7 Quick Takes Friday

I’m baaaaacccccckkkkkk.

Maggie started preschool again this week. She’s going M-F in the morning, and she is super excited. She didn’t even cry on her first day or today. Big girl.

She’s now part of the Butterfly/Caterpillar class. Too much cute.

In other news, I’m still pregnant. They are still a boy and a girl.

However, they now kick and punch each other with reckless abandon, mostly beginning at 11 pm.

It’s actually pretty mind blowing that two of my children are currently in my womb poking each other. They have an awareness of one another that even I do not yet have. This twin thing is so cool.

Ask me in January if I still feel this way. My answer might be dependent on the number of cups of coffee I’ve had.

So I’m sitting in Starbucks, drinking some tea.

Have you ever had the experience of hearing a song that was meaningful in your past, but which you haven’t heard in years? My breath just caught in my throat because “Friend of the Devil” by The Grateful Dead came on and no lie, it has probably been 10 years since I heard that song.

I really like The Grateful Dead. In fact, I remember being about 15 and lamenting the fact that Jerry Garcia had died a few years prior and I had been too young to be a “deadhead” – the living in a van by the river, following the band, selling grilled cheese sandwiches out of the back of my car, “deadhead”. If only….

I probably wouldn’t have lasted too long, what with my affinity for bathing.

But I can eat Cherry Garcia with the best of them.

We are getting family/maternity photos done this weekend. I’m super excited! We’re meeting the photographer at a local park. The last time we had “family photos” done was the fall when Maggie was 9 months old; she has changed a lot!

And when I was pregnant with Maggie, Atticus and I never really managed to get many photos of the two of us together with my bump. I’m so happy we will have some nice photos to document this pregnancy.

I’m also glad we’re doing them now, because if we waited another month I don’t think I’d fit in the viewfinder.

Speaking of having twins, I’ve started getting very helpful comments from strangers and acquaintences about my ~~impending doom~~ amazing blessings.

“Wow. You are going to have your hands full.”

This is the most unoriginal pile of crap comment ever. Also, if you’ve ever sepnt 15 minutes with a toddler you know that moms of 1 have their hands full too. It’s not like I’m sitting around twiddling my thumbs until #2 and #3 pop out.

Oh, and while you’re being astute over there Socrates, how about you notice I’m a million weeks pregnant and trying to hold the door open with my hip while I push a stroller through and…I don’t know, hold the door? Brilliant.

Me: We’re having a boy and a girl.

Stranger: Are they identical?

….

I’m going to ignore the fact that you somehow managed to become a functioning adult despite failing 7th grade biology.

If one person has an x chromosome and one has a y, then no. No, they cannot be exact genetic replications of each other, ie. identical twins.

Stranger: “Wow. Twins. Better you than me.”

Yes, asshat. Better me than you, since you apparently lack the tact to not insult a pregant woman’s life to her face. Yes, we should all rejoice that it is, in fact, me and not you, who is currently reproducing.

And my personal favorite:

Stranger: Are they natural?

We’re not 100% sure until the test results come back, but we think they’re carbon-based lifeforms.

Moron.

No, but seriously. How hard is it to say,

“Oh you are expecting! Congrats!”

“Oh you’re having twins! How wonderful for you!”

End of conversation. No awkward, asanine statements.

When did we miss the collective societal memo that the only acceptable thing to say to a pregnant woman is “Congratulations.” Even if you don’t mean it. Trust me, I’ve done it several times. You just slap a smile on your face, say it, and move on.

grumble, grumble, society, grumble.

And to take these takes from the rediculous to the sublime, I wanted to remind everyone that Pope Francis has called for a day of prayer and fasting tomorrow, September 7th, for an end to the violence in Syria. (I wrote this on Friday, and forgot to publish.)

I read a wonderful article about how to process (or begin to process) what is going on in Syria.

In particular, I liked this section:

It is, paradoxically, possible to pray for something for which we do not (yet) know how to hope, because we are at the same time praying for our capacity for hope, for the strength of our desire for peace and the willingness of everyone involved to imagine it, to be deepened by God’s grace; we are fasting in penance for the ease with which we resort to violence, and that our hunger for peace may grow stronger. So I will be praying for peace in Syria, even though I have no idea how that peace may be achieved. There are more proximate hopes to be prayed for as well: for a deeper solidarity with the victims of violence, for a greater commitment to humanitarian relief, and especially for those of us in the U.S.A., that our elected representatives will debate the real questions of justice more than the narrow concerns of “credibility” and national interests.

Read the entirety here.

And please pray for peace this weekend. And go see Jen for more quick takes.