The Day Dawns

All is well.

All is not well because I had the CVS exam and discovered that I have a perfect child. In fact I did not have the exam at all. I decided against it when I learned that there was even a greater risk of miscarriage than with a regular amniocentesis and that this doctor would be going in through the cervix (eeks – crossing my legs here). But the clincher for me was learning from my doctor that the 22^nd week ultrasound will show within a 90% certainty whether or not there is a problem, so I should be able to prepare myself in plenty of time without any invasion or further risk to my child.

So all is well simply because I am at peace with the fact (encouraged by my husband) that this child was perfectly chosen for our family, chromosomal makeup and all.

It helps that the nausea seems to have abated significantly. I still eat more in order to avoid feeling sick than for pleasure but I’m not spending every second of every day wondering when I’m going to get sick next.

And I’m kind of in the holiday spirit, I must say.

After years of thinking about it, I finally caved in and ordered some Christmas DVDs and books from Amazon, knowing that my “Frenchish” children are not going to learn about them any other way. It’s not like the shows are going to appear on tv or anything. So I ordered the book “Twas the Night Before Christmas,” and the DVDs Rudolph, Charlie Brown’s Christmas and The Grinch. I decided against Frosty and couldn’t remember whether there was anything else from my childhood that I was missing.

Now that our fireplace has been officially cleared for use, we just need to wait for the package to arrive before we curl up in front of the fire and read/watch these Christmas delights as a family.

We had promised the children that the first fire would be today, but our fireplace is unbelievably small. I don’t know if you can see it from this picture.

So none of the iron grills to hold the wood that they sell these days fit inside the fireplace. This, and the fact that my husband actually has to plaster the inside of the chimney because it hasn’t been used in at least 40 years, if not more, are indicative of possible delays (to the loud protests of Young Knight). But we don’t want a smoky living room.

My ever-resourceful husband has found some old clay tiles outdoors that he will use for a makeshift grill until we find an antique one; and once he’s done plastering we will finally feel like a good and proper household with a working chimney.

All is well because we haven’t heard hide or hair of that mouse in awhile. I think he died. And although I feel pity for the small creature that got trapped inside our house and slowly had each food exit closed off to it through our intimidation techniques, I am relieved to be able to read, “Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse” with assurance.

In other news on the home-front, Young Knight pulled the rest of the carrots out of the earth today, just before a hail storm hit. The carrots were mainly runts with many of them half-gnawed off by subterranean beasts, but I made a ginger carrot soup that we will be eating for dinner tonight. There may or may not be heavy cream and baguettes involved in this meal.

Young Lady is currently sitting on the couch next to a very tired Petit Prince and reading to him from a 2^nd grade reader about princesses. It’s in English (one point for mommy).

On Thursday I took Petit Prince to the doctor because he wasn’t well, and we realized we hadn’t done the 3-yr cognitive, vision and auditory tests. So the doctor performed them on the spot.

His vision is fine and he just barely passes the cognitive tests for his age. (The doctor said we need to be on his case and work with him constantly on language, and not slack off because he is, for the moment, the youngest. I asked her until when we needed to do this and she responded, “until his majorité,” with a grin. In other words, until he’s out of the house).

Then we tested his hearing with one of those machines that you insert into his ear. When it makes a sound you’re supposed to see a bell-like graph on the machine showing that his ear is registering what it hears. Except that with him the graph was completely flat. So it looks like our Prince has a hearing problem, which I find more curious than worrying. It might explain why his speech is so delayed and he cannot yet put together a complete sentence while his cousin who is a month and a half younger is already quoting Baudelaire. So we have an appointment after Christmas with a specialist to see what the next step is.

Finally and finally in my super newsy post, our new vacuum cleaner arrived after about 2 weeks of our old one breaking. We had reached a new low in slovenliness and I told Sir it had become too much for me to handle alone. So we have begun to clean everything together as a family. Sir is on vacation for 2 weeks, starting now, and we’d like to begin with some order in our emotionally and physically chaotic existence.

So all is well. Not because it’s perfect, but because it’s life.

And it goes on.

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