Test Anxiety

I will be so glad when this semester is over and cramming for tests is all done. Naomi will seem to understand things one day but when I quiz her the next, all is forgotten. There is a lot to cover in her anatomy/physiology class. On top of everything else, she will have panic attacks in the testing room. Her pulse races, she has difficulty breathing, and she sometimes blacks out. Since she has become pregnant, these attacks are more frequent: last week during the ultrasound and yesterday as we studied. I took her pulse: 104. But even after she seemed to calm down, the pulse remained high. According to the Merck Manual, a normal pulse of 70 will increase to 90 by the end of pregnancy but she is only 2/3 of the way done. But she says all went well today. Three more weeks and she'll take a break until the fall.
Loud storms all night. According to the weather map, I had an one hour window to get my run in. But the front suddenly veered north and we had beautiful weather instead.

I spent the afternoon with a former colleague comparing notes on the many challenges raising teenagers. It is comforting to know that I am not the only one facing this. An enjoyable time.

A Fish by any other name

Yesterday at our Easter brunch, I overheard Dontae quietly questioning Naomi what everything was on the brunch table. All unfamiliar to him-quiche, bagels and..LOX. The pink flesh especially puzzled him. I told him that lox was one of Naomi's favorite foods until someone told her that it was actually fish.
Naomi's Logic:
I don't like fish.
Lox is a fish.
Therefore I don't like lox.
Even though I always liked it before.
Dontae asked if calamari were a fish because Naomi certainly eats that.
Actually it's a mollusk.
I have noticed that even non-Italian restaurants call squid 'calamari' now. I don't think I ever see the word squid anywhere. I guess it would not sell. I remember as a child going deep-sea fishing in Florida. Alot of the catch was this 5 lb flat, golden fish. I asked what it was.
Dolphin
Argh! It didn't look like Flipper.
Now it's been rechristened 'mahi-mahi'. Noone wants to eat something called dolphin.
In Italy, at the Amalfi Coast cuisine restaurant we ate at in Milan on the last day, they had a dish full of sea shells that I wished I had saved one of the shells as they were pretty. On a recent Anthony Bourdain show featuring Provence, he showed a plate of them and called them 'whelks'. Italian word: buccino. buccino sounds nicer than sea snails or whelks. And no, I didn't eat one.

Back to the lox. I suggested that Dontae try it to expand his horizons. Ha! Some of my readers are thinking-what a big fat, hypocrite you are!
He initially passed but somehow maybe to suck up to me, which he does try to do in hilarious ways, later he decided to try it eating it straight. Josh reminded him that he didn't need to do that, ignore what his mom said. But if he insisted on trying it, put it on a bagel with cream cheese.
He ate it straight and reported that it didn't taste fishy. He didn't ask for more. They then left for his mama's house probably so he could eat something not so weird.

At home, I saw a cute puppy bounding beside the Miracle Baby's motorized chair as they cruised the cul-de-sac. Twelve years ago, she was born at 26 weeks weighing 2 lbs, 14 inches long. She is very small for her age (normal to large parents) and has motor difficulties though she does not appear to have cerebal palsy. The puppy,Rosebud,is a 6 lb roly-poly ball of black fur born just 2 days after Dakota. She is mostly a miniature poodle but her very short legs suggest she has something else mixed in. I had friends with a yorkie-poo who looked very similar but had copper hair (and named "Copper"). At the Miracle Baby and her mom's suggestion, later I brought Dakota over for the two puppies to chase each other and roll together on the floor. Very, very cute! We all had fun watching their antics. Rosebud is a more suitable playmate than a 80 lb German Shepherd and a senile pug. Dakota, despite her size, insists on being the alphadog and occasionally was mean to Rosebud. Dakota's long nose and long tail suggests that something other than chihuahua and pug are in her background. Minipin? Italian Greyhound?Dachshund?

Studytime again as this afternoon will be too. I will be so glad when this semester is over.

Easter Brunch

Julia's sister ( in purple) joined us

Powerless in Ann Arbor

Early yesterday morning, it was calm and sunny but by one or so, things changed. I heard a loud explosion. Apparently the wind knocked down a huge tree near us onto a power line setting off a fire. I am not sure if the boom was due to the tree or the power line exploding. We didn't get power until after dark. At dusk we wandered the streets like zombies to see how widespread the outage was finding our neighbors trolling similiarly. The frogs in our local pond are now active so Steve can hear them. Not long after we set up a system of candles and the hand-cranked flashlight power was restored in time to see the final buzzer of the MSU vs Butler game. Lost by a basket!
We had looked at the long range forecast. No temps below 40 for at least a week so we left the plants outside. But things change. It is 28 at the low point of Ann Arbor. There's frost here so goodbye to all my plants. They are close to the house so hopefully the leaking heat will save some of them.
Studying in the dark without a computer was not appealing to Naomi so we'll have to cram now.
Brunch at Josh and Julia's in a few hours.
Happy Easter!

