...for sheer springtime magnificence! I have made no secret of it: I love, love, love, adore, venerate, worship this city. Yes, it has its priorities messed up, sometimes royally so, and yes, the real estate situation is going to prevent us from buying a property here, and yes, gentrification is slowly and corrosively eating away at my two home neighborhoods of El Barrio and Chinatown...but for sheer brilliant beauty, you would have a hard time beating out Union Square Park on an April afternoon with 72 degrees on the thermometer and a baby due in only a few months. We left the Union Square clinic, where I finally met Lisa the head nurse and where Dr. Peretta put a microphone against Ting's abdomen, allowing us to hear Michael's heartbeat. I am not going to get foolishly optimistic, but...all signs are good. Signs are good. Ting is happy and so am I.
And to top things off, I am going to a surprise birthday party tonight for Evan's fiancee Lauren, and that means 2 great things: barbecue and margaritas. Yay!
Seeya later...
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Sunshine, on my shoulder...
OK, this has been a day. A beautiful sunny day, absolutely spectacular. The Yankees are up in the Bronx having their home opener, and the year is hitting its stride.
We just got back in from Beth Israel, from Ting's latest ultrasound. Whenever I go in there, I am always nervous, a legacy from the Allison incident. Michael, however, appears to be fine. Just fine. Thank God. His spine, size, everything appears to be in order, and he currently weights 18 ounces. His first pound! Only 189 to go till he matches me!
Ting is radiantly beautiful to me lately, which is an utterly cliched thing to say, but it is true. I have never seen her so happy.
I believe this baby is really and truly a gift from Grandma, dear Grandma, who passed away one year ago this week. I miss her daily. I can only hope that she is happy, reunited with all but one of her children.
Anyway. Michael is fine. Ting is fine. We are fine. More to come later.
We just got back in from Beth Israel, from Ting's latest ultrasound. Whenever I go in there, I am always nervous, a legacy from the Allison incident. Michael, however, appears to be fine. Just fine. Thank God. His spine, size, everything appears to be in order, and he currently weights 18 ounces. His first pound! Only 189 to go till he matches me!
Ting is radiantly beautiful to me lately, which is an utterly cliched thing to say, but it is true. I have never seen her so happy.
I believe this baby is really and truly a gift from Grandma, dear Grandma, who passed away one year ago this week. I miss her daily. I can only hope that she is happy, reunited with all but one of her children.
Anyway. Michael is fine. Ting is fine. We are fine. More to come later.
Sunday, April 02, 2006
Sunday, sprung ahead
Sunday, a sunny day, 54 degrees.
Is is two days after my 44th birthday, our 10th wedding anniversary. A wonderful party on Friday night, thanks to my resourceful, bed-resting wife. I am in Apartment 14C in Chinatown, the window wide open, the sounds of the city drifting in. Listening to Patti Smith, "Because the Night," playing through a tiny set of Creative SBS Vivid 60 speakers I got for Ting so that she would not have to rely on the PowerBook's dinky speakers. Still hammering away at my Education paper, which is due Wednesday. Later, I will need to do lesson plans for the week and in general get ready. All that is happening today, still needs to get done.
Ah, but now...right now...
Right now I am sitting on the edge of the bed, in front of a dinner tray, typing this on Ting's PowerBook. She is lying on the bed, behind me, asleep. Inside her, Michael grows day by day.
I am content. Wherever you are, I hope you are too.
Is is two days after my 44th birthday, our 10th wedding anniversary. A wonderful party on Friday night, thanks to my resourceful, bed-resting wife. I am in Apartment 14C in Chinatown, the window wide open, the sounds of the city drifting in. Listening to Patti Smith, "Because the Night," playing through a tiny set of Creative SBS Vivid 60 speakers I got for Ting so that she would not have to rely on the PowerBook's dinky speakers. Still hammering away at my Education paper, which is due Wednesday. Later, I will need to do lesson plans for the week and in general get ready. All that is happening today, still needs to get done.
Ah, but now...right now...
Right now I am sitting on the edge of the bed, in front of a dinner tray, typing this on Ting's PowerBook. She is lying on the bed, behind me, asleep. Inside her, Michael grows day by day.
I am content. Wherever you are, I hope you are too.
Monday, March 27, 2006
Sunday, March 26, 2006
One of these days I gotta get organisized...
So I'm checking out the CBS Sunday Show and they have a bit about clutter and getting rid of it. I am running aboot a LOT today, this being Sunday, the day of rest and everything, so I have only a few seconds to jot this down before running off to C-Town for (ugh) 6 boxes of scoopable crystal kitty litter:
STEPS TO ELIMINATING CLUTTER
1) eliminate stuff
2) categorize what remains
3) designate where it will go
does it enhance my life or the lives of others?
get boxes and sort the things out
That is it. I just really really want to remember this. Ting is fine and so is Mike. Love them both completely. Peace out.
