Only Us

Ho ho ho! We’re back in VT, awaiting the next onslaught of family members on Thursday, leaving us with a grand total of three days of relative peace and solitude.

We had a wonderful holiday, as I hope you did, and despite my family being very … TOGETHER in nature (as in, 24 hours a day of Together Time. It’s very sweet, but can be stifling at times), there was only one incident of Bloody Beef, when during a conversation with a longtime family friend, I realized that I kind of only have two months and change left in this pregnancy before another PERSON shows up and I … I had a panic attack. I really did. There was heaving sobbing and heavy breathing and everything (I’d locked myself in the bathroom for Maximum Effect). This was followed by an entire Christmas Eve AND Christmas Day of Braxton Hicks and weird pains that convinced me that I didn’t even have two MONTHS, but in fact only had TWO HOURS.

Contributing to the irrational hysteria was the fact that another family friend recently got a new dog and they named her … our daughter’s name. And these are people I will see OFTEN. I’m not changing it, however, so for the rest of her life, my daughter will be able to pose with her namesake, a toy poodle.

Clearly, I did not give birth over the holiday, nor did I do so on my birthday which, speaking of, was fabulous, and Adam gave me a delightful gift of a video camera that records in high-def. Which, uh, yeah. There are, thus far, several videos that will never, ever see the light of day, as I am of the lumbering triple-chinned sort captured in EXTREME DETAIL, and I don’t yet know how to work it, but we are ready for baby! Or at least ready to record baby. And her pores and hair follicles all up close and personal-like.

I was over my Bloody Beef by mid-Christmas Day — it turns out that what was stressing me out was that we did not have the STROLLER finalized, because we cannot bring a baby into this world without a STROLLER OH MY GOD WE ARE NOT READY WHERE IS THE STROLLER THAT THE KID WON’T EVEN USE UNTIL SHE’S A LITTLE OLDER? Hormones are weird, man. When in doubt, buy baby gear.

Anyhoo, I was even able to enjoy opening many baby-related gifts, including this little gem that made me cry, because could you DIE? My mother, Ms. Crafty McCraftpants, made these for my sister a few years ago, and this year, we got our own, because we are finally going to be three:

She should open her own Etsy shop, yes?

And finally, my daughter is already amassing quite a wardrobe, which is to be expected, as everyone is VERY EXCITED about pink things, and we’re so completely and utterly screwed if it turns out to be a boy. S C R E W E D.

And yet, we still need basic newborn things. Oh, and please note bear-footed pajamas. O.M.G.

Happy Monday! I hope you’re all still relaxing and egg-nogging.

*Peter Gabriel

19 comments December 28th, 2008