jianantonic: (Default)
My dear little love, Trevor, you have made it around the sun for the first time! The cliche about not being able to believe how fast babies grow up is a cliche because it is universally true. Seriously, you've more than doubled (tripled! nearly quadrupled!) in size since you made your first appearance. My phone background is a precious snapshot of you at about three or four weeks old, but that's hardly even you anymore! You would hulk right out of that onesie that was big and baggy on you in the photo. You hulk right out of a lot of things. You're a big, strong kid already. Good thing you've got strong parents!

Here are some of my favorite memories from my first year of knowing you:

December 18th, 2016: I got word early in the day that your mom had started labor. I was already very impatient for this announcement, as we'd been expecting you about two weeks prior. I was promised regular updates as the day progressed, but I got frustratingly little in the way of news. I checked my phone constantly for information, and finally got the word that you'd made your arrival and everyone was well. Pictures soon followed and I was filled with joy. I would have to wait a few weeks to meet you, but I hounded your mom for photos and updates every day. I wanted to know all there was to know about you.

Early January, 2017: I took the train up to Vancouver, where you and your mom picked me up at the station. You were snoozing in the back of the car and I was so anxious to get home where I could hold you and cuddle you. I remember you being pretty chill. You let me hold you without too much fuss, or if there was fuss, I've forgotten it. Your mom showed me how to change your cloth diapers, and I tried to help as much as I could, but I may have been more in the way than helping. It's the thought that counts, right? Your poops were no big deal in the days before solid food, so I could volunteer to assist without much concern. (This will become relevant later.)

We took you on walks in your icy Vancouver neighborhood. You enjoyed the stroller. At home, you would relax in the stroller in the front hall until hunger or diaper discomfort struck, at which point you'd let us know it was time to mobilize. You didn't do a whole lot yet, but you looked cute in all your outfits and I delighted in spending time with you that week.

April: You got to spend a couple months in Charlottesville with your parents and grandparents, thanks to Canada's progressive parental leave policies. I took advantage of my own flexible "work" schedule to fly out and visit while you were there. Your whole family was around, and lots of extended family met you for the first time then, too. Your Grandmom is great at innovating toys out of whatever is in the house, and she had you practicing your percussion skills on some plastic containers, which you enjoyed very much. Walking remained one of your favorite things, and I enjoyed circling the neighborhood with you in your stroller, and sometimes carrying you. I appreciated that you didn't have too much stranger danger with me, and let me snuggle you lots.

May: In May, your Granddad George passed away. We were all very sad and miss him very much. It really put in perspective just how special those previous two months in Charlottesville were. Thank goodness for that Canadian parental leave policy! We are so glad that George got to spend some of his final months with his grandbaby. He loved you so much, Trev. You are going to hear a lot about George as you grow up. He was a special guy, and I'm sure you'll be a lot like him in a lot of ways. He had a rapidly progressing Alzheimer's case, and maybe it's best that you won't remember him like that. Instead, you'll learn who he was through everyone's favorite stories of what he was like before his illness. He was super smart. He loved to work puzzles and play games. He and my mom were bridge partners. Your mom and dad don't play bridge (yet?), but I would LOVE it if you'd like to learn. I'll play with you any time.

We all flew back to Charlottesville to take care of arrangements and to celebrate George's life. It was nice to get to spend some more time with you. Because your parents and grandparents were so busy, I got the job of holding you for a lot of the memorial service. I was so proud to take you around and introduce you to your granddad's friends and family, and tell them about you :) I tend to cry a lot at events like this, and getting to hold you was a real comfort for me. I know you were a real comfort for a lot of people in that sad time. It's impossible to be all the way sad when there's such a great baby around. You met some other babies whom I'm sure you'll get to know much better over the next few years. You're one of the first kids born in several of your parents' main social groups. That's going to give you a real position of power in future years, when everybody's getting together, and you're the oldest kid. I wielded this power myself, growing up with a bunch of kids in Squirrel Ridge. You'll get to pick most of the games you play, and also win most of them. But you'll also be responsible for making sure the youngest kids don't get left out or get their feelings hurt. So don't let the power go to your head. You need to be magnanimous. You don't want to be the reason other kids run crying to their parents. (Here is where I apologize to your mom for all the times I was shitty to her when we were kids. I did not always handle oldestness gracefully. Be better than that.)

