My parents are coming on Tuesday.

Typically, I have at least six months' notice. But my dad called me up in February and said "We're coming in March". Whaaaaa? This March? Next month?

They couldn't get a room so they had to wait a month. But I am not ready. They want to see my place. And this frightens me for a number of reasons.

I don't mind cleaning and when a visit is imminent, I'm pretty good at picking the stuff up off the floor and shoving it under the bed. I can do that. But now that we're living in my mother-in-law's house, there's so much more stuff to shove.

The hardest part of moving into an already-occupied dwelling is not stepping on the dwellee's toes. There are such delicate property and space issues to be worked out. I have an urge to back a U-Haul into the kitchen and empty the cabinets. But I can't.

And I feel bad for even entertaining the thought, because I love my mother-in-law. You would have to pay most people a billion dollars to utter that phrase in public, but in my case, it's true. I love her. Anybody who loves my kids is automatically a-o.k. by me. But besides that, she's cool and mellow and seems to like having us and the kids near. It's an unusual situation, but I can live with it. Lord knows, I've heard enough stories about both sets of my grandparents to appreciate a functional relationship with one in-law, much less both. And living with her is far preferable to the idea of even being in the same area code with some of my ex-boyfriends' moms.

Like the one who was a beautician. She tricked me into letting her give me a perm (yeah, I know) and I wound up looking like a poodle and the boyfriend hated it and was pissed at her so she figured she'd take some of the heat off herself by making fun of my hair

Zac's speech therapist made her first visit today. She said Zac's speech is actually remarkably good; it's individual sounds that seem to be posing problems. She says that he seems to have some kind of awareness that he's not making some sounds correctly. When she'd make th- and s- and g- sounds and ask him to imitate, he'd avoid it, as if he knew he sounds funny. I'm really sure it's his hearing. I hope it doesn't get worse. And I hope it can be fixed.

I've always feared that he looks odd. I think his surgery has given him a flat face and widely-spaced eyes. A lot of people tell me he looks perfectly fine. I'm glad for that. But the therapist said today that she thinks he has the look of a kid with mild Down's. That scared me for a little while. Then she said that his social skills are far too advanced for him to have Down's and that his facial features must have been pretty severely altered from the reconstruction. I should have whipped out his pre-surgery baby pictures.

I thank god every day that Alex is healthy. I truly do.

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