Training run

Another beautiful card from Lesa of LittleLifePreservers. I've been getting these homemade, artistic cards monthly since I've been in treatment


Some days I have more energy than others. Yesterday, even though I had the wind on my back and a day of rest, I could not get myself to move even at my usual turtle pace. I later walked 3.5 miles so today, I figured my run would be difficult but no, I was all full of energy. The spring marathon training group was running the other way. They too appreciate the 'scenic beauty road'. Even better, they have a waterstop and a bathroom. A handsome young man shouted "How's your shoulder?"
Um..fine.
Who is this man and why does he know about my shoulder? Finally it occurred to me he was the orthopedic resident on duty almost 3 years ago when I broke my arm. He said that he often had seen me running while he rode his bike and that maybe I should switch to biking.
Hard to do one-armed.
But now I see he has switched to running. The ER resident had wondered out loud whether I was in an abusive relationship as he could not fathom why someone my age would be running. I wondered about his diagnostic skills as I did have running clothes and shoes on. Or maybe I always wore them ready to take off at the first hint I was going to be abused. But the orthopedic resident had come to my rescue saying that he sees me out there all the time.
Bringing up the rear of the training group was M, my LiveStrong trainer. I know she is headed for Boston. She's very tiny but used to be quite chunky. She brought in pictures to prove it. Her transformation was documented in Shape magazine. She works for the running store that sponsors this training run. I assume she was just keeping the back of the pack company as she is quite speedy.

Our hoped for marathon viewing session of United States of Tara did not come to pass as I lost the network suddenly. I suppose I could pay for it but I really don't watch that much TV to justify it especially as the weather is getting so nice.

Today more anatomy and physiology.

A Frog went a courtin'...

Dakota and Spud basking in the sun. Dakota immediately claimed the middle of the pillow giving poor Spud only the edge.

Sunset over Nixon Rd. Unfortunately I couldn't capture the bright red colors I actually saw but they were very impressive

Frog courting sounds. The video itself is not interesting but the frogs in love were so loud, I recorded them for Steve's benefit. He was unable to hear them the other day.

When we were kids in music class, we had to sing this bizarre song, "A Frog went a courtin'". It appears to be a cautionary tale about the dangers of interspecies love. The frog falls in love with Miss Mousie but before she agrees to marry him, she needs Uncle Rat's permission. Eventually they do get married but the wedding is crashed first by bugs and a tick making the guests miserable and finally by a duck and a big gray cat. It ends badly; the duck eats the frog and the cat eats the rodents. The song itself is very long and repetitive but easy to sing as there is a very narrow range of notes.

Several frog species are singing their love songs now. My frog loving friend and I went out at dusk to a wet land last night to hear and record them.

It was a beautiful day. After working out with weights, I lounged around on my patio surveying all the work I need to do. Naomi and her puppy came over for more study time. Yesterday's topic: the cardiovascular system. Tight Pants May Attract. That's the acronym we made to remember the path through the heart the blood takes. Tricuspid, Pulmonary, Mitral, Aortic valves in that order. Baby Naetae was plenty active distracting Naomi.

Look what she is doing now! Did you see that?

I can see the baby move now especially when she is searching for a more comfortable spot. Note the use of the feminine pronoun. Although the sonographer wouldn't sign-off on it, she appears to be a girl.

After our frog search, junk TV! We are getting Showtime for I don't know how long. United States of Tara was especially interesting. A mom raising 2 teenagers has multiple personality disorder. The family is very accepting of this although the teenage girl definitely prefers some of the personalities over the others. Fun to watch!

500th post-Twins

Baby TaeNae-26 weeks

Dakota in her new Snugli. With record high temps today, she won't need it

Siamese twins-Shanna and her Aunt Maddy. Shanna is 13 here

All my mom's grandkids in 2000. Josh 18, Leila and Audrey 15, Shanna 21, Thea 11, Naomi 9

The twins when they were 2 or 3. It's their birthday today. Age: 25. One is in grad school at Harvard; the other Columbia

Non-twin non-identical sisters 3.5 years ago at Josh's wedding. Who's
the big sister?

Already it is in the 70s and all the plants I kept inside now are soaking up rays outside.

The computer yesterday subtracted a few days from Naomi's due date. She was thrilled but as I kept reminding her that this was an artifact. Just because Daniel is as big as an one year old doesn't make him an one year old but she's going with the earlier date.

At one point yesterday, Naomi looked at the screen thinking she had some proof of her son:

There it is!!!

No Sweetie, that's the cord.