Unrelated, mildly interesting, news

I got into the Revels show! Yay! I haven't sung in a long time, so I'm really looking forward to it. Rehearsals start in September, performances in December.

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Memorial Day weekend marked the 19th anniversary of my arrival in D.C. (AKA my D.C.iversary, as EC calls it). Wow. I guess I'm officially a local.

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Roxanne no longer says "yesh" for "yes". Now she often says, "yeah," which makes her sound like a 10-year-old.

She is really walking now, right across the floor, all on her own. She's even trying to hop lately. Very cool.

A week in a life

I was unusually busy last week. My dad and his wife visited last weekend, much to the delight of Roxanne, who shouted “Pop pop!” every time she saw her grandpa. I also went to a local fair last weekend, with carnival rides, entertainment, food from carts, etc. It was cheesy fun, and Roxanne was on total sensory overload, but we had a good time overall. Best of all: we walked there from our house.

In the amazing but true category, I had dinner with friends THREE nights this week. It just kinda worked out that way. Fencergal came to our house bearing deliciousness from El Pollo Rico and stayed for delightful conversation. I went out with interpreter friends in Adams Morgan later in the week. Man, I forgot how much I love Adams Morgan -- the quirky restaurants, bars, shops and people. I didn’t see The Compliment Guy, though. (Does anybody remember him? *Sigh*… nostalgia for my younger days.)

Last night I went out for dinner with Revels friends after auditioning for this year’s show! Crazy! It’s my first audition since Roxanne was born. I was nervous about auditioning earlier this week, but by the time I got there, I was mostly looking forward to seeing my friends. Go here for a great description of a Revels audition experience. What did I sing? Leatherwing Bat, an obscure, uptempo folk song.

Today, Dan and I performed the annual spring tradition of planting flowers in our front yard. I’ve blogged about this before, but in short, I grew up in the desert, so spring planting is a big thing for me. Flowers! Growing in our yard! Roxanne spent the time outside playing in the grass and dirt, then climbing into Dan’s car and pretending to drive. She also licked a rock.

Oh yeah, in addition to everything else this week, my car is giving me trouble. It must be something with the electrical system, because my (brand new) battery won’t start the car (sometimes), but the repair guy at the dealer couldn’t figure out the problem. Hmm.

OK, thank you for your patience. Now here’s some news about Roxanne. We took out her G-tube about a month ago (yay!), but the tube site isn’t healing (boo!). Her surgeon has determined that Roxanne has to have another surgery to close up the hole (boo!). About 10% of kids who have tubes removed need the surgery. Luckily, there isn’t a huge hurry, so we’ll do it sometime in early July (almost exactly a year from when she had the tube put in).

Below is a photo of Roxanne playing on my uncle’s baby grand piano. Before he owned it, the piano was my grandfather’s. Cool.

Goodbye

I’ve been trying to write this blog post for days. I’ve written at least 3 drafts, and each one ended up sounding forced and false. My Uncle Roy died. He’s my mom’s sister’s husband, and there is so much to say about him, and how his family intertwined with mine, that I just can’t capture it all.

I’m sad he’s gone, and I’m sad that my family is sad. But I’m happy, too, because Roxanne and I were able to spend time with my aunt, mom, brother and cousins, who I love and miss.

Uncle Roy died of pancreatic cancer just 6 weeks after it was diagnosed. My aunt and cousins are doing OK, but this loss is a big change. That’s all I can say. Anything more would be too little.

What's that you said?

Here’s some “gee, my kid is cute” stuff.

Roxanne’s vocabulary (signed and spoken) is growing by leaps and bounds. You know how kids often repeat what you just said? Sometimes she’s close, but not exactly right.

I said: "hot dog"
She said: "woof!"

I said: "sheet"
She said: “baaaaa”

I said: “Q” (the letter)
She signed: “shoe”

I said: “white”
She signed: “wait”

I said: “sneeze”
She signed: “please”

She makes me laugh. The other day, I told her, “You are funny, and smart and cute!”

She responded: “Daddy!”

Well, yeah -- him, too!

I'm cuter.