AmazonMidwife

I am so glad to see the back end of February, despite the subfreezing temperatures and blustery entry of March. Even with our huge, northern exposure windows & full-spectrum bulbs, February always wears me down. I get through on caffeine & Dar Williams' Mortal City song February.

THIS February was made extra special by our first visit ever from the lice fairy. Of course it happened around Brigidmas so at least I could dedicate all the futile-except-for-lowering-my-squick-factor cleaning, not to mention the laundry. But the nitcombing took 2-3 hours every night for two weeks. Have you seen the Girl's hair? It's THICK and over 2 ft. in length. The Boy wriggles like an eel, and it's more difficult to comb one's own hair than one would think. (The 'Savant escaped infestation due to his curly locks, I guess. And his efforts to comb my hair would have been ruinous to our partnership had he continued.)

But it wasn't all bad. The Girl & I watched Ken Burns' "The Civil War" and had some good discussions, not all of which were related to history. I learned how to make some lice rid hair pomade with essential oils which proved to be quite beneficial to my dry scalp issues. Think it must be nearly as effective as the chemical stuff we used the first time, since I combed 6 live lice out after they had been poisoned for the 15 minutes directed. Damned bugs are gonna take over the world. I also got over thinking that lice would be the worst parasitical infestation in the world (and I have experience on this, after managing an ICF/MR, people) and moved on to thinking preventively. We're combing weekly & have invested in a RobyComb, which has kept me sane by allowing me to distinguish between itchy winter scalp & reinfestation. So, the lice fairy has done the job, and I hope, will not need to come back.

Enough about bugs. In other news, I taught a large Childbirth Education class, and by the end, the families who weren't working with us & planning a homebirth had switched to providers who would respect their choices and work hard to give them the best possible experience, whatever that might be. 7 more babies to be born gently as possible----GOAL! I also didn't get a ticket driving like a bat out of hell to Logan to (just) catch a baby, so on the midwifery front, it's all good, if busy.

We also started this year's O.W.L. classes this year at First UU. I'm helping lead the 5/6th grade class again and this year, the Girl is in it. She wasn't keen on the idea at first and we had a conversation that went like this:

Girl: Why do I have to take this class? I already know all this stuff!
Me: Because eventually you're gonna want to be intimate with someone and you'll need to be able to discuss all the issues that go with sex without flinching
Girl: You mean KISSING and all that stuff? Ew gross---I'm NEVER gonna do THAT!
Me:( with surprising restraint & quick wit) Then coming to class shouldn't be a big deal.

However, she's finding that she likes class & even wrote a testimonial for next year's recruits:
"I thought O.W.L. class would be boring and gross. But, it's really very fun and not gross. You can express your feelings there." High praise indeed.

What else? The Boy's night terrors are back, seemingly unrelated to getting too hot like before and more frequent, almost every other night. This time around, he talks...mostly gibberish, but he said something the other night that made me remember my own issues with night terrors & sleepwalking. He talked about his hands being 'thick' and I remembered one dream I had repeatedly as a child where I saw a spiral line spinning (much like that optical illusion on the second floor of COSI) . Those lines would get thicker and it would totally freak me out. I still feel uneasy visualizing it, but I have no idea why.

Poor kid, I feel for him. But, I've lost some of my nighttime parenting chops. I don't wake as easily or as tolerantly as when we co-slept & nursed. Also, he's bigger and he sprawls out when he sleeps with us, so I'm less rested for what the day holds. Not a good thing in February.

I thought it might be related to our history activities Friday. (We talked about King James, Guy Fawkes, the origin & poetry of the KJV Bible, settling Jamestown, & the real version of Pocahontas) We made and burned a Guy Fawkes dummy, chanting our poem "Remember, remember the 5th of November, the Gunpowder Treason and Plot..." (No response from the neighbors this year. They're either getting blasé and desensitized, or they just go someplace else on Monday & Friday afternoons.)

This year it was quite blustery, and I had to break out the plumbers' candles & olive oil. (The 'Savant said later "Why didn't you think about the charcoal lighter fluid we had in the garage?") So, when it finally caught, it was more spectacular than last year, and the kids dutifully chanted their rhyme, which again made me think of Children in the Corn. However, this year, they started singing "Turn, Turn, Turn" which I had played during class while we were discussing the KJV, and that was quite its own version of eerily hysterical. Here's a couple of pics:

Wow, this has been a long, rambly affair. I'll try to post more often, but probably nothing like this. It's going to be a busy month. I have two births & the homeschool fair, the legislative committee is ramping up and I am becoming the de facto public speaker at work now that shortstork is moving toward retirement. My first gig: a group of Kiwanas on 3/24. I am tempted to bring Orgasmic Birth, but will probably restrain myself.