Baby's First Slumber Party!

My good friend Amy and her daughter Stella Dot breezed thru Pittsburgh on their way to Cleveland for a wedding, which meant that our 2 year olds got to meet one another! Amy had prepared Stella Dot for the trip so that she knew Donovan's name as well as the name of his mom and dad and what city we lived in. I, on the other hand, totally let Donovan get blindsided: "Donny, LOOK! Surprise!" Which was fine. When they met they were definitely not sure about each other but, within about an hour, they were thick as thieves and it was joy to watch them play together. Stella Dot is a sweet, smart little girl who, as any child coming out of such a well stocked genepool, is also cute like the bug. See for yourself:



The jumping on the airmattress was the best. I'll be smiling about that for days.

Dealing in Dirt/And Stealing in the Name of the Lord

You know the song, Papa Was a Rolling Stone, right? The version by the Temptations? There's one part where they're all trading off lines and the alto guy sings, "And Mama, bad talk going around town saying that Papa had three outside children and another wife" and the bass guy chimes in with, "And that ain't right."

I'm happy to say Mike's got our kid saying, "And That Ain't Right." While Mike was changing the kid's diaper tonight, I could hear Donovan on the monitor: "And that ain't right! And that ain't right! And that ain't right! Meow!"

I'm the one who taught him to meow.

Cha Cha Cha!

Today was supposed to be the day that I led a tour thru the cemetery that focused on Suffragettes. I pretty much busted ass to get it down on paper in time for the 2:45 tour time. That being said, here I sit, still in my pajamas, at noon. I woke up to the sound of rain and the rain is still coming down. It's really supposed to hit hard at about 3 so I cancelled the tour. The lady who won it at the charity auction was NOT HAPPY and I can't say I blame her but I hope she'll take me up on my offer to reschedule.

So instead of the inlaws coming over to entertain the boy its me and me alone. Maybe its because this week was so fraught or maybe its just the rain but I'm not the best toddler cruise hostess today. I just can't come up with anything to amuse him or myself. I did get out a couple of New Year's top hats to amuse him. It was 80% fun and 20% of me screaming in my head, OH MY GOD STOP CRINKLING THAT PLASTIC STOPITSTOPITSTOPIT!!! There was also a small percentage, probably part of the 20%, dedicated to sweeping up the glitter.


Now Donovan is in his crib for naptime and his Baa Baa Black Sheep just segued into Frere Jacques. Last night Mike washed the kids face, which the kid doesn't like. Ever since he was a little thing, Mike and I have sung a song to him while we wash his face to keep him from shrieking and last night, for the first time ever, he sang along! The best part is, the song is a very bouncy version of La Cucarocha that ends with a falsetto "cha cha CHA!"--and Donny sang that part as well!

So now: clean the house for the LUPEC party tomorrow or sleep? It is perfect sleeping weather...

Life During Wartime

Today was my day off, courtesy of G20 closing down a stretch of buildings on the CMU campus. I had a huge list of things to get done and I did pretty well. I got probably 80% of the Fall Weeding done--I did that first thing while it was still wet and dewy out so when it was over I was filthy, filthy dirty. After a shower I went to the cemetery to do some more research and map out my new tour. Its going to be a problematic one--3 of the folks I want to talk about are waaaaaay over there in section 19 which screws up my flow. I'm glad I took the time to go over and walk it thru.

I caught a 61 from Squirrel Hill and then the 54C from Craig Street in Oakland. As the bus neared the bridge into Polish Hill there was a wall of cops in riot gear blocking part of the road--plus a cop car blocking the bridge. Luckily that cop had a little sign language exchange with the busdriver(translation: "You need to drive over this bridge?" "Yes, sir, I do." "Wait--let me move this big black cop car out of your way.") and I made it back home. The trouble is I had to leave via that same bus route in an hour to get the kid at daycare. At this point there were a variety of eyewitness reports coming in via Facebook ("teargas at 34th and Liberty" "cops are breaking into houses looking for protesters!!!!" "overturned dumpster in street") and it became pretty obvious that the bus would not be coming by to pick me up. Luckily Mike got to leave early so we ended up having a nice earlier than usual evening together. Mike's old boss from Pulp was in town to report on G20 so the two of them went to Gooskis while Donny and I played with fingerpaint and imitated Brisbane. Donovan got so much paint on himself that I had to strip him down to his diaper. Turns out that while I was drawing water to soak his clothes in the sink, he was in the front room putting his big rubber rainboots on the wrong feet. That's quite a look with a diaper and a paintcovered torso.

