Everyone else in the family got intentionally helpless so that he would have to deal with everything.

Exactly.

Everyone else in the family got intentionally helpless so that he would have to deal with everything.

Such things make me sort of glad to be the family outcaste. I've got enough to worry about on the home front without having to cope with Pennsylvania issues as well.

{{{{Anne}}}} Much strength to your mom.

Much strength to Anne's family and a peaceful transition for her grandmother.

I'd so read BJ's book. Hurry up and write it, please.

Bless you WindSparrow, this is exactly the encouragement I need! I'll keep you posted.

Timelies, with a side of gronk.

It's non-fiction. Based on my treatment process, which I call Innerstory™. The process is based in 'understanding, embracing and rewriting your Innerstory™.

Beej, that sounds very cool. Writing~ma!

Lots of health~ma to Maria's future MiL. Hope everything's okay, hon.

Anne, that's a really tough situation. Sending coping~ma for your mom.

{{{vw}}} It sounds like they're being really understanding and trying to work with you, which is great.

Maria, lots of get-well~ma for you MiL-to-be.

Anne, much anti-stress~ma for you and your mom. I'm sending a mental boot in the ass to your PITA relatives that haven't got the heart to help.

vw, sounds like you've got a sensible plan going. Never forget that you're the "bug that did," not just the bug that could.

{{Anne}} Much strength to you and your mom.

Love the saucy outfit, Nora.

Go vw with the plan having.

Health~ma to your MiL, Maria

Seen on the bus this morning:

A woman wearing black leggings under her knee length black skirt.

.

.

.

With nude pantyhose over them! WTF?

Maybe I should whitefont that for the squeamish.

Both of my boys in particular also clearly wanted to know how to do a thing, before they tried to learn to do a thing. This was particularly evident in talking, walking, and crawling. I think I told you, we finally got down on our hands and knees and banged the floor with emphasis, to show Ben how to crawl, because it became clear he was waiting for the ability to be bestowed from on high, rather than to develop through trial and error. And he never once let us hold his hands, while he tried to toddle. Not once. He'd stand, and you could tell he wanted to go, but he wouldn't. If we took his hands, his legs turned to spaghetti, and he sat down.

We did the same thing with demonstrating crawling for Annabel. And I thought, based on my memories of my niece Rachel's learning to walk (she's the one of my many nieces and nephews whose early childhood I remember in detail, because she's 12 years younger than me and lived nearby), that there would be a long phase where we'd hold her hand while she walked or would sit a few feet apart from each other and let her stagger between us. Never happened. She went from holding on to the furniture one day to walking across the room unaided the next. Not that she was perfect about it, of course, but she somehow did all the rehearsing and confidence-building in her mind.

While I have more than a little of that personality trait myself--i.e. if I'm not good at it, why bother trying?--I just don't see how you work out something as complicated as learning to walk or talk in your head rather than by trial and error. You'd think a baby would need, well, baby steps. But I guess Annabel has her own ideas.

{{{Anne}}}

Seen on the bus this morning:

A woman wearing black leggings under her knee length black skirt.

With nude pantyhose over them! WTF?

Sounds like someone's missing a few marbles upstairs.