We are starting to see a baby boom around here and it is about time!

In the past whenever a tropical "system" went through and knocked the power out for a few days/weeks, we in the baby biz could count on a boom 9 months later. (Unless you are in the preterm baby biz, and then the boom is 7 months later).

Nine months after Katrina, no boom. Twelve months after Katrina, no boom. Now, 18 months after Katrina, an upsurge in the baby biz. I guess I didn't really think through people living with extended family in their homes, in trailers the size of my living room, or the unbelievable sadness of the whole damn thing. But now, every day I am seeing babies. Happy babies, smiling mommies, and even proud daddies. YAY!! I love babies.

Unfortunately, we are also seeing more divorce, suicide, and drug use.

No suicide or drug use for me, but my oh my there are days when I can see the finer side of being without a husband. My husband is in an every third night call rotation, again. He is tired. He is grouchy. He is whiny. I, on the other hand, am practically perfect in every way.

When it gets like this, I do best to just imagine myself as a single parent. My expectations become those of one who HAS to do everything, of one who doesn't have another adult around to run the kids or make the food or study the vocabulary words or do the dishes etc etc etc.

Then, when my actually very helpful husband does things just because they need to be done and not because I asked....I remember and appreciate his finer qualities. And he, well he gets nicer because he doesn't feel nagged or pressured.

It's a mind game I play, but it works and sometimes that is all that matters.