About the “Man”

To explain a little about the previous post, the “man” in our lives is our new cat, Rumpus, which we adopted from my sister. Jennifer lives in Long Beach, CA, and has several cats of her own, but when she discovered Rumpus alone out on the streets, clearly neglected and likely abused, she couldn’t resist “saving” him, with the exuse that he was for us when we got a house. Well, we live in a house now, so now we have our first pet.

I have to say it has been so much fun. I’ve spent my whole life with at least 2 pets in the house, and at least 1 was a cat, but Chris has never had what I consider a “real” pet – just “city” pets like hamsters and parakeets. They just don’t have the personality and demands of a cat, you know? And what demands! Rumpus has been a very good cat, behavior-wise – doesn’t do anything anywhere he isn’t supposed to, understands and mostly respects the word no, eats and drinks as he should, barely sheds, and the like. But boy does he LOVE love! He greets us at the door every day we come home, with yowls that go on and on until we pick him up and carrying him around like a toddler. Heaven forbid I take my bath before he’s had a good petting and scratching – the world has come apart if I dare to even shut him out of the bathroom! He will wander in and out, walk all around and under the tub, even put his paws up on the rim of the tub to see if there is any conceivable way he can get in there with me.

Demanding as though he is, we are nonetheless really enjoying having him around. It has been an interesting new aspect to our relationship, this business of taking care of a living creature together. We seem to have naturally settled into a pattern of who does what, that so far seems to be working rather smoothly. Although I admit I probably say that because Chris does about 90 percent of the work – pretty much because I can’t touch the litter of course, and don’t usually have the energy to animate the ball of yarn every time the cat decides he needs to play, which is usually at 10 or 11 pm. Chris really loves it, though, and it has been good practice for us to have another body in the house to worry about. Not like caring for a cat is ANYTHING like caring for a child, but it is still better than nothing. So far the cat is still alive, healthy, and kicking, so I guess we are off to a good start!

P.S. Jennifer named him, we didn’t. I have no idea where she got the name.

Spring news

Has it really been so long since I’ve written a blog? A really decent one? Truly? Alas, despite my sincere good intentions to keep updated with my blog, I have failed miserably, when you consider my goal was to update at the very least once a week. So much has happened in the last six months, I hardly know where to begin. The most important bit of news has yet to be officially aired in this blog (and will explain a lot!), which is we are expecting a baby! As of this Saturday I will be 26 weeks pregnant with a little boy we plan to welcome into the world on or around Mother’s Day (May 13th). We didn’t actually plan that at all, it just worked out nicely that way – we didn’t even put two and two together that our due date was Mother’s Day until a few months ago. Or at least I didn’t, maybe Chris was faster on that than I was. Which wouldn’t be at all surprising, because I have completely lost my mind. It feels like it at least! For the first 13 weeks, I was very sick, all day/night, every day, so pretty much every minute of every day was spent at work working, at home trying to eat and sleeping, all the while trying not to throw up (for all you more squeamish readers, I apologize – I’m not very squeamish usually, so I just tend to say what is in my head, which unfortunately doesn’t always come out all that "proper."). Thankfully indeed that disappeared not long after the first trimester, so we’ve been able to enjoy the rest of the pregnancy so far. As of this week, though, I’m starting to really feel big, even though I don’t show all that much. I’ll have to take a photo and post it – unfortunately, we’ve taken very few photos of me. I’m pretty sad about that, as those would be really fun to look back on, plus I tend to forget most everything that isn’t immortalized in a photo or journal as a reminder. Better late than never, though, so we’ll start taking some pictures soon, I hope, now that the weather is nicer and we’re out and about more. Anyway, what was I saying? Oh yes…losing my mind (see?!)… This baby has sapped my brain of it normal ability to process details, analyze information, or remember…anything. Which really sucks when you analyze for a living. Sheesh! I’ve never written so many sticky notes in my life. Does anyone know what causes Pregnancy Brain, besides the obvious answer (the baby)? I mean, what is it REALLY that makes you lose your mind, and is there a cure for it? Does it come back? We’re in real trouble if it doesn’t. I do appreciate and understand my own mother a little better now, though. She was pregnant three times.

Anyway, so we are very happy. We’re just entering into that anxious phase though, as everything is starting to sink in now that we only have 14 weeks left to go, and my ever-growing belly is a constant reminder of the changes to come. I’m so happy the weather is nice, though – freezing, but beautiful. I don’t know how I ever thought I’d want to have a baby in the dead of winter, as we had originally been thinking. I never would have survived the dark dreariness, which in my mind I always enjoy, but in body and spirit it just depresses me. I never know how much until the first sunny days start to appear and I start feeling 1000 times better, and never realized how NOT myself I was being. Lots more energy these days, even though I’m really tired too. If that makes sense.