Sometimes

Sometimes, I...just don't want to.

You know how you see things? Links, perhaps, and they're just everywhere and something rebellious within you just tells you to keep moving? Not now, maybe later. If ever.

Just me, then?

I kept seeing this video posted on Facebook, but I just couldn't bring myself to deal with the topic. Again.

Until tonight.

I watched.

And I bawled.

So now you have to watch it, too.

Or not, you rebel.

But it's here.

Just in case.



And even though she misspells the word, you still get the message, right?

For My Next Trick...

I've been quiet again, for good reason.

It's not that I try to be busy. Or that I'm looking to win the Craziest Life Award.

Really, I'd be ok with a little boring normalcy, trust.

So, today, I finished my second week at work. I can't really say second full week because week one got a late start due to the hurricane that came through this area and then week two started with a holiday. Add to that the fact that we got out early last Friday and I had to take off at noon today and I'm really not looking forward to the whole five-day, forty-hour work week thing.

To back up a little bit, after the earthquake and the hurricane (we evacuated for 3+ days, but our house was pretty much untouched), I started work and then BD left for Norway.

Norway.

Like, 6-hour time difference Norway.

I have been one super-tired mama.

School did start in the midst of all of that, too, but since we decided to keep Playette at her current school full-time and out of the district entirely, it truly felt like any other day. I really did think about the whole cute outfit and picture thing, but, yeah. That didn't happen. It was more like, "Pre-K! Yay! Ok, see you later."

BD got home late last night. I know this because at some point, I woke up gasping for air, in a state of fear-shock because someone was in my bedroom, and about 10 seconds later, I recognized him.

It was a long ten seconds.

I was really out of it though. I had been feeling bad for about 24 hours at that point, so I think I grunted my muted version of "Babe, I missed you soooo much! Welcome home! Muah, muah, muah!" and went back to sleep.

We talked some in the morning, but not much. I was rushing and he was getting Playette ready since he didn't have to go in to work.

That. Felt. Awesome.

Having help, I mean.

I had missed my parenting partner and dreamed of what mornings would be like with two of us to split the workload.

Anyway, I went to work, suffered through the morning, and finally realized that what was going on with my body could be classified under Not OK.

I drove myself to the urgent care down the street and by the time I got there, I was walking lopsided. When I got to the desk, I broke down in tears.

That was a very bad idea.

Because the stabbing pain in my chest then got way worse and I couldn't breathe or talk.

That's one way to skip the line.

Not that there was one, but still. I had kinda made myself top priority, regardless.

Diagnosis: Walking Pneumonia

This really hurts, yo.

I'm down for the weekend.

Let's hope that's it.

The killer irony in all of this is that I've been placed in a trailer at work for the next year during a remodel. I've been smelling an odor in there and inquired about it right away, based on my past upper-respiratory issues and all I've heard about these things being death traps. I told my boss yesterday that I wasn't meaning to be a pest right out the gate, but that it would really suck if I started getting stabby chest pain and ended up out of work for a week right away. I was poo-poo'd because, you know, Air Quality Tests cost money, and told to come back to them if I had symptoms.

That last convo I had with someone in an official capacity about the topic was this morning.

Right before I left for urgent care.

I think, come Monday, I win.

How bad, exactly, would it be to quit before I get my first check?

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And, before I totally forgot, another one to add to that last post: I love how Playette sings and signs songs on the radio. It's super cute. But the one that's currently slaying me is a less-pop'y tune, her old standby fave. When she gets to the third line, she signs it like "Happy Birthday deer _________."

When those two hands go up to her head? Hilarious.

Not that I can laugh right now. Or cough. Or move.

Back to sleep I go.

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Oh, and thank God, again, for ASL. It hurts to talk so I'm signing more. What's funny, too, is that BD had to use Playette as an interpreter this evening. I signed "hurt" and he was all, "huh? help?" so I finger spelled "H..." He says, "F?" Oh jeez.

My baby saved me.

I Don't Trust My Brain

So I'll place this here to remember...

I love the way that Playette creates her own signs for people. Unlike typical names signs, given by someone who is deaf/hearing impaired and based on a characteristic of the person being "named", hers are almost rhymes instead.

Her former babysitter, Christy, became "Thirsty." Even though she can say something close to Christy, she'd also sign thirsty while saying it.

That was the first time I recall her doing that with names. She would substitute rhyming-word signs from time to time if she didn't know the appropriate word, and once she used a homophone (principal for principle), but the name thing really intrigued me.

These days, she consistently uses the sign for "pretend" when referring to our friend, Jen. I guess she figures it's close enough. It really has nothing to do with anything Jen has ever done to or around her.

One day, a few weeks ago, after a day spent out with BD, I asked Playette what they did. She signed pretend and baby. I then asked BD, "Did you go to Jen's and see the baby without me?!"

That they did.

Which is really cool, I think. (Not that I didn't want to see the baby.) She's communicating in a way she never has before.

Her new buddy, K, has been assigned the sign for pillow.

I'm actually thrilled to have figured this out, finally, because I could NOT, for the longest time, figure out why she was signing pillow so much.

Yesterday, while talking to BD, I asked Playette to tell her daddy what we did the night before. She signed pillow and ice cream.

Yup, we went with K and his mom to get frozen yogurt.

Now, she is babbling all through this (or is "using jargon" more appropriate?). She's not only using the signs, but also speaking. I just can't always understand her 100%. Some words are clearer than others.

Hopefully, one day, we'll get Speech Therapy again and maybe some help clearing this up some will follow.

But, in the meantime, she's getting her point across, and using her brain in creative ways, and it's awesome.

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Oh! And before I forget this one, too, I love how she signs cat for her great-grandparents' dog, Pepper. She'll say Pepper and knows for a fact that Pepper is a dog. She's not confused at all about that.

It's just that Pepper is a schnauzer with a hairy face that reminds her of whiskers.

Like cats.

BOOM!

That there is the sound of synaspes firing.