Something really
amazing happens when you see one of your parents holding
one of your children. You just kinda turn a corner.
Whereas this site turns even the mundane into a "moment"
or a "chapter", real moments are just incredible. This
video will always make me smile. My mother and my
daugher, the day they met.
Awwwwww.
These moments will be
few and far between. There is a bittersweetness around
that. When I decided to move to California nearly 13
years ago I cemented that reality for my children.
My parents will always be the distant ones and I will
wish my children knew them as I did. The flip side
however is that these moments will be very special.
Christmas Day back in Ohio, the kids being able to hope
for snow! That will be exciting, 'cause it sure ain't
happenin' here. And my parents always get to be the happy
spoilers as they'll rarely have to "parent". Heh.
This entry is a
little late, as my mom actually left earlier this week.
In tears. :-( She, too, fell in love with Vienna. Holding
a newborn for a week after not doing it for that long in,
wow, 37 years? I understand the emotion. I cannot
imagine being away from that little bundle for more than
a matter of hours. Thankfully with the ease of video
phoning, we can share everything a lot easier.
Yay.
For those wondering
about my father, he had a heart valve fixed in September
and needs to stay close to the doctors for a little while
longer. He'll most likely make his way out at the
beginning of the year. He's doing great, it's an issue
we've known was coming for 10 years and a genetic heart
defect (mitral valve prolapse) that my cousin Jimmy has
and I may have as well. Yay, being a Kontras. <throws
hands up> He desperately wants to visit and I
literally had to talk him out of coming this year. It
will be a special moment for sure.
Oh and it's
Halloween! In honor of Vienna's Froggy Legs at birth, we
dressed her up like a froggy-pumpkin. Mom made the hat.
:-)
Too funny. Her
"Froggy Legs of Goodness" are now completely back to
normal for those wondering. Though who am I kidding,
it's only her parents that were worried about that on a
daily basis. :-)
Before I end
this entry and the month, let me take a moment to tell my
mom how much I appreciate my childhood. I was
treated like an adult, I was spoken to like an adult
and the expectation was always excellence. She knew what
I was capable of and bluntly expected nothing less.
I didn't always do that (usually because
I was busy writing songs and girls, girls, girls)
but she was extremely matter-of-fact about what
I could do. She never let me off easy when it came
to anything she knew I could do. It's something
I will pass onto my children and something I've
really come to appreciate about my earliest years.
As she has gotten
older however, her "matter-of-fact" attitude has
lessened. You can tell she simply would rather avoid the
conflict and it kills me. Because I remember a woman who
was extremely well educated, fiercely intelligent and
would wax poetic about the "proud anti-intellectual"
morons that we all deal with in our day-to-day
lives. She unabashedly used the word "fuck" because you
know what? Sometimes you need to use the word FUCK. Come
back, mom. You inspired my world-view more than you
know.
