Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

Saturday was a pleasant day in Vermont, so we all decided to go to the farmer's market in Montpelier. The farmer's market takes up one of the side streets and is a couple blocks long.

Lining the street were stands ranging from organic vegetables to handmade soaps to crafts like knitwear and souvenirs.

Roaming the street were a blend of hippies and yuppies, with lots of small children.

Right at the entrance to the market, a performance artist was dressed as a gold statue. She was wearing a mask, which probably assisted her in her performance, which was to move slowly into different positions and then hold them as if sculpted out of gold. Children and adults, alike, were fascinated.

The Gryphon suggested that we cook dinner one night while we're here, so after speaking to my brother and his wife, he bought enough vegetables to make an eggplant ratatouille Monday night.

I browsed the stands, too, and bought myself a cute little quirky keepsake: a refrigerator magnet made from a moose horn (which they shed every winter) with a Vermont quarter embedded in it. We also bought some maple syrup to take home.

Soon, some folk musicians set up and entertained an enraptured audience of small children in strollers, my nephew among them.

Then we all got some handcrafted micro sodas from a place called Pop Soda. I had a Coffee Fiend, which tasted like carbonated coffee. Yum!

We bought some food at a Pakistani stand. While The Gryphon was ordering ours, I tried to help my brother by taking my nephew, but one wheel on the stroller kept turning, and I couldn't steer it with one hand. My brother had to put his food down and come down to help. He said that he understood what it's like trying to balance so many things at once.

During lunch, my nephew started to get fussy, so we decided to head home for nap time. Sure enough, the Baby Noah video soon had my nephew snoring.

Since The Gryphon and I weren't tired enough to take naps, I suggested we take a walk. We got directions from my brother to snowmobile trail which leads past an abandoned quarry. It was a beautiful day, and we could see quite a distance. I got some great photos at a lookout, and we took some of each other, too.

When we returned, everyone was just waking up from their naps, to a surprise. My brother's wife had started experiencing contractions, and they were frequent enough that she thought she might be going into labor.

When I heard about the labor pains, I was shocked. While she'd previously invited me to be in the birthing room, I was afraid at the reality of being there. My immediate reaction was to sit there, sort of stunned, wondering what I should do.

I couldn't help feeling like we were in the way, although they'd previously told us that if this happened while we were there, we would simply spend time with her parents, who had agreed to watch my nephew.

At the same time, I was so excited about the prospect of my niece arriving that I was overwhelmed with emotion. Much to my surprise, I began to cry, so I went into the guest room so it wouldn't be obvious. When I told my brother and his wife about it later, I said it's sort of like crying at a wedding. It's not that you're sad; it's just that you're overwhelmed.

We watched TV together, while my brother bustled around getting their hospital bag and preparing for a long night at the hospital. But as we sat there, the contractions got less and less frequent, and my sister's wife decided that we should follow through on our original plans and go to her parents' cabin for dinner.

That way, if the contractions worsened while we were there, my brother and his wife could leave for the hospital, while the rest of us could take the baby seat and get a ride back from her parents.

I've never been so happy to see her parents, because they were cheerful and supportive and immediately made us all feel welcome. They'd never met The Gryphon before, but they talked to him as if they've known him for years. They gave my sister's wife their most comfortable chair, a massage recliner, and played with their grandson until time for dinner.

It turns out he has the tricycle my brother used to ride when he was little!

By then, the contractions had subsided, and my sister's wife decided it was a false alarm. We enjoyed a dinner of turkey burgers cooked on the grill, corn, pasta salad and pie.

My nephew was a bundle of energy, and even though we had Mythbusters on, I don't think we spent a lot of time watching it, as most of the evening was spent remarking on my nephew's antics and preventing him from doing things like turning the TV on and off.

Back at my brother's home, they put my nephew to bed and then we adults watched part of Canadian Bacon until we all started falling asleep on the couch. I half expected a knock on our door at 3 in the morning to let us know they were leaving for the hospital, but the knock never came.

More from our trip to Vermont:

August 30, 2006 - Along the Tracks

August 31, 2006 - By in a Blur

September 5, 2006 - Soggy Shopping

September 6, 2006 - Rock of Ages

September 7, 2006 - Bye!

Copyright 2006 by Alyce Wilson

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