the scrabble pro tour

I know it seems, to my three loyal readers, that I have been gone forever. I wish to reassure you that I have recovered completely and have been earning an amazingly good living on the pro Scrabble circuit. By some strange twist of events, my multiple sclerosis has given me supernatural powers of vocabulary. My mind has never been clearer or quicker!

Okay seriously though. I have started getting off the couch and actually doing real things, like changing diapers, making bottles, and today (drum roll, please): laundry! I am still very fatigued and have vertigo and some problems with my balance and eyesight, but things are much better than they were. My neurologist, who I will call Sylvia since that's her name, gave me some more steroids, and they seem to be helping. She also gave us a healthy dose of optimism about things and assured us that I still look to be very much in a relapsing-remitting phase of my MS (that is a good thing, believe it or not). I think that means I will get better.

I used to dream about running a marathon, but my new goal is to walk a mile in the MS walk on April 1. The event is actually a 7-mile walk, but if I can do one mile I'll be very happy. Yesterday I walked to the end of the street and back, so I am like, really on top of things.

Maple is doing very well and getting larger every day. I don't want to give her a complex, but I can say that she's already outgrown her first pro Scrabble circuit uniform. This is one lady who isn't hurting for poundage. She loves to clap her little hands and babble loudly about her "mamama" and her "dadada" although I don't think she knows what those are. She can scoot backwards and "stand" on all fours and hop a bit, so crawling is right around the corner. She loves to eat and can finish off two jars of organic baby food in one sitting.

But the coolest thing about Maple is that half of her DNA comes from Sean. Sean, who has taken such good care of her while I've beeen sick, so she hasn't suffered for anything. Sean who has taken care of me, and everything else. He has held down this fort -- taken care of laundry and food and dishes and Maple and more, all while working full-time and taking care of my every need.

Sean, thank you and thank you and thank you. You are more than I ever dreamed, and better than I could have thought.