July: For your dad's birthday, your mom got tickets to a beer festival in Vancouver. That meant they'd need an all-day babysitter. Toby and I volunteered for this task. Toby was long past due for meeting you, and we were honored to have the responsibility of one of your first stretches of time without either parent. Now, here comes a story I have since told hundreds of times, and will tell thousands of times more in my lifetime. It is my favorite story. It includes one of the proudest moments of my life. Here it is:

We arrived by train late Friday night. Your mom picked us up and said "I have to warn you of something. Trevor hasn't pooped since Sunday." That's FIVE days by this point. We were going to be on our own with you for most of Saturday. Seven months old now, you'd been eating solid foods for a few weeks, and your shit had gotten more intense...until it stopped altogether. Your parents had already taken you to the doctor, and they were trying all sorts of things to get you unclogged. Every time you farted, we thought "Is this the big one?" because your farts were passing through nearly a week's worth of poo, and each one smelled like armageddon. But by the time your parents set off for the beer fest, you'd been six days shitless. I knew our chances were good. You had to be nearly bursting by this point, and I have this knack for making constipated babies unload. Also, Murphy's Law, right? Of course it was going to happen while I was in charge.

The morning went just fine. We walked around the neighborhood with you in your stroller. You took a quick nap -- for a while, you'd been kind of a bad napper. 20 minutes here, 15 minutes there...we didn't expect to be able to put you down for long. We picked up some lunch and brought it back to the apartment. We put you in your bouncy seat while we ate. You were kind of outgrowing it, and your parents warned that you'd probably only be happy in it for a few minutes before starting to scream, so we knew we'd need to eat quickly. We scarfed down our food, and I gave Toby a choice: would you like to handle the dishes or the baby? He chose the dishes, and that was the right choice. When I reached into the seat to pick you up, my hands felt something wet...and squishy. The moment of truth was upon us.

I called for backup as I raced you to the changing table. Shit was literally -- actually literally -- all over you. You had overpowered your diaper so thoroughly that the shit had made it into your hair and up over the curve of your skull. It had burst forth through every possible opening, coating your back, tummy, and legs in brown death.

Now, hindsight is 20/20, and if I had it all to do again, I'd have taken you straight to the shower and gotten in with you. The tried and true hose-down method. But I'm not a mom and I don't face shituations like this on the regular. I was in panic mode, and all I could think to do was to attack the problem one pathetically undersized baby wipe at a time. Toby heroically maneuvered the annihilated bouncy seat into a quarantine bag, and brought me the diaper genie before he snapped, running into the living room with his hands over his ears shouting "THIS IS WHY YOU ALWAYS WEAR A CONDOM!" It wasn't the poop that bothered him as much as your wailing while I tried to clean you up. Perhaps you were trying to tell me with words you didn't yet know that I was handling things horribly inefficiently. You were communicating loudly, but not clearly. So I kept at it with the wipes, until eventually, you were clean enough for fresh clothes. This was about 20 minutes after the initial alarm sounded.

There was still the issue of your hair, though. I took you to the kitchen sink, where I held you and Toby used the spray nozzle to get the fecal matter out of your hair. You didn't seem too bothered by this part of the process. You weren't naked anymore, and you had a clean diaper and empty intestine.

When the cleanup was done -- or so I thought -- we took you to the floor to do some playing. But every time you moved, I found another poo exclave. Ten wipes later, I was finally satisfied that you were clean. But I was exhausted. You weren't interested in playing. I took you into your parents' bedroom, laid down on the bed with you on my tummy, and we both fell asleep. Remember how all your naps previously had been in the 20-minute range? You snoozed for more than two hours with me that afternoon. We'd both worked very hard.

Was I upset that I had to deal with this literal shitstorm? Nah. It's a point of pride for me. I *handled* it. For the first time ever in my relationship with Toby, I kept my cool when he did not. I earned an Aunting merit badge that day that will forever link us in ways that run deeper than your average aunt-nephew bond. It's a trump card I can play whenever I want, not just against you, but against your parents as well. "Remember that time I dealt with your kid's six-day explosion while you were out partying? Yeah, we're doing what I want for dinner." And honestly, I think it's hilarious. In the moment, it 100% sucked, but now that I'm on the other side, I'm glad we shared this, Trevor. Of all the people in your life, there's no one who would enjoy this story more than I do. I'd honestly have been disappointed if you'd held it in until after my visit. I'd have felt like a failure. As it is, I'm a goddamn hero. So thanks for giving me that part to play.

