stranded

lately i've been struggling with my daily commute. to and from work is pretty standard, about an hour each way if i leave when i'm supposed to (and even manage to score seats for most legs). the drag comes in when i have to hop in my car, er, van, to pick up nissa from the inlaws'. it's about a 20 minute drive, with a 10-20 minute break for pleasantries, then another 20 minutes, taking me at least an hour to get BACK home. then it's time to make dinner, eat, pretend to relax before putting nissa to bed then myself to bed. it makes for a blurry, non-restful evening, just about every day. heaven forbid i try to work in any extra tasks, cuz they ain't happenin!

so last night i tried my best to leave work on time, didn't stop for dinner groceries, walked straight to the van from the bus and made my pleasantry time brief. i even skipped visiting the little girl's room while i was at the inlaws' for expediency's sake. we were well on our way home (on ashland, just before irving) when the van stalled out and quit. no waiting to restart it, nothing. i had some solace in the fact that i had partially pulled over, but my back end was still in traffic, as every 6th car conveniently reminded me with a horn blast. we called adam and awaited his arrival (with fingers crossed that all we needed was gas). during our wait (made longer because it was now 6pm and had been snowing a blizzard-quality snow for over an hour now), a police vehicle stopped briefly. the 2 officers stopped long enough to confirm i was having car trouble and i was expecting someone to help, then pulled off with traffic as i was attempting to ask for a push to get out of traffic. is it their job to push vehicles out of traffic? no. but if you're going to bother to stop (and block more traffic) to inquire, why not take the extra 10 minutes it would take to ease up traffic (during rush hour at a busy intersection) and help a mom alone in a car with a small child. they didn't even remain stopped long enough to conclude the conversation, for crying out loud. grrr. so frustrating.

but, the experience ended on a very high note. when adam arrived, he tried a few times, unsuccessfully to move the van in a way to get it out of traffic. the weather was so crummy that it was hard for him to get enough traction/momentum to do it solo. then, miraculously enough, jane q public shows up to save the day. a wonderful young lady, about our age, walked up and offered to help push. she and adam had the van relocated in no time at all. so to you, random wonderful stranger, thank you for helping us out!!

anyways, the rest of the evening was pleasantly non-eventful. we all enjoyed a dinner of chicken alfredo, including nissa stuffing her mouth by the fistful. she is so amusing to watch some times. we then retired to the basement to enjoy the new disney christmas special (very amusing, by the way) and the peanuts christmas special. nissa seemed randomly interested at times, but mostly focused on climbing around her boxes and such.

this morning, though, i noticed something odd. after our morning nurse, i picked up nissa into my arms to cradle her a brief second (won't let me do that for any longer) as i carried her to her bed. i then noticed that my little babe had become a long, lanky toddler whose leggs dangled far beyond my arms. it was very obvious and it struck me just how different a shape my little nissa had taken on. part of me loves it, to watch her slowly get bigger (and see evidence, which is hard on a day-to-day basis) but at the time i was mostly nostalgic for my little infant girl that fit perfectly in the crook of my arm. . . bah. i love her getting bigger, pausing her nursing to tell me something she thought of, turning my face with her hand so she can admire my ear, or swinging side to side to express herself (bored? happy? trying to amuse us?).

my goodness this kid is cute.