It feels like exactly the wrong time, but also kind of exactly the right time...

How can you be so poignant so shortly after you've given birth?

Welcome to the world, Artur Robert! Congratulation, Debet! And all your family. So many wishes of health and joy are coming your way.

And in a separate post:

I have a very clear memory of a post Hec wrote, maybe right after "The Body" first aired? About the physical presence of life.

He wrote about his mother dying, and about his son being born, and connected the opposites of what he felt in these life-defining moments. And that post "stayed" with me all those years, so vividly.

I remembred it when we brought Pi+Girl to my parents' home, so that my father could see her, when it was very clear he didn't have much time left (he passed away when she was two months old), and his last smile was thanks to her.

it continues to be a joy to see Stitch and ltc play together. They love each other fiercely.

It continues to be a joy to read about this.

One of the most wonderful aspects of the Sunday Zoom was seeing Buffista children (and some already-more-mature-than-children) passing by. And that Zoom was such a moving experience, that crediting that with the word "most" is saying a lot.

Sorry all that I kept mine upstairs! My offspring hates when I show visible emotion, though. It's an eighteen thing, probably.

All the stupid things I keep thinking, for the record, include "I will make sure to drink fruit punch for JZ, even though I am neutral on it and have no idea her feelings on the subject."

But I am also the person who wore a shirt of ita's to Black Panther and bought a towel for my friend Jesse's 42nd birthday (though he died a few years before that milestone) that I still use in his honor. Occasional fruit punch for Jaqueline seems appropriate, though perhaps I will stretch the definition to mean "mai tai or other tiki drink."

Also, Arthur is my dad's middle name, and my dad's pretty cool.

Welcome to the world Arthur! It is exactly the right time for you!

One of the very few things that helped me not to flail yelingly at my mom yesterday during our one hour tech support phone call to help her to get through the anxiety she had about the task of copying 5 links and send them via email was remembering JZ's love to the world and most of its inhabitants.

Not proud at my lack of patience with her at times, but after over 40 minutes of guided instruction via TeamViewer most of her anxiety was gone and she realized once again that she can actually do this on her own pretty intuitively. This is a reoccurring theme.

So yeah, remembering JZ helped with finding patience in this call.

Welcome Arthur!

So glad JZ is surrounded by such love.

But I am also the person who wore a shirt of ita's to Black Panther and bought a towel for my friend Jesse's 42nd birthday (though he died a few years before that milestone) that I still use in his honor. Occasional fruit punch for Jaqueline seems appropriate, though perhaps I will stretch the definition to mean "mai tai or other tiki drink.

That's lovely, and I think expanding to mai tais and the like is emminently appropriate.

Hello new person!

Last night I had an intense anxiety dream where I was freaking out because I left my camera on the subway, and it was gone. And then I lay awake chastising myself: This is how my brain processes grief and loss? It seems shallow and selfish to reduce Jacqueline to an object like that.

Tom, I don't read that dream as equating Jacqueline with an object. Not at all. Dreams tend to use tangible objects to represent the underlying intangible emotion. At least, they definitely do for me. And honestly, the camera is what you use to share your creativity and artistic eye with the world, and those are things you certainly have in common with Jacqueline (not the camera, but the creativity and artistic eye). So it makes sense to me, and isn't shallow and selfish at all.

We have an occupational therapist coming to the house today in about an hour, to see what Tim needs help with. I really think they'll be pleasantly surprised at his progress. We have basically all the assistive devices he needs, and he uses them just fine. On the other hand, I'm sure the OT knows all kinds of stuff that we don't know (since it's their job), and maybe they'll have some useful tips for Tim. I just don't foresee the OT coming to the house repeatedly, like the PT.