Into the Fray

It was so gorgeous outside today!  I didn't even realize it until about 3:00 when I needed a break from work, and when I got outside I really regretted not playing hooky.  What a perfect day to not go to work - it was warm and it was sunny and it was Friday. And you never know which day is going to be the last really nice day of the year.  Today just might have been it.

My son was born in late January, and I don't know about anybody else, but to me February 2008 felt like The Longest Month Ever Since The Beginning Of Time.  It was so snowy and cold, and I would sit on the sofa with this newborn, and we were trying to get to know each other, and I swear my whole maternity leave felt like one episode of Dr. Phil after another, and I would just think about how I couldn't wait for summer so we could be outside and take walks and hang out in the yard.  And now, in a flash, we have trees that are bare already and the first reports of snow flurries.  How did that happen?  It's like I blinked my eyes and my kid was nine months old and the summer was over.

 Well, I guess we can't do anything about it now; it's going to get colder.  One thing I am looking forward to is getting cozy on the bed with the husband and the kid and two cats and a pile of blankets.  I figure I have one more free winter before I will be forced to, *gasp*, go outside and play in the snow.  The horror!

 Man, I really, really wish I had called in sick today!

Well, I suppose it's a rite of passage.  The First Accident.  It has to happen sometime, right?  That doesn't change the fact that I am a total idiot.

 I was enjoying a nice trip to Door County, helping my brother-in-law pack up some stuff in their rented motor home.  Henry (my son) was hanging out on the bed - it was one of those tables that transforms into a bed.  I had just fininshed changing him.  I turned around for a second and then I heard a thud, a moment of silence, and then a scream.  Oh, my god.  I turned back to him and he was face down on the floor.  The thoughts that ran through my head between the time I heard him fall and when I picked him up... I was so scared.  I picked him up and turned him around, half expecting to see something out of a horror movie.  Nothing.  He was crying hysterically, but he seemed to be more scared than anything.  I took him outside and distracted him with some pretty leaves and he was done crying.  It doesn't change the fact that I am a total idiot.

 It's the Number One Rule, isn't it?  If your baby is anywhere he could fall - on the bed, on the changing table... Keep A Hand On Him At All Times.  It doesn't matter that I was standing right there.  Babies usually don't look all that mobile, but they can move faster than The Infected in 28 Days Later.  As soon as I picked him up I started crying, too, and my brother-in-law was trying to calm me down.  Since my back was to him (because I am a total idiot) I didn't see the fall, but my brother-in-law said that he mainly fell on his side and then hit his head.  I kept saying, "But this is the first time this has happened!" and, "I don't even know where there's an Emergency Room in Door County!"  And he gently says, "Ang, he only fell a foot and a half" and "They're like little rubber bands at that age."  This is a guy whose 4-year-old recently had five staples put in his head, so he's certainly familiar with kid accidents.  So overall, I was more upset than the baby was, but I think we both recovered okay.

 Milwaukee Moms, if you're out there, I'd love for you to comment and tell me about your own TFA.  It would make me feel a lot better.  (But of course it wouldn't excuse the fact that I am certainly an idiot.)

I grew up in a smallish town up north, then went to college in Green Bay.  Soon after I graduated I moved to Milwaukee, and I remember driving down Wisconsin Avenue one night and saying out loud to myself, "I live in Milwaukee!"  That might make people laugh, but seriously, it felt very exciting and surreal.

That was over nine years ago now, and I'm still excited to live here.  There have been so many changes and developments.  Of course, the Milwaukee Art Museum expansion.  Shortly after moving here I was walking around down there with a friend who had moved here at the same time, and a woman was attempting to explain to us what it was going to look like when it was done, and we had to just do the nod and smile.  "Wings?  Uh, yeah, sounds cool."  It was hard to image the finished product, which is, of course, awesome.  And I love how lively the downtown has become.  Even though it's not personally a regular destination, it's great that downtown Milwaukee has a night life now.  And can I take this opportunity to mention how fabulous the new Marquette Interchange looks?

My point is, I'm proud to live here.  Amongst my own changes and developments I bought a house in Stallis with a guy I'm still crazy about after almost 12 years, and we had a kid.  And now I'm proud to be raising my son here, too.  It's funny because sometimes when I'm out and about I hear somebody say that Milwaukee's too small or, OMG, it's soooo boring here.  I'd like them to ship them up to my home town for a while.  (Though northern Wisconsin certainly has its merits, and I always feel nostalgic when I go back up there.)  It's going to be so fun to show my son around as he gets older.  The zoo, the art and public museums, Discovery World, Betty Brinn, Organ Piper Pizza Palace, etc....  He's definitely going to have a different childhood from mine.  Not better or worse, just different.  I grew up running around in the woods, and he's going to be a city kid.  I hope he feels as lucky to live here as I do.