September: In September, your dad got a job offer in North Carolina, and your parents had to decide between staying in Vancouver and moving back to the US, to a red state. It is my deepest wish that when you are old enough to read this review, you won't comprehend what a big deal the whole red state/blue state thing is. But in 2017, the idea of leaving the land of socialized healthcare for a red state under the Drumpf administration -- you'd have to have a REALLY good reason to want to do that. And your parents did. They had a lot of good reasons. Almost all of your family would be much closer. Your mom would have more flexibility in her career, and by extension, you'd probably have more opportunities in your childhood. I was SUPER bummed that they chose to move so far away from where I live, but I do think they made a good choice. I know the rest of your family is very happy to have you so close. And I'll fly out to see you as much as I can. It's not like adding 2500 miles to the length of my trip is going to dissuade me from coming to visit. Pssh.

October: You moved to Durham, and I came to stay with you for a few days. The house is big, your neighborhood is beautiful, and there's a lot of really great stuff nearby. I hate to admit it, but Durham might be a really wonderful place for you to grow up.

You were 10 months old by this visit, and your personality is really starting to show. You love moving. You're great at crawling and scooting, and you can walk with a little bit of support. You'll be taking your first real steps soon, I'm sure. You REALLY love food. You do this hilarious thing when your parents are preparing your food for you -- they'll have it in front of themselves, cutting it up into small enough pieces for you, and you'll be impatient for it, and you'll growl/scream for it. It's so intense. Like you're trying to use noise and intimidation to get that food straight into your mouth. You're not using words yet, but your intent is crystal clear. This is probably my favorite thing that you do, because it's so funny. Probably not socially acceptable for you to continue much longer, and I doubt I'll find it cute when you're 12. But at 10 months? The best.

November: I got to see you again at Thanksgiving. You're getting a lot of wear out of the kilt that we brought back for you from Scotland. I wonder if you'll willingly wear one when you're old enough to have a say about such things. But you look darling in your baby kilt, and I'll be sad to see you outgrow it. Speaking of growing, you are a hoss now. Carrying you for more than a few moments is legitimately hard work. You're less psyched about people who aren't your parents holding you now, too. You let me get in a few good snuggles, but mostly you wanted to hang onto your mom. There were lots of people doting on you, and even though it was overwhelming, you showed them your cutest self. All the Massies and Elders consider you one of their own, just like I do. You've got this huge extended family there, and they love you SO MUCH.

I will see you next in December, when Toby and I come home for Christmas. I can't wait to introduce you to my nieces and to Toby's mum. (That's the British word for "mom." Oh shit, please don't develop a North Carolina accent! I'll still love you if you do...but remember, you're CANADIAN!) I know you met Bess and Frankie briefly in April, but it will be good for all you "cousins" to have some real time together this holiday season.

Trevor, I love you so much. I'm so happy you are my nephew! I miss you all the time I'm not with you, and I think about you every day. I look forward to what milestones and bloopers your second year holds, and I hope I'll get to witness lots of them in person. Happy birthday, darling!
jianantonic: (Default)
I always knew that Em & Chris's residency in Vancouver was temporary. They had just applied for permanent residency as a just-in-case measure, but I knew they had plans B and C and D and were going to keep looking for other opportunities. I'd hoped the best ones they'd find would still be in the PNW (or SW, from Canada's perspective), but alas, I knew that was also unlikely.

It's not official yet, but Em said today they've decided to accept a job offer for Chris in North Carolina. (They haven't told their families yet, so if anyone here happens to be connected, shh.) I am super bummed they're leaving the driving distance zone, but I understand. Truthfully, we didn't visit each other in each other's homes very often anyway. We see each other back in Virginia almost as often as we do out here. Still, though, the possibility of planning these visits is just so much simpler with them here. Oh well. Planes are a thing. I like flying. It's doable. I'll still see them lots. And the opportunity sounds really good for them. I mourn for my nephew to grow up in the south, but he's got good hippie parents, and Canadian citizenship, so he should be alright.

I made Emily promise me that she will use some of the extra flexibility this opportunity affords her to take a trip with me in 2018 to Yellowstone National Park. She's a geologist and she's never been! I think it'll be a great trip for us to do together. I'll show her a part of the country she's never seen, and she'll teach me all the cool science-y stuff that I won't learn from just walking around the park on my own. Details tbd, but this is happening.

