hello?… hello? anybody there?

It’s been a long time. It’s almost at the point where so much has happened that I’ll forget most of it unless I record it somehow. So here you go:

1. Reader, I married him. I’ve always wondered what it would be like to write that sentence. So unsentimental as to be the most romantic thing one could write about this kind of event. The wedding was in our apartment, with no one but A’s cousin (a minister – it was the first wedding he performed), his very pregnant wife, Z, our babysitter as witness, the dog and the cat there, with my sister and her husband present on skype and taking wedding pictures. I was 8 months pregnant, just like A’s cousin’s wife. It was my dream wedding.

2. E, my second daughter was born on the first of June, at 12:51am, in our apartment, as I was lying on my bed with our midwife and a doula assisting. It was a fast and hard labor that hurt like hell and was utterly wonderful and amazing. It was my dream birth. At 5 am Z woke up and A brought her to our bedroom to meet the baby. It’s one of those moments I’ll never forget: the pleased and serious smile she gave and how she reached out her arm to hold her new sister.

So far, Z’s still pretty happy about having a sister. Then again, the baby’s so small that she hasn’t really infringed on Z’s territory just yet.

3. Since that morning Z’s decided she’s a big girl and has matured, very suddenly, by several leaps. In her language (both Hungarian and English), her behavior, her motor skills, her awareness, everything. It’s really amazing to watch.

4. Z is potty-training herself. It’s the only way she learns anything: by observing then teaching it to herself, doggedly practicing until she’s got it. She’s had her frustrations with it, leading to hysterical bouts of crying at random tiny provocations, waking up at night, and so on, all the things she does when she’s working on a new skill. But yesterday, for the first time, with absolutely no prompting she sat down on the potty when she needed to, and peed. While she was watching the potty episode of Elmo’s World with a bare butt. Elmo’s world DVDs tend to be a good investment around here.

5. I’m finally doing some things for myself that I’ve been putting off for a long-long time. Like taking guitar lessons. And getting a good haircut. I’m also planning to start doing some Pilates. The challenge is to time everything in such a way that I have someone to watch the children when at least one of them is asleep, someone who is not me. It really is challenging because this really only leaves me with two perhaps hour-and-a-half windows: in the afternoon when Z naps and in the evening when Z is asleep and E doesn’t need to nurse nonstop. Oh, and I’m going to blogher this year! Because it’s in New York, and I live here, and I’ve no excuse not to go. Baby E will probably also attend.

6. And Baby E, who turned seven weeks old on Tuesday, knows how to smile.