Well hello Babblers!
My name is Megg and I’m the mother of one of the newest additions to the
dirt eating, playground wandering, germ sharing, tiny giggling world of
toddlers , GiGi, who just turned a year
old less than two weeks ago. Babble has
invited me to be part of the blogging family but before I am welcome here I
should probably tell you a bit about myself.
After all, it’s a bit rude to try and settle in somewhere without giving
up some info.
I’m 6 feet of brunette funkiness that hails from a lesser
known city in California called Madera. Up
until 7 months ago, I was living on a small island bordering Oakland, working
full time, raising the babe and living it up. My ex (let’s call him Boy Wonder)
and I got the news on August 8, 2008 that our GiGi was blind. She never really
tracked my face or looked at anything in particular so concern grew and grew
with each check up. You know, I asked my
sister in the hospital, right after I gave birth, “When will she look at me?” I should have known by the quiet, delayed
response, that something was wrong with her vision from the start. I didn’t though, because she is and has
always been perfect in my eyes and I was too in love with her to imagine
something like that. At 4 months old,
hearing the overwhelming diagnosis of optic
nerve hypoplasia, meaning her optic nerves never fully developed for one
reason or another, was more than I could handle with just Boy Wonder present and
neither of our families close by. So almost 2 months
after the shock GiGi and I moved to farm life, usa.
While living at home with your parents at 27 years old isn’t
the most hip thing to do, it is the thing that makes the most sense for
me. For us. For my family of two. Our puzzle-pieced two household family of
four. I spend every other weekend in
Oakland with my closest friends while GiGi is spending time alone with her
daddy. When I’m not honking in traffic
or looking for never available parking, I am here at my new home which is smack
dab in the middle of …nowhere. Instead
of phones’ and heels, people are rocking the cowboy hat and boots look. Madera
is a pretty conservative place, and having spent 10 years in the bay area I’m
in total culture shock. I can’t seem to
find a radio station spewing politics or even sports talk. There is however a
lot of country music and Spanish channels.
Neither one are my thing though so I am out of luck there. Thankfully
the town is progressive *enough* to have internet availability.
Here’s the bottom line – I’m a brand new mother. A woman who
had never planned on children or even considered become a foundation of
stability and consistency. My life was
flipped upside down and thrown into a blender with wheatgrass shots and then
served with a mango slice on top the day I found out I was a people maker.
My heart says that I can do this. I can be a great mother to
my daughter and learn as I go, doing things my way, her way, any which way but
normal. We will create art together and GiGi will be passionate about painting
and reading even if that means raised paint and Braille. She will love beeper-ball
soccer and dinosaurs and playing with friends. I will encourage her to play any instrument she can get her hands on, and sell my soul to pay for them. I will let her know that tattoos are fine and pink is a lovely shade to color her hair.
There is no real “how-to” guide for parents that fits
everyone’s life perfectly, but at least there is some sort of guide out
there. GiGi, Boy Wonder, his older
daughter and I have no handbook. Nothing is present in our lives to explain how
to do this so our parenting trip has been a rocky, but entertaining show. My pint sized hero is teaching me everything
I was once missing in life, and putting me to work for that knowledge. Stay tuned to hear about my lessons in love,
single-mothering, and raising a child with as much vision as I have patience.
oh, I almost forgot, Nice to meet you!
Megg & GiGi
