a nap during Isa's nap rather than do dishes (or the million other little tasks that always keep me awake). I needed to go to the one contract job that requires me to go into the office, so I left Isa B with Mom for those few hours- the first time I've left her during daylight hours. I felt so gicky that I knew I couldn't have juggled work, Isa B and my sinuses all at once. It was such a blessing to have Mom around. Admittedly, part of it was also that I LET her help out with things I hadn't before. She's always been willing to help out but I was doing the single gal independent thing. I think I'm finally starting to relax a little into this crazy mommy-hood role. :)

Another thing Grandma will help with is teaching Isa to play the piano. Or, rather, channelling her incredible natural abilities. It's true, Isa B is a virtuosa. She favors Phillip Glass style renditions of classic children's songs. Here is a sample of her work... Carnegie Hall here we come!
(sorry that it's sideways... can't figure out how to rotate it....)


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you let your mom lend a hand! If I had been flying solo on the child rearing front, you can bet I would have given in to the offers of help LONG before you did! I still don't know how you are doing it. It exhausts me thinking about it - especially when you are trying to do it without a consistent 7-8 hour sleep pattern worked out yet and throwing work into the mix too. As for yardwork - I'm afraid I'd tell the neighbors I was doing an experiment to see how tall the grass could grow in 4 months! If they didn't buy that, I'd tell them it was against my religion to mow the lawn on any day but Labor Day!

Potts