Peter's Cross Station

No Place Like Home

I bought these shoes in Kansas City:

  
 

(Technically, they came from the Missouri side, but just barely, and I wore them in Kansas.)

Nat was extremely upset that I left town with Selina but not her.  I suppose that's to be expected, but she had a heck of a grand time in my absence.  She had her end-of-year school picnic to which both Josiah and Whitney took her.  (Always keep the private school crowd guessing, is my new motto!)  When Cole arrived, she took her to see Diana Ross in concert.  Cole explained to Nat, when picking her up from school, that they would be staying up past bedtime, having popcorn for supper and seeing a very special show.  At this, (so I'm told) Nat's eyes got very big and she asked, "Does Mama Shannon know?"  Nat thinks even Cole needs the Mama Shannon Clearance for Fun.  Then, it seems they had a picnic again on Sunday, featuring smoked salmon and cheese, both of which Nat loves.  Then, Cole took her bike riding.

Then I came home and you would have thought she was locked in a closet for the past four days.

Sigh.

I will probably be going again soon, and I don't think either kid will be coming next time.  A big part of Nat's distress was missing Selina.  And while Selina had a grand time being an only child for a few days, she missed Nat a lot too.  They both spent a lot of time talking and asking about each other.

It's going to be a weird summer, with lots of visits to Kansas City, as my father is going to be doing chemo for pretty much all of it.  It would appear that he has cancer of an especially nasty type.

Other than that, gee, things are rosy.  Selina will be three on Sunday.  Can you believe that?  (No, I know, you cannot.  Me neither.)  We're doing a low-key birthday zoo trip with a couple of friends and cake.  Selina keeps changing her mind about what she wants on the cake, but it's always an animal.  A sheep, a dog, a giraffe, an alligator, a lion, yadda yadda.  I will probably either do a lion or a zebra.

I will show you the finished product.  Selina is very excited about the whole thing and looking forward with great enthusiasm to the Dora underwear I promised her she would get to wear when she...you know the rest.  I am unveiling said underwear at the birthday party for extra effect.  I don't even like Dora, but Selina does and WHATEVER WORKS, right?  Here's to a diaper-free family!  Coming soon to a blog near you...

P.S. Yes indeed, your prayers, thoughts, candles, meditations on the void on behalf of my family would be awesome.

Emergency Travel

We're having a bit of an extended-family crisis here and Selina and I will be leaving town on Wednesday. Please keep your candles lit for us, okay? Perhaps more news later.

Correction

 Josiah would like you to know that his feet are actually only a size 13.

Kids these Days

The boundaries of our family have shifted again and I thought that if I am to keep telling you about our family, some introductions were in order.

You may remember Babysitter J, who appeared here about 18 months ago.  Well, without further ado, that would be Josiah.  Josiah was a waiter at our favorite local restaurant and the first moment I laid eyes on him, I knew he'd make a great babysitter.  So when I overheard him tell a coworker that he needed another job, I handed him my card and said, "wanna be my nanny?"  He was on, and the rest is history.

But there's more to the history than I've let you in on, so here's a little update.  Last summer, Josiah told us he was going to move to Ireland in January (that's January just past).  So we mourned the eventual loss of him and helped him plan and prepare for his trip.  About 3 weeks before his flight, we were all eating at his former place of employment, waited on by a friend of his, one Miss Whitney, who said "heck yeah," when asked if she'd like to fill in for some of Josiah's hours with Nat and Selina after Josiah left the country.

Whitney, to briefly introduce her, rocks our world.  She also just plain rocks, on an electric bass, for this band.  She is a graduate of an elite art school and is a multi-media artist.  She is beautiful, smart, incredibly self-possessed and unpretentious (in spite of all that artiness!) and a marvelous art tutor for the girls on top of being an all-around sweet caregiver.

So there's that.

In spite of the wonders of Whitney, it was with a heavy heart that I drove Josiah to the airport in early January and put him on a plane to Ireland with three stringed instruments and a tent on his back.  I had filled his pockets and bags with my card, and exhorted him that he must not hesitate a moment to call if he needed anything--including a ticket home.

Well don't you know he hit a perfect storm of rotten luck and in about two weeks, I was picking him up again and bringing him home?  It was a bummer, but I can't say we weren't glad to have him back.

We moved Nat into Selina's room (which is actually all good, because I had wanted the girls to share a room anyway but had copped out on getting through the very rough patch of them adjusting to sleeping together) and have ordered a new bed.  Josiah is going to live with us and go to nursing school.

Meanwhile, Whitney is still the babysitter from Nirvana.  (Well, maybe from Bikini Kill.)

Nat says Josiah is her brother.  I told her that's fine as long as he agrees.  He agreed.  So Cole and I are now the proud lesbian moms of a 24-year old with size 14 feet.