Ju-speak has gotten pretty good since we have been here - he is even able to respond to questions about the past - what did you eat for dinner, what did you play with... He also is telling me things about the past without provocation - in reference to the bear on his toothpaste tube "I watch this with Neta in my home" and in reference to a robin in the tree "I have a this in my Brasil" (he has a bird stuffed animal that is NOT a robin, but it is mostly black and yellow, which I suppose looks like similar colors to what we are looking at here).

Today we were swimming in the pool and I was trying to get him to try to touch the bottom on his own. Usually I have to grab him and shove him under because he doesn't know how to dive and go DOWN, just under a bit. I was telling him to just jump off the steps and point his feet so he'd go down and bounce off the bottom and he said "No! I don't have a pilla! Forget it!" ("pilla" is Ju-speak for "pilha" - battery). We also witnessed a bird flying into the window and breaking it's neck, so we buried it and had a little bird funeral. Yes, this is how I spent my childhood too.

We have spent our days hanging out in our pajamas until we feel like going in the pool and then spending time in our bathing suits until we feel like having lunch and then maybe showering and maybe going out to visit people when they get out of work at 5 or 6. There really is something to be said for spending your days doing NOTHING.

I wasn't really intending to post while in Michigan. I have hardly been online and haven't been keeping up with any other blogs or forums or anything I normally browse. Today Ju and I were to head up north. My mom has rented a cabin up there and we were going to spend the rest of the week up there, walking in the woods, going to nature centers and basking in the wilderness that is the U.P. We were supposed to leave yesterday, but some storms came in and I wasn't all that hot about driving in them, so I put it off a day. Everything was packed and ready to go. We started off and merged on to the highway and came upon a semi-truck in the right lane. I went into the left lane to pass it and in the split second I took my hair down and glance back at it, it had veered a bit into our lane. I swerved to not hit it and the truck started to fish tail. I have never fishtailed in this truck and I think I was over correcting for the center of gravity. I lost control and hit the brakes and turned the wheel. We started to turn around and I saw we were going to crash as it happened and yelled to Ju to hang on tight. We did a 180 in the median and tipped on our side, sliding about 50 feet, and came to rest on the incline towards the on coming traffic, which managed to tip us up right.

I saw the mirror come off as we slid backwards. I have no idea how I managed to keep my eyes open, but I watched the whole thing. We were lucky that we didn't roll over and over - going about 70 at the time we started fish tailing, that was what was most likely to happen apparently. I have to credit Christopher with the innate reaction to turn the wheel and hit the brakes to do a 180, which is what probably slowed the car and kept it out of oncoming traffic. We didn't even have any airbags deploy. I was still holding the wheel when we stopped and Ju still had his bagel in his hand. I turned around and asked if he was okay, and he said yes. I asked if he was scared and he said yes. "But are you okay?" "yes." Shortly after he finished eating his bagel while a nice man who stopped in the side of the highway called my dad on his cell phone and he told us to drive to a nearby supermarket to wait for him. The car still drove fine and I put it in 4 wheel drive to get out of the ditch, did a U-turn, and then a cop came so I stayed to talk to him before we both drove to the supermarket to wait for my dad.

The cop was very nice and talked to Ju and showed him the siren and the flashing lights. Ju was fine and very interested in the car and everything the cop said to him. After about 20 minutes, my dad showed up and we talked to the cop a while longer, he finished his report and told me that I would not have a ticket (thank goodness) and that if the car was driving, we might as well take it on home and deal with the insurance. It is now at a body shop in the village and I won't see it again before I leave. It needs 3 new panels, painting, some balancing and a new mirror. Still waiting on the estimate.

I still am amazed at how calm I am through this kind of thing. It was the same way when Ju got his stitches - my husband was freaking out and I was talking calmly to him, trying to make normal conversation. This was the same way; I as able to calmly explain what happened, tell details, remember reactions, and I think that cool reaction helped Ju to not seem to be freaked out at all. He didn't even cry, whine, or anything. He just kept eating like nothing had happened.

The thing that sticks out in this whole mess is the background feeling I had this whole time about something not being right with this trip. I was tense about the directions, where I should go, maps, GPS, the route, getting lost... If I hadn't been going up there to be with my mom, I would not have decided to make a drive like that on this trip, alone, with Ju. I have been really tense about it. The universe/God sends signs about this stuff, energies, feelings... If you don't follow them, you see what happens. This trip was apparently not meant to be for me this time around. I am supposed to stay close to home. So here I sit, no car, lots of food that I bought for up north, watching T.V. with Ju and walking around outside. There is something to be said for down time.