Speaking of not official yet...

Toby knows I'd really like a proposal. I mentioned to him when we first moved in together that I had never really had a proposal, and it's something I want, when he's ready, and I didn't want to talk too much about marriage until then. I want it to be a surprise, and I don't want to just be de facto engaged. But here's the thing -- being a responsible adult means planning for the future, and we've done a lot of talking about 'when we're married' and how we'll budget things and it turns out we've gotten ourselves de facto engaged. We've agreed we should get married before the end of 2017 so I can get on his sweet, sweet health insurance before the ACA goes away (although maybe it won't?! but still, his work insurance is way better and way cheaper than the silver plan I pay $375/mo for!). We've even done a little wedding planning.

But there hasn't been a proposal yet. He knows I still want one, even if it's already a foregone conclusion. He has all the information he needs regarding what I want in a ring (nothing outrageous or very expensive), and he recently verified my ring size. So.

Some have theorized I should expect a proposal on this trip. Maybe while we're in Scotland? It does make sense, but here's why I'm not sure that would happen:
1. Toby's kinda slow to get shit done that's not for work, so even if he fully intended this, I'd honestly be surprised if he'd gotten the ring already.
2. We'll be in Scotland for his brother's wedding. Not sure if he'd feel uncomfortable about thunder-stealing or whatever.
3. However he does it, I really don't expect a big thing. He's too introverted to make a production of it, so I almost expect him to just ask me at home once he's got the ring or something. That way he also doesn't have to worry about hiding it in the luggage without me accidentally noticing before I'm supposed to or something.
4. I need to temper my own expectations, because if I go into this trip convinced it's gonna happen and it doesn't, I might be bummed or impatient or something. I'll be thrilled if he does propose soon, but honestly I really don't expect it. I think he will surprise me with the timing if not with the question itself ;)

So, y'know, maybe. But I won't hold my breath. And I do recognize how silly it is for me to want this ritual when we are already basically planning the wedding/marriage.

About those plans...we do want a small, informal ceremony, but that's not gonna happen this year. Maybe we'll do a thing on our birthday next year? (We have the same birthday.) But we do need to do the official business of it before the end of 2017, so we'll see what happens. Also I need to decide what to do about my last name. I'm more than ready to ditch Myers -- but it's on all my professional stuff. My website and my business cards and logo and all that are under Myers. I could keep using it just for work I guess. Or I'll get a new site and redirect it? Whatever, this is not a big deal. Just something else we've both been talking about a lot already for people who aren't actually "engaged." Pffft.
jianantonic: (Default)
Last weekend, Toby and I went up to Vancouver to visit Emily, Chris, and Trevor. We agreed to babysit Trevor for the day on Saturday so the parents could go to a beer festival -- their first real time away from the baby together. I was honored to do the babysitting for such an occasion, and it was Toby's first time meeting Trevor. We were psyched.

We arrived on Friday night, and Emily informed us that Trevor had not taken a shit since Sunday. I did the mental math...JESUS CHRIST! She'd taken him to the doctor and the doc said that since he didn't appear to be in any discomfort, just to wait it out. They gave him prune juice a few times and stopped with the solid foods for a few days, but no luck.

Saturday rolled around, and I just *knew* it would happen on our watch. When Lucy was a baby, she'd get constipated a lot, but whenever I'd hold her, nature would call, and press 2. It's just this power that I have. Perhaps my voice is the brown noise. Anyway.

We fed him a bottle, and spit up all over me, which I declared less desirable than dealing with his shit. Something about the look and the smell of baby spit up is just SO GROSS to me, but I handled it without too much hacking of my own, and we went about our day. Toby and I got lunch, and put Trev down in a bouncy seat while we ate. Em warned us that he'd only be content there for a few minutes at most, so we ate quickly, and I gave Toby the choice after lunch of dealing with the dishes or entertaining the baby. He chose dishes, and what a serendipitous choice it was!

When I went to lift Trevor out of his chair, my hands reached into a lake of shit. I called for backup as I ran to the changing pad to begin to deal with the situation. It was EVERYWHERE. As I worked to unsnap his onesie, he kicked and squirmed and smeared his own poo around with his feet. When I removed his clothes to assess the damage at ground zero, his entire backside was covered. That turdpedo had erupted from all possible diaper exits and had reached the back of his head. Toby ran for the diaper genie, and I gently wiped the crying, shit-smeared baby, now half his previous body weight, until I was satisfied that he was clean enough for a new diaper. This process lasted at least 15 minutes, and I'm very lucky that he did not pee while he was undiapered in that time, because I was dealing with the most I could possibly handle.

