Welcome Zadie Sabine!

Human Highlighter Suit Tally: 8

I’m back!  I kept thinking I would blog from the US but… it just didn’t happen, and it was good to have a complete break.  And anyway, I was with probably nearly all of my regular readers.  Leading up to my departure from Barcelona on the 24^th, I had a bit of trepidation about the trip.  I felt as though I was JUST getting settled here, and that perhaps going back to the states would put me a few steps back in my adjustment process.  And that may come to pass, but it was so worth it to make the trip. 

Most importantly, I have a new niece!  Zadie Sabine was born on October 28 at 9:29 am to my younger sister, Jody and her partner, Matt.  I arrived in Greensboro, NC the night before—my flight from Atlanta was five hours late because of tornados and other weather.  I bided my time well enough in the airport—got a chair massage and read for hours.  But after five gate changes, the announcement that the flight would be further delayed because a crew member had been injured on the flight in felt like the last straw.

But back to the important things.  Although it was nearly 11 pm, I wanted to see Jody and Matt the night before.  I had had regular skype views of her growing belly since I left the states, but there is nothing more striking than the before and after of  a birth.  One day there is a large, distended belly, and the next there is a person!  Amazing.

My mom is renting a place for a few months in Greensboro to help out, and I stayed with her, which was also terrific.  Zadie showed up on Thursday morning and I spent the rest of my time mostly in the hospital.  It’s amazing how much time you can spend just watching a baby, and how pleasantly the time passes—when they are asleep anyway, which is most of the time at this point.  She is absolutely beautiful.  We skyped C.C. and Milo from the nursery—they were dressed in their Halloween costumes and just about to leave for their school party.  They are thrilled to have a cousin but want to know why Zadie gets two cousins and they only have one!

Before that, I spent a day in Baltimore doing research, and then two days in Atlanta at a conference, where I presented some work on the effect the financial crisis has had on small businesses.  Suffice it to say that small businesses have taken the lead in past recessions in terms of job creation.  But now that credit is extremely hard to come by, that is unlikely to happen this time.  Many indicators point to this recession being different from those that have come before, and small businesses are not faring well. 

My good friend Elke also lives in Atlanta, so she decamped to my hotel where we hung out, walked in the park, ate good food, and made up for many months of not seeing each other by talking for hours.

The leaves were in the midst of turning in Greensboro, and I remembered that distinctive leafy smell that comes when the air is crisp.  It has gotten crisp here in Barcelona in the mornings, but the leaves are still green and lush.  I walked in the hills this afternoon and, while there are a few spots of yellow, it’s nothing like the riotous color that descends upon the hills all through the northeast at this time of year.  It’s not better or worse, just different.  I went to yoga classes with my mom, and ate a lot of pulled pork in NC, too.

Everyone was fine and happy when I returned home.  Alec, having done all of the pickups and drop offs, and having cooked 24 meals straight, was particularly glad to have me back.  Although we’ve both done our share of solo parenting over the years when the one or the other of us is traveling, we have always had the extra hands of a nanny or grandparent, and sometimes both.  So I’m grateful to him for carrying the load.  On my ride to the kids’ school this morning, the traffic was terrible and it took longer than usual to get there.  Unfortunately, we crossed C.C.’s carsickness threshold two blocks short of the school, and she let loose all over her seat and Milo’s backpack.  Amazingly, she herself stayed puke free.  Despite all of our travels and Dramamine and car sickness, this is the first time we were caught without a Ziploc bag, so our little Citroen has now been christened.  Welcome back!