So, where are they?...

The other blind kids that is. Where are the other Zelda's? The other smart, saucy 2 year olds that are each day learning to live in a seeing world, starting to learn Braille, learning to look towards a camera and smile when they don't even know what a photo is...

On Saturday, we went to a "Blind Santa" party - at least that's what I called it. It's an annual fête thrown by the Division of Blind Services for kids with visual impairments and their families. Santa was there along with an elf with big ears. The entire family went and the twins seemed to have fun BUT I didn't really see any other blind kids - at least not ones like Zelda. There were several CP children with multiple disabilities, lots of babies held tightly in their mothers' arms - but where were the white canes? Where were the pre-schoolers and their parents that I could meet and ask for advice and share stories and milestones? I know you're out there, I just know you are. There are other Zelda's...now, how do I find them?

On an ironic note: our neighborhood is being overtaken by solicitations for charities - many of whom don't exist. My favorite was this rather ill-kept guy who came into my shop the other day and handed us a piece of paper (real documentation!) with a website and all, asking for money to send the 5000 blind children of Austin to a holiday party at a shopping mall. Hmmm...5000 blind kids right here in Austin. You see, I knew they were out there somewhere!

The elves are coming to town...

and they're named Creed and Zelda.
This so cracks me up!
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1221006677

Word of the day...

twintuition.

I think that they have it.

So sometimes one has to write about the not-so-fun stuff...

so Zelda had a seizure last week. It's the first one she's had since January - but even then the neurologist was only calling them "spells." You see, it all started last summer (2006) when she was just a babe. They say that kids born with toxoplasmosis can have seizures and Zelda started to have some unusual 'episodes'. Basically it goes like this: she gets quiet, she gets pale, her lips start to turn dark purple, she is unresponsive and her hands are limp. I would pick her up, rub her back and in a minute or so she would stir and then fall into a deep sleep for an hour or so. Last fall we called EMS several times and she was hospitalized for days on end, hooked up to an EEG to chart her brain waves. And still, no evidence of seizure activity. They would just send her home. Finally right after the New Year 2007 and yet another 'episode' and trip to the hospital, we pretty much demanded she be put on some kind of medication. So, since then, she has been on Keppra. She has done so well...until the other day.

It's no fun to get that call from your nanny while you're getting ready to go home from work. Luckily, my shop is 100 yds away from home so I ran when Candi called. We called EMS and Zelda's neurologist and all concur that it was a breakthrough 'episode' related to a high fever. She had been snotty and sick all week. But now we watch and worry and wait. Will it happen it again? Probably. It sucks.

But Creed was a champ. He watched, he was quiet and when Zelda finally fell asleep on Evan's chest, Creed climbed onto the day bed and laid his head on her back and stroked her hair.

Maman is leaving town...

yes, I am actually going on a 'girls' weeekend'. Having never done this before (my closest friends besides my sisters happen to be male and/or gay), I imagine it will be the ultimate estrogen fest. Anyway, 10 of us will be in staying in Santa Fe at Ten Thousand Waves for a few days. I like the idea of a zen-like setting, a massage, hot baths, lots of sleep and...cocktails!?
Happy Birthday KitKat!
Good luck Evan!

"Differently" abled...

not disabled. That's what the NFB (National Federation for the Blind) calls my daughter. I love that they say that...

Zelda is involved in their pre-Braille reading program and she devours books everyday. That's not my bunny, Counting Kisses, Roly Poly Man, Jennifer's Messes...are on the top of her reading list. I'll find her in her play corner with a book in her lap, running her fingers across the pages. She rocks.

My cup runneth over...

Well, actually it broke.

One of my favorite tea rooms in Paris is called Angélina. It's a lovely space on the rue de Rivoli where you apt to find well coiffed silver haired women with poodles in their laps as well as Japanese tourists waiting in line for a lovely table surrounded by Louis XVI chairs. We go there not for the tea (for that I prefer Mariage Frères in the Marais) but for the chocolat à l'africain. The lovely serveuse, in her black skirt and crisp white blouse, will bring a pot of THE thickest, richest hot chocolate that you have ever tasted. It pours like motor oil and comes accompanied with a bowl of crème de chantilly and the requisite pitcher of water for the mere taste of the chocolate elicits thirst. No need to order any pastries or cakes, the chocolate is enough.

A few years ago, my dear friends gifted me a set of chocolate cups from Angélina. They're made of white porcelain and are low and broad with Angélina inscribed around the lip in green script. Each morning, I take my tea (preferably Marco Polo or Pleine Lune by the aforementioned Mariage Frères)in one of these cups. It has to do with my commitment to the "quality of life". It's a slice of luxury, refinement and grace. It's my 3 minutes of escape, it's my ritual. Well, until the other day, when Evan came to tell me that Candi, our nanny, had broken the cup and saucer. They were both afraid to 'break' the news.

But you know what? I wasn't upset...it's a broken cup. I can get another one. It's fragile like life, but my kids are alive!!! I'd trade an Angélina cup for them anyday of the week...

And anyway, I said I had two didn't I? Cups and kids...