Here's parts one and two if you want to be brought up to speed. :-)
After almost a year our little family forged our way to our new digs. It was a wee apartment and when I say wee, I mean probably four hundred square feet. It consisted of a living room, a kitchen with a counter at which to eat all of my marvelous (snort) cooking, a bathroom just large enough to turn around in, and two bedrooms. It was small, but it was our own place. I decided to go back to work as a sign language interpreter as well as attend classes at Rochester Institute of Technology two days a week in an attempt to finish my degree. You know, the one I was halfway towards getting when the stick turned pink? Yeah, that one.
My weekly schedule was as follows: M, W, F - Work as an interpreter in a classroom setting; T and TH drive two hours to Rochester, sit in class for four hours straight, do videotaping for homework in the lab and lastly drive two hours home to see the family.
I burned out quickly.
About the same time we also started looking for a new apartment because the one we lived in had some issues, ie water and mildew issues from improper grading. With a crawling little one we decided to head out and moved into the apartment that would truly be what I deemed, My First Home. We loved the little apartment and I especially loved that we had a washer and dryer. The only thing better than having my own washer and dryer would be if I had someone to do that chore for me, but that wasn't happening anytime this century, so I settled for being ecstatic about not carting laundry to and from the laundromat. I was also super-excited that I had a washer and dryer when the stick turned pink for the second time. Yes, you read that right. Only 11 months after Zahara's birth I was pregnant with baby number two.
We celebrated Christmas with all the blinking lights and presents you can imagine. Zahara was the belle of every celebration as the first and only grandchild on both sides and the video of us telling my mother-in-law that she was going to be a grandmother again was epic. Epic. There was lots of screaming and she threw a doll that she was holding into the air, but the way we caught it on tape it looked like she kicked Zahara into the air. I would post it if I could, but you'll have to take my word for it.
*****
Things have been pretty normal up until now, but in the next
installment life goes a little crazy as we have our first
experience with the NICU.
