Life is crazy. Life is unexpected. Life should be simpler. Many of you know by now, but my back is broken. Literally broken. Two vertebrae. The bottom vertebrae that support all the others; thus, all the others are collapsing. The x-ray of my spine looks like a giant C. It was so simple to diagnose - a simple x-ray - the dinosaur of modern diagnostic testing. So simple the local docs missed it. Sometimes parenting is like that. The simple things are so simple I sometimes miss them. Funny how a scary diagnosis from a doc makes you look at things differently. Notice things. Pumpkin is only four but I think she understands something. In the hustle and bustle of this first morning post-diagnosis she stopped me amidst my topping-off-coffee-packing-lunch-chugging-a-protein-shake-needing-to-get-dressed frenzy and asked so sweetly, "will you snuggle with me for one minute?" How could I say no? I curled up with her on the couch, breathed in her hair, felt her inhale and exhal...