Pay it forward...

it's that time again. We're going to "March for Babies"...raising money for the efforts of the March of Dimes. This special organisation supports research, education, and grant funding for issues pertaining to prematurely born babies. Someone asked me the other day why I thought there were more premature babies being born than ever before. Here's my theory and it may have something to do with it: Medical science has come so far in saving the life of even the tiniest baby when born early...in the past, these babies would have died. There would be no talk of "I was a preemie". There would only be talk of a baby being born too early and who died too soon. Now that these little ones are surviving, the doctors, surgeons, nurses and specialists all work together to help create a healthy baby that can face the future without hopefully too many residual issues from a too early birth.

So why do we walk? We walk for...Enzo who was born with spina bifida and who only lived a few months. We walk for Aidan who was born with a kidney disorder and spent his few short months of life on dialysis and was Creed & Zelda's very first friend ever. We walk for Bailey who somehow contracted every preemie issue that an early birth can suffer from in the NICU. She never went home. We walk for Frederic who lived only an hour. There are so many more...

I'm trying to teach my kids to "Pay it forward". They're alive. So many people helped them get to this point. Now we need to help others.

If you have a chance, please donate to this worthy cause...

Weekend update...

with Credence Paul and Zelda Nicolette. Evan's dead dad had this platitude that he used to repeat "Run, run, run...see Bosco eat snakes." I think it meant something like "running around like a chicken with its head cut off."

This past weekend went something like this...
- We had friends arrive in town from Dallas to stay at our 'guest house' next door (more on that later). They stayed in Austin, we took off for a road trip.

- On Saturday, we headed out on a 3 hour drive to Granbury, TX for the Tyler & Teresa Beard party. Our dear friends who were the epitome of all things western design both passed away. Teresa took her own life a little over 2 years ago and Tyler (the well-known author of all of the books about cowboy boots) died in December. They were an amazing couple and are sorely missed (more on this later, as well). There was a party with dinner, drinks and stories told at a country club (?) outside of Ft Worth. Needless to say, the twins were the only kids there.

- We spent the night in an 1867 dog trot log cabin where there were ostriches (that Creed decided were actually 'cows'). We roamed on the range, tried to learn to lasso, and generally enjoyed just having a big yard to play in.

- On Sunday morning, we drove to Waxahatchie to visit the Webb Gallery (www.webbartgallery.com) owned by our friends Bruce & Julie. They featured a show of vintage carnival banners and lots of super cool stuff. When they're not out finding oddfellow paraphernalia and such, Julie teaches belly dancing and Bruce gets more tattoos. La petite princess Z found herself a new throne while Creed took a tour of downtown, accompanied by Allie and Moby.

- Once back on the road, Creed decided he needed to walk again, so our next stop was the old flea market in Waco - yikes - a 'perfect' place to stock up on used baby toys, bootleg DVD's and this Elvis:
- Then finally on the homestretch to Austin on I-35, we just had to stop in Sun City of Georgetown to visit Nana & PopPop so the twins could run around the 'hood to the delight of the senior citizens.

Home again home again jiggity-jig, just in time for bed...
more exciting news to come.

B-R-U-C-E...

so I'm from New Jersey, if you didn't already know that. Before this past week, the last time I saw Bruce Springsteen was about 30 years ago at the Spectrum in Philly. It was the "Darkness on the Edge on Town" tour. The Boss was amazing, jumping and running across the stage, screaming and singing his unforgettable lyrics in his gravely voice...Clarence wore a white suit and Nils Lofgren wasn't even playing with him yet. Hell, he wasn't even married to Patti Scialfa yet and hadn't produced those 3 teenagers. People stood on their seats and he played for hours. I saw him twice that tour. I was in college.

We saw him in Houston on Monday. Again, he was amazing, just more strutting than running. Clarence wore black and has dreads down to his waist now. Patti was at home with the kids. He played for 2 1/2 hours and was joined by our friend Alejandro Escovedo for an encore song. And I swear I have never in my life seen a bigger crowd of 40 yr old + white people in one concert hall.

But there's just something about Bruce that brings tears to your eyes, that makes you feel that it's okay to be an American and that there's still hope for this country. 'Cause whatever you may think of his music, he's the real deal.

And I swear I got his shout out to "the one Jersey girl in the audience" among all of the Texans...I saw him smiling at me. He did, he really did...

Hot Rods & more...

Days turn into weeks, weeks turn into months...and it's just another event down here on South Congress. This past weekend was the Hot Rod show - wheeee!
La petite Z, Rod and his new Hot Rod!

Creed will thank me for this photo some day...

The girl in black.



This weekend is a birthday party, an art opening and of course, more visitors.

Helicopter hovering...landing pad in site...

- So, first we ask all of our friends where their kids go to school, do our research and investigate any schools we've read about, etc.

- Then we narrow down the search and call the school to make a tour appointment.

- We attend the visit and see if we like them, see if they like us and see if it is even a possibility.

- Then we fill out the application form and put down anywhere from $50-100/per child just to get on the waiting list.

- And we wait...we juggle timing. "If we get accepted to Harvard can we delay until we find out if we make it into Yale? And then there's Princeton, they may have 2 spaces but won't let us know until May....and I hear that MIT really wants a blind kid in their program..."

- Here's the part that hasn't happened quite yet (but we're getting close): We get accepted and we put down the $250 or so enroll fee/once again, PER CHILD.
- School should start late August/early September...anywhere from $650-800/PER CHILD!!! per month...

Oh, and did I mention the summer camp program search? Yikes....

Oh, and by the way...

my daughter is blind. Sometimes I mention it and sometimes I don't. We are involved in the great big pre-school hunt. Wow, it's crazy, interesting and a challenge. Of course, this is not just about Zelda - it's about finding a school that will be appropriate for Creed as well. In all of Zelda's teacher meetings in the past 6 months, they have adamantly expressed their desire to have her main-streamed - as do we. She'll just be the 'blind kid' in the class - I guess for the rest of her life. As other kids learn to read print, she'll be learning braille. As kids learn shapes and colors through visual recognition, she'll learn them through touch and conceptual relationships. As the other kids intuitively follow the teacher's lead by imitation, Zelda will be doing it through hearing and her own heightened intuition.

We want a small school, one with a good teacher-student ratio, one with a structured curriculum so that there will be transitional cues between activities. We've looked at schools for kids with 'special needs', PPCD's (public preschools for children with disabilities, Waldorf, 'faith' based, international and just good ole' daycare. We have decided that Montessori is the way to go. So now, we are on waiting lists, visiting and interviewing. We usually tour the school first and decide that it could be an option for the twins before I drop the 'blind' bomb. I am then usually greeted with a quiet response of "Oh, we don't have any experience with blind students." I then respond with "Hey, me neither!" and the ice is broken - well, usually.

I am currently engaged in an email exchange with the director of our first choice school. We have visited and the twins really took to the environment. It would be great! So now, I forward the staff articles about "The blind child in the Regular Preschool Classroom" and explain that Zelda will have Scott, her VI who will visit them and help guide how to integrate her into the mostly visual activities. I am the advocate, the dreaded "helicopter" parent, busy convincing the world that they can accept her and not to be afraid. They all have a lot to learn from Zelda - Evan, Creed & I learn stuff from her everyday.

Keep your fingers crossed...