STEPS TO ELIMINATING CLUTTER
1) eliminate stuff
2) categorize what remains
3) designate where it will go
does it enhance my life or the lives of others?
get boxes and sort the things out
That is it. I just really really want to remember this. Ting is fine and so is Mike. Love them both completely. Peace out.
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Monday, March 20, 2006
Back in Queensie today
Working on my Maple project. Buh. At this point, I have quite a few irons in the fire:
1) Ting
2) Work
3) Mom
4) Lehman
5) Maintaining the place in Queensie
6) Ting
7) Tax time
A long list, and this does not include trying to get some of the down payment back. OK, got that out of my system...back to work!
1) Ting
2) Work
3) Mom
4) Lehman
5) Maintaining the place in Queensie
6) Ting
7) Tax time
A long list, and this does not include trying to get some of the down payment back. OK, got that out of my system...back to work!
Sunday, March 19, 2006
Well, spring at last...
...and we had a peaceful Sunday today, with me working and Ting lying on the bed beside me. Nice day. She is feeling a little bit of pain but otherwise she is OK. She is going to see Dr. Stein tomorrow and we should know a little better what our status is. I gotta get back to work now, because school awaits tomorrow.
Friday, March 17, 2006
So far, so good...
Well, we had a scare with the baby this week.
We had run a series of blood tests with Ting last week, and this week they came back with a finding that we had scored higher than normal for a possibility of the baby having a Spinal Tube Defect - spina bifida and similar ailments. Depending on the severity of the problem, this might have meant that the baby would not be able to walk, or would be severely retarded, or other problems.
Then we had to wait for 2 days to find out whether this actually would be the case, and if so, what would we choose to do about it? This was the most agonizing part: having lost Allison, were we prepared to do something like that again? This was apart from the cerclage issue, which made things even more distressing.
Fortunately, Dr. JAffe, who took a look at the Ultrasound, pronounced that Mike's spine seemed to be OK. That left one MAJOR issue resolved. I asked him how the cerclage was, and he said it appeared to be holding on. This was EXCELLENT news, and sorely needed. Later that evening, of course, Dr.Stein called us at home and told us that Dr. Jaffe had remarked that the cervix was in good shape as well, which while good news, still causes me worry.
How can that be? When this was the source of our previous sorrow? When they had mentioned the shortness of the cervix as recently as Monday?
Should I even be looking at this gift horse too closely? Does that make me an ingrate for what I guessis a real miracle for us? I am so worried that Ting's heart would break if it happened again, and I so want to be happy. I guess I just don't want to be so bitterly disappointed again.
And should we go ahead with the amniocentesis?
We had run a series of blood tests with Ting last week, and this week they came back with a finding that we had scored higher than normal for a possibility of the baby having a Spinal Tube Defect - spina bifida and similar ailments. Depending on the severity of the problem, this might have meant that the baby would not be able to walk, or would be severely retarded, or other problems.
Then we had to wait for 2 days to find out whether this actually would be the case, and if so, what would we choose to do about it? This was the most agonizing part: having lost Allison, were we prepared to do something like that again? This was apart from the cerclage issue, which made things even more distressing.
Fortunately, Dr. JAffe, who took a look at the Ultrasound, pronounced that Mike's spine seemed to be OK. That left one MAJOR issue resolved. I asked him how the cerclage was, and he said it appeared to be holding on. This was EXCELLENT news, and sorely needed. Later that evening, of course, Dr.Stein called us at home and told us that Dr. Jaffe had remarked that the cervix was in good shape as well, which while good news, still causes me worry.
How can that be? When this was the source of our previous sorrow? When they had mentioned the shortness of the cervix as recently as Monday?
Should I even be looking at this gift horse too closely? Does that make me an ingrate for what I guessis a real miracle for us? I am so worried that Ting's heart would break if it happened again, and I so want to be happy. I guess I just don't want to be so bitterly disappointed again.
And should we go ahead with the amniocentesis?
Saturday, March 04, 2006
Well, well...
So it appears that Ting is pregnant again! This comes as a majopr shock, and that is the mildest way of putting it. After all these years of trying to conceive, then fertility treatments, then losing Alison, I had just about given up hope of trying have a baby...and then THIS.
OK. Deep breath. That's better.
Our baby is a boy this time. My little guy. Our little guy. I keep rolling the phrase aroound, testing it out. My son. Son. Our son. It feels so weird saying it. We're having a baby.
Wow.
I hope that we can hold on to this one this time. I miss Alison a lot some days. When a friend of moine showed me pictures of himself and his son together, the feeling was excrutiating. A day later, on the way out of Lehman, I get the word from Ting.
More to come. What a way to start March.
OK. Deep breath. That's better.
Our baby is a boy this time. My little guy. Our little guy. I keep rolling the phrase aroound, testing it out. My son. Son. Our son. It feels so weird saying it. We're having a baby.
Wow.
I hope that we can hold on to this one this time. I miss Alison a lot some days. When a friend of moine showed me pictures of himself and his son together, the feeling was excrutiating. A day later, on the way out of Lehman, I get the word from Ting.
More to come. What a way to start March.
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