Friday, May 09, 2008

The second face of Summer

The Second Face of Summer

I gave birth to my second daughter on April 9th, just a month ago, upstairs in our big four-poster bed. We’ve called her Diana, and from her first breath she is as different in build and temperament from her sister Dot as she can be. With two healthy girls, our family is now complete. Diana is my second face of Summer. When I feed her, she stares at me with big blue eyes.

Since the home birth, I’ve had to reassure people I’m not crazy, though. I gave birth at home because Emory Crawford-Long fired all our midwives, and I wanted to have the baby somewhere I felt safe and needn’t fear a c-section. Diana was nine and a quarter pounds; I didn’t want them cutting her out of me. I had her with Tony bracing my right shoulder and The Husband bracing my left, while Andrew and my two sisters shouted encouragement at me. Yes, I’m getting her vaccinations and a social security number. I haven’t lost my mind.

Things continue on well here. Last year Dot began daycare, The Husband went to law school full-time, and I was promoted into management at the corporate archives where I work. Things move along. My sister Sara comes over at least twice a week to take Dot to the playground or elsewhere for fun outings. Sara has pushed herself more with her artwork this year, and that’s been fun to watch. Our youngest sister, Abby, has finished a rather harrowing first year of High School. Moving from the Tennessee school system into the Georgia one was difficult for her, and the Georgia system has higher standards for which she wasn’t really ready. Sara and I are both trying to spend more time with her, but it isn’t always easy. Jobs and lack of time get in the way.

Time moves so quickly now, I don’t have a chance to regret giving up this public blog. I barely have time to trade links and comments with my friends over on livejournal. I’m still there in a friends-locked capacity. I hope the Lj platform continues to last; in the past year many people have left the community due to censorship issues with the parent company. I am forced to admit that although I recognize that both blogger and Lj are very old internet trends, I see nothing around that I like as replacements for them. I still enjoy communicating with my friends online. I still like the RSS feeds for this purpose. I suppose I'll continue to post here about once a year, or when really big events in my life occur. It's nice to have some place that's a bit like a formal record of how things with me have gone.

I’ll be 32 in October. It’s difficult to remember that I’ve been doing the blogging thing since I was 24. I see no reason to end now. After all, it’s still just now Summer, and I am in the most productive time of my life. Everything I’ve worked so hard to plant – my career, my family, my home – has grown secure roots, and the pollinated flowers are bearing their first fruits.