You Know You're Pregnant When

You cry listening to NPR. Now, when I cried (on the way to a haircut) listening to a new country song, it didn't phase me. But when you cry (on the way home) listening to NPR--it makes you feel pregnant and a touch hormonal. They were talking with the author of a new book about Italian American singers in the 50s--the most famous being Sinatra. But the author, an Italian American himself, said he started thinking about ideas that eventually became the book when his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. They were in their early 30s. He said they couldn't go anywhere because she was so sick from the treatments and they were both feeling so vulnerable and scared, that he turned to his best childhood memories and started to recreate them, sort of. So he started listening to all the old Italian American music his parents had played and making the Italian recipes that had been handed down in his family for generations. He said he turned his apartment into little Italy. Anyway, the story was very engaging, and the wife is fine now.

And yes, I cried the whole time I was listening. To NPR. Sad, sad, sad. Me, not the radio.

PS--There was another EXTREMELY disturbing short story (I love NPR on Saturdays with all their three minute personal stories). The theme for the hour was things you've seen/done when you should have been asleep. This guy named Seth said he got out of bed when he was six and went and sat by his Dad, who was watching The Shining, and his Dad let him watch it. I have vaguely heard of the movie, but they played little two sentence parts of it and described a few scenes, and at one point I had to change the radio station because I was getting scared. Yes, I'm a wuss about scary things. So anyway, Seth was totally traumatized by the movie and thought he was the six year old in the movie and had horrific nightmares for two years. TWO YEARS. He said he would feel so happy every morning that he was still alive, and the the closer it got to bedtime the more scared he would get. His mom said she would find him curled up in a ball next to their bed a lot of mornings. Ack!!! Yeah, I thought that was just a plain freaky story. Don't let your kids watch scary stuff when they are little. Parenting 101. Their little brains process things differently than adult brains.

Here's a link to the new country song. I really liked it. It probably won't make you cry--but whatever, I'm preggers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txCUwSKo1kg

No embed available. It is this guy's first single. So far, I'm impressed.

We took the kids swimming today. So much fun. I love swimming with Timothy because nobody else thinks it is as awesome as we do when our kids do new things. Eli, at first, clung to me like a monkey, but the by the end he was yelling, "Mark, set, GO!" and jumping off the side to me. Timothy took him "swimming" in the lazy river, and Eli holds his little body so stiff and straight. Awesome. Timothy took him down the really big slide, and when they got back, Eli started running back to the slide--so Timothy took him down again.

It was also so sweet when Emeline held Eli's hand and walked him through the "scary" water toys (why do they make a toy that shoots out a ton of water where the babies are supposed to play???) and helped him climb the steps to the little slide. I stayed at the bottom to make sure he didn't drown at the bottom, and over and over again Emeline would walk him carefully back to the top. So, so, sweet.

Miriam thinks she's a fish. She really wanted to go off the diving board today (she never has), but she was a little too scared. Instead, she and her dad practiced jumping into the deep water, from the side, and then swimming back to the side. It was great for Miriam, because when I take the kids swimming (which I almost never do because I'm pretty sure one of the them will drown while I'm helping a different one), I never do anything with Miriam because I'm busy with Eli and Emeline. So it was great that Timothy spent some time with Cowen practicing swimming on his back (what he never passes in swim lessons--although his teacher last year said Cowen was "surprisingly strong" and a great swimmer on his stomach), and spent time with Miriam in the deep end.

It was a great day. Finished with a great haircut. My hair was about four inches too long and I was going nuts. Now, it is only an inch long total and I'm feeling so much happier about life, liberty, and doing my hair.

Hope the rest of you had an equally nice day.