So here I am on Independence Day, in the wee hours of the morning, adding to my blog. I figured that with dial-up, maybe less people will be online right now and hopefully I won't get booted off.

Tonight we took Veronica to her first fireworks display. She watched about five minutes of it, intermittently, and kept saying "Oh, man!" throughout the whole thing. The rest of the time, she was playing with the glow-rope Jason had purchased for her from a wandering vendor. We left early and she didn't even notice.

Now, part of us thinks this is funny. But we're actually growing a bit concerned over Veronica's...well, she just doesn't act and react like other kids. Last night Jason went to see a movie with a friend, and I took her to Graeter's for some ice cream and to play in their little indoor playground. The ice cream, no problem. She was all over that. But the playland...She climbed up the steps to the platform that leads to three little sliding boards, and then went back down. She'd run laps around the platform but wouldn't go down the slides, which was odd because she's been on sliding boards before and loved them. She ignored the other kids, even when they were about to plow into her. She ignored me most the time too. She was pretty much in her own little world.

And then tonight - the sky was exploding, for crying out loud, and she didn't even seem to notice nor care. It's just a bit bizarre. And I'm OK with having a kid who's a little out of the ordinary - ordinary can be so boring, anyway - but Jason and I are worried that maybe something a bit more is out of whack. I even think back to how she played and ate at the most recent Lamaze class reunion, or how she acted when we attended a little reunion of my college friends. (She pretty much failed to acknowledge anyone was there, including the oft-mentioned baby Xander. The only times she did note anyone other than me or Jason, and even then sporadically: 1. She asked Ami and Jarrod for chips, since they were sitting directly in front of the bag. 2. She asked Crystal to hold her toys while she played with something else, because Crystal was the closest person to her. 3. She saw Xander napping on an air mattress and whispered "Shhhh...Baby night-night," but only after I'd told her the same thing half a dozen times when she was yelling around him while he was sleeping.) And sometimes these things aren't the case, and sometimes they are. I can't pinpoint anything in particular, I just have a kid who doesn't act like other kids, and I'm just hoping I'm worrying for no reason and that everything's fine.

Moving on, and pun not intended but appropriate anyway:

We're selling the house. Breaks our hearts, but we have a game plan. Jason wants to go back to school. We'll sell the house, use some of the profits to put him through school for a year, and then see what happens. Maybe we'll stick around here. Maybe we'll move, to Tucson or someplace else. Who knows. All we know is, we can't afford it right now, my job interviews have proven fruitless thus far, and his chance for promotion and/or a raise is slim to none. (Actually, let's just say "none", which would be more accurate.) And I hate to do this, as it feels like a giant step backwards for us (which, let's face it, it is), but it's what would make the most sense right now.

It's late. I need to get to bed. We're moving some furniture around here tomorrow to make the living room look larger, and Jason needs to mow the lawn. Time to start prepping this house to belong to someone else. :-(