a very important house guest

my mom is coming to visit from canada next week. ack!

this is great news for my little guys. the monster misses her like mad, and the monkey barely got a chance to meet her before we moved to argentina. it's good for them to have their bubby (grandma) here, to keep up a relationship with her. it's good for their english too - we'll all be forced to speak it all the time, and the monster is needing that because he's starting to get lazy with me.

it's good for them, good for them, good for them - i chant it to myself as i prepare for the next three weeks (THREE WEEKS!) of having my mom here, with her very large presence, STAYING WITH US in our house.

she's great with them, and we've done our best to keep her relationship with them alive. we talk about her lots, we webcam whenever our Very Crappy Internet Connection collaborates, and she sends them little trinkets by mail. the monster absolutely adores her, and no doubt the monkey will too.

my relationship with her is complicated, to put it mildly, and there's still lots of anger and disappointment all over the place. but the biggest problem (now that i haven't lived with her for almost 20 years, don't depend on her for anything and have gotten over a lot of shit) is basically that i just can't stand her. she drives me Crazy. to the point that i'm totally unfair to her and treat her worse than i treat anybody.

i don't want to model that for the monster, and it puts f. in a really uncomfortable position. plus, i do want her to visit, and to visit again, and for my kids to have their bubby for as long as they can, even if she lives far away in canada where it gets really cold and people play hockey really well and have to wear boots to keep their feet warm!

so this is me taking a big breath, and then another one, and then another one, and smiling and getting ready to Have A Fun Time With Bubby for her entire stay.