Next stop, Houston.

Steven: We fly to Houston tomorrow morning, direct from Boston, but with an unfortunate stop in Dallas (not maligning Dallas: the unfortunate part is the stop). Thank G-d we had this weekend in Boston to complete unfinished business at work and home. The consult letters are written, the emails sent, the kitty litter cleaned, the cat-sitter given a key (thank you, Phil), the house-cleaner called and told not to come for a few weeks (message left in Spanish, but, like so many housecleaners in Boston, he speaks Portuguese).

As an aside, my day-to-day Spanish is getting much better since we hired Cecilia, our Mexican (legal, I swear) nanny whose English is pretty limited. So Kofi probably speaks more Spanish than English right now, though I think we don't recognize it as such: it is over our cabezas. But I now know the words for such useful things as diapers, pacifiers, sheep, and rabbits; such vocabulary is hardly necessary in my obstetrics clinic (as opposed to words like pain, pressure, contraction, ache, and swollen, which are eminently more useful there).

The plan is to check into our hotel (Homewood Suites, near the Galleria mall, if you want to call or come visit!) and then have dinner with LeSahre and Marcus. She will then be induced the next night, which reminds me: I need to talk to Rob about what we're going to do with Kofi during the induction. I guess we can bring him to the hospital with us...It's LeSahre's 7th child (!) so I'm thinking it will be a short induction, but, of course, as an obstetrician, I know that such predictions will come back and haunt you.

I'm glad we'll have Kofi with us: we want him to get used to having a brother quickly. And I'm looking forward to spending time with him too: he is so fun right now, a veritable sponge for new vocabulary, skills, songs, and nursery rhymes ("Baa, baa, black sheep" is his favorite today). (BTW: in case you haven't noticed this yet, "Baa, baa..." and "Twinkle, twinkle..." and the ABC song are all sung to the same tune. I don't think he wrote it, but Mozart wrote a very playable theme and variations on it back in his day.)

Anyway, fingers crossed, prayers made, offerings burnt (well, not really, but you get the gist).