Once I had him in a new diaper, he was much less cranky. I had gone through at least 20 [cloth, reusable!] wipes, but there was still the matter of his hair. I held him at the sink while Toby used the spray faucet to return his hair color from brown to its original blond. After I fully dressed him in a clean new outfit, I kept noticing more outposts of shit that I'd missed on my first ten passes. Baby fat can hide some horrible secrets! Finally clean, both of us were exhausted from the experience, and we went to nap together. I lazily browsed the internet on my laptop while Trevor snoozed happily on my chest for the next hour and a half. His naps until that point had been about 20-30 minutes at best, according to Em and Chris. I felt a huge sense of accomplishment, both for having dealt admirably with the six day poobomb, and for getting him to sleep his best nap in weeks. I'm sure the two were related.

Achievement (and bowels) unlocked! Platinum level aunting. 10,000XP.

Toby, on the other hand...

Well, Toby helped where I needed him. But it was the first time in all the time I've known him that I was calmer than he was. While I worked through wiping the poo to end all poos, with Trevor wailing in dissatisfaction, Toby mostly hid in the other room, shouting at me "THIS IS WHY YOU ALWAYS WEAR A CONDOM!"

I love this guy. I'm so glad he shares my life goals of never having children.

Some friends expressed astonishment at my handling of the shituation, but honestly, what was I gonna do? It's not like it could be ignored. And now, Trevor will be in my debt for the rest of my life ;)
jianantonic: (Default)
George's memorial was today. The venue was packed so fully that it was nearly impossible to move. He had a lot of real friends. Nancy called me out right at the beginning for crying too much. Can't help it, it's what I do. I spoke and told a couple of fun stories from my childhood -- didn't entirely go with what I'd written before, because Em and Nancy were serious about it having an upbeat tone. I told about him teaching Emily and me to use softball gloves, and then going to his games and playing "throw" with each other, because we weren't good enough to play catch. I talked about having spaghetti dinners at their house, where he encouraged us to play with our food. And I mentioned that I felt like Em and I each have two sets of parents, and my biological parents can't really claim responsibility for me being such a hippie now...

George's youngest brother, Carl, lives in Maine, and I never really saw him when I was young. He came up to me after I spoke and said he had no idea what a community dad George had been, and it was so nice to hear about his brother from that perspective.

I held Trevor and introduced him around to many friends as well. He's such a sweet baby. He's a great cuddler, and it helped me push the tears back to focus on him, too. I'm so grateful that Emily got to bring him here to spend two months with her parents. Her final memories of her dad are of him enchanted by his new grandson.

Of course his death is sad, and he was too young. But I'm so glad his Alzheimer's didn't get a chance to take his personality away from him. His short term memory was gone, but he was still friendly, funny, brilliant George.
jianantonic: (Seahorse)
No baby yet, but it does sound like today's the day. Poor Em's been in labour (with a "u" because Canada) for over 24 hours now, and finally got an epidural this morning at 5, but the latest update was that she's still "almost" to the pushing stage.

I was supposed to go up to BC this weekend, but I bailed on that trip because there was still no baby and I was starting to feel sick. Turns out I have an ear infection (?!) and I'm also breaking out in weird acne all over my chest. I've been feeling really shitty for a while, so I'm just going to take it as easy as possible for a while.

Toby leaves for Scotland tonight and will be gone for three weeks. Sad. But my next two weeks are plenty busy -- I host trivia Monday through Wednesday, then have work stuff Thursday, a happy hour thing with a friend on Friday, then fly to New York on Saturday, drive to VA on Sunday, and spend the week with family for xmas. I'm back on NYE, and plan to do quite a bit of absolutely nothing to ring in the new year. I have a bus ticket to BC for Jan 6, but I may move that around depending on how Em and Chris and Baby Trev are doing. I really wanted to be there for Day One, but really Day Twenty or Forty is still fucking early and I'm in this kid's life forever so it's not hugely urgent. I'll love him the same no matter what :)

I should probably do an entry about how I got stuck in the snow for seven hours on Wednesday, but for now I don't feel like dwelling on things that frustrate me. Just waiting for baby news.

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Meg

February 2019

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