Reports from the various scenes say that the majority of both the police and the protesters behaved themselves. The protesters proved me wrong by breaking some windows--I was really hoping they'd be better guests than that--but it sounds like, once the dust settled, all was well.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's installment in which I am, sadly, back at work.

On Behalf of Pittsburgh, I Apologize/Helicopters

Tomorrow starts the G20 here in Pittsburgh and I'm sorry to say that the city isn't handling it very well. I'm pretty embarrassed by the fact that we are busting civic ass to look good for the dignitaries but are not extending even a percentage of the same consideration to our other guests, the protesters. I understand that security measures must be enforced and that we need to be vigilant about threats. I don't think that gives us the right to treat people with less than respect even if we don't agree with their views. So, Protesters of the G20, thank you for making the trip to Pittsburgh. So many of you have made long journeys to make your/our voices heard. Considering how you've been treated, I wouldn't blame you for not wanting to come back here but I hope someday you will. By that time, hopefully, the Salem Witchtrial mentality will have blown over and you'll see us for the strange but friendly people we mostly are.

But I bring up G20 to say that Donovan has been in hog heaven with all the helicopters. Helicopters and planes are two of his favorite things so this is like a trip to the zoo for him. Can that be considered a silver lining?

Alliance for Infants and Toddlers

I just got off the phone with the very nice folks at the Alliance for Infants and Toddlers. As a resident of Allegheny County, Donovan is eligable for free speech and play therapy as well as the services of a nutritionist. THIS IS WHY I'M ALRIGHT WITH PAYING TAXES, PEOPLE. This is a great program and its FREE. And the idea behind it is solid: address early problems early on and save money in the long run. How many people who did'nt get help with learning delays or disabilities get tangled up in troubles they can't get out of?

Sorry for the soapbox moment but, you have to admit, the Alliance is a great thing!

Wherein I Convienently Forget that Alot of People Have Real Problems.

Today was Donovan’s appointment with the Developmental Specialist at Children’s Hospital. I’ve been sort of looking forward to this appointment because, obviously, the specialist will laugh and say, “Oh, we get kids like him in all the time! Nothing wrong with him! Take him home and have a nice day!”

Which is almost what she said.

We got there at 8:45am and while this office is still in Oakland and not at the fabulously swank New Children’s Hospital in Lawrenceville, the place was very nice. Of course, because I‘m a terrible person, the first thing I did upon walking into the waiting room was look at all the kids and try to figure out what was wrong with them. We had a few minutes to wait and Donovan spent a lot of it communing with the fish in a very large and lovely fishtank in the lobby. I should have gotten some photos of that.

ANYhow, we met with a doctor who was very nice (and very YOUNG tho I won’t hold that against her). The four of us spent about an hour or so together while she watched Donovan play with various toys. She asked us a lot of questions and the first time she stopped to take a breath, she said something along the lines of, “Well, we want to get him therapy either way, if he’s autistic or not.” When she finished talking she asked me what I thought and my response started with, “I was kind of hoping not to hear the word ‘autistic’ today.” I think she spent the rest of her time trying to talk me off the ledge but, really, I only felt better after she had me fill out some questionnaires. It felt very good to check off all the things Donny does (makes eye contact, responds to his name) but it felt even better to check off the things he doesn’t do (smear feces on the wall, injure animals or younger children, break things). As she went thru those questionnaires, and as she filled out one of her own with us, she seemed to recant the autism mention. She did’nt entirely rule it out but she seemed to be going out of her way to calm me down. We need to set up a follow up appointment in 3 months. In the meantime, we’re going to sign him up for early intervention speech programs and "play development."

So it was good news, I guess. I wish I could feel better about it. I'm sure I will but not yet.