Snow, Babysitter, and My Brother

Jordyn and I live in Boston (well, a suburb of Boston), and as probably everyone knows, we recently got hit with a MAJOR blizzard. They called it "Winter Storm Nemo" for some reason I don't understand. My parents were supposed to take a bus to NY the day it hit, so they changed their tickets to leave the day before. That meant I had to leave work early that day, since they had Jordyn and I couldn't get anyone (well, any of the three people I trust to do it!) to babysit on such short notice. Oh, well, such is parenthood! I took Jordyn out to play in the snow for the first time the day after the blizzard ended. We got about 26 or so inches. Here are a few pictures...

 Jordyn in a sled I jerry-rigged using a laundry basket. The fatal flaw with this plan was that it kept tipping in the holes I made by walking through the snow in front of it as I was pulling it. I was afraid she would fall out and get upset (although probably not hurt), so this didn't last too long.

Instead, I stuck her in the deep holes in the snow I made with my boot when I walked through it. I hadn't planned this, but when I looked down at the holes I made, and then looked at her, I realized she was tall enough to be able to stand up in them. And she likes standing up, so she loved being able to do it "by herself".

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Things are going really well with the babysitter. J has sat for Jordyn a good number of times now, and Jordyn seems to really like her. She gives her big smiles when she gets here. J is great with being flexible, she seems like a good person, and I like her. And it's SO nice not having to go back and forth to my parents' house so often. We've gone over for fun things a few times, and they still watch Jordyn once a week while I'm at work, so it's not like we never see them. My dad is out of town this week, so we spent an extra night there with my mom so she didn't have to be all alone. Which brings us to...

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My brother's in the hospital again. He was hypomanic just before the blizzard, and then when my parents were in NY, the shit really hit the fan. The alarm went off at my parents' house (likely from the dog jumping up on the couch, but we don't know why my brother even set the alarm), the police went to the house, no one was home, and there were "a bunch of things out of order". Basically, my brother just had a bunch of things arranged weirdly and in weird places, and the police just wanted to make sure everything was ok. I just *knew* it wasn't a break-in, but my brother's mania, and I really didn't want to have to interrupt my dinner (Jordyn and I were out with people after the local monthly SMC meeting) to go out to the house (the police wanted someone to come out there). My sister went to the house and talked to the police, and spoke to my brother on the phone. She said he sounded a little "up", but that he said he was going to be home that night (otherwise she was going to bring the dog to my house). Well... he wasn't.

The police who work for the MBTA (local public transportation) took him to an emergency department to be evaluated, since he was at a train station and acting really weird. He ended up being admitted to a psych hospital, and has been there ever since. He ended up REALLY manic and REALLY psychotic because he refused to take his meds. Eventually, the doctor petitioned the court to have him committed so they could force him to take meds, but then he became compliant at pretty much the last minute, so the court hearing(?)was cancelled/postponed. I've visited him twice in a last couple of weeks, and he was really manic the first time and got pretty worked up by the end of the visit. I was really glad my dad was there with me. He really lost control and had a major panic/anxiety attack when my dad was visiting him on Thursday, and scratched his own arms and face.  My mom, sister, and I visited him on Monday, and it went pretty well. He'd been taking his meds for several days by then. He just kept trying to get us to talk to his doctor to get her to let him out, and none of us were ready to do that (not that it would necessarily work anyway). He's doing much better now, and is supposed to be released on Friday. But boy has it been a shitty, stressful, frustrating 2.5 weeks in terms of this!

As I mentioned, my dad is out of town this week. He's on a ski trip with a bunch of his old fraternity brothers from college. They go skiing every year. Next week, my mom was supposed to meet him in California to visit their friends, but that trip was cancelled; my dad's coming home on Saturday. They decided they shouldn't both be away right now, with my brother potentially just getting out of the hospital, still being in the hospital, or being discharged while they were away. My mom and brother both said my dad should go on his ski trip, though. They just don't want to both be away at the same time. It sucks that my parents can't have the freedom to travel and live their lives when their youngest child is almost 32, you know?

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Can I just say, to end on a positive note, that I have been having SO much fun with Jordyn?! She's just so much fun right now. So happy, and giggly, and cute, of course! I was washing dishes tonight, and she was sitting in her high chair, and I kept turning around, and she was all full of smiles and giggles. It occurred to me how very lucky I am to have her. I knew that already, of course, but the thought popped into my head, and made me smile. :)

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Oh, and I completely surprised myself by making my own baby food today. I'm NOT a cook, so I wasn't at all sure if I was going to be able to figure out how to do it, but it's actually really easy, I think. Here's my broccoli and baby carrots:

(Does that look right??)