Good News (AKA things that don't suck)

A lovely day for a party in Connecticut

It's been up and down all week, all month, all year, and well, let's just say for some time now we've been riding life's rollercoaster, or if you prefer your metaphors nautical: cast adrift on life's choppy seas, pitching and yawing along.

Today, this very moment, I am feeling well weary of the negative, of feeling I am one popped stitch away from coming apart completely at the seams. So I will, here in my own little bloggy fiefdom, do as the old song says and ac-cen-tu-ate the po-si-tive.

So, hereforth and forthwith are five things from the past week that DIDN'T suck, that might even qualify as good news...

1. Getting Mom out of the hospital and into a nice suburban rehabilitation center was totally the right move. We brought her out to Long Island on Thursday. She ate a hearty amount of lunch, was in good spirits, worked on one of her word puzzle books for the first time in a month.

And when the cute male admissions nurse left the room after saying he needed to come back and do a full body check on her? Her response to me: "He's cute. He can do a body check on me anytime." You go, Mom!

And the reason why we picked this particular rehab center? I have been very (what's the diplomatic word here?)... disenchanted with the rehab options in NYC. And then, it turns out that my Aunt Eva, my mother's sister-in-law is currently also a short-term rehab resident at this facility, which is a mere mile from her home. Which means my Uncle Walter, my Mother's brother, visits daily.

And now that my Mom is ensconced two doors down from my Aunt, my Uncle gets to hang out with BOTH his wife and sister at the same time. Also my doctor cousin Jessie (Walt & Eva's daughter) has declared this facility "definitely nicer than most of these type places." Win-win.

2. Jake had his annual physical on Friday and an appointment with the doctor we see for bio-medical issues on Monday. We're taking his two week hiatus between the end of the school year and the beginning of camp-school (what we call his six week school summer program to make it sound more like what Ethan is doing) to get in all our doctor visits.

Both doctors thought he was doing quite well, were pleased with his relative calm and very impressed by his art work (I showed them samples).

And then when he had to have blood drawn he was pretty good about it. A little anxious beforehand and during, but no screaming. And then he was a little fascinated by the process and talking about it a lot afterward  - "What color was my blood, Mommy?" and "What did the doctor do to my blood, Mommy?"

3. On Friday, during his daily recess basketball game, Ethan made a 3-point shot to win for his team. And the week before, at his afterschool basketball program awards dinner he had been given a special medal for "Best Defensive Player of the Year."

As basketball is his great passion these days, both of these things made him inordinately happy.

4. Jacob is clearly missing school. Three days into his vacation he decided to have Blue Bear and all his other stuffed animals get on the bus and go to school. Once they arrived, he recited the daily schedule to them and then he led them in a bit of "guided reading." They ate lunch and played ball and then went back home to their mommies and daddies. But he told me they would be going back to school the next day! (And they did.)

Part of preparing Blue Bear to "get ready for school" was to get her dressed in some doll clothes I had bought for her last year, when Jake had insisted she get dressed when he did. So the second day of this game, after getting BB on the bus (Jake's pillow), the monkey bus driver drove on to the next pick-up point.

But once there, Jake declared of the penguin and cheetah who were waiting for the bus: "They can't go to school, they're NAKED!" Yes! Social rule understood: No naked school days!

5. We were finally invited to an annual birthday pool party I have been hearing about for years, the social event of the 4th grade boys world at Ethan's school. And today was the absolute perfect day for a drive to Connecticut and a pool barbecue bounce castle trampoline party. (And it was easy to bring Jake along to this, as the hosting family has a SN kid of their own as well, and is particularly lovely and understanding.)

We returned slightly sun kissed, tired and happy. Perfect.

<*>*<*>

I am not going to mention my worries about Mom's blood pressure being consistently low.

I am not going to talk about how despite it being cute, my mother's level of disinhibition is troubling, indicative of more cognitive changes afoot.

I am not going to share my disheartening realization late last night that last year's bathing suit was not going to fit, necessitating a last minute, early morning run to the full-priced neighborhood swim and lingerie shop where I got to beg them to help me find a suit that hid the fact that I do not have a bathing-suit-worthy body.

I am not going to fret over Ethan's being positive he is going to win a basketball scholarship to Harvard, and therefore doesn't have to put too much effort into his actual schoolwork.

I am not going to bring up my thousand fears and anxieties about Jacob and his future.

Ac-cen-tu-ate the po-si-tive.

Back to kvetching and bemoaning tomorrow.