The Last Year (Andy’s perspective)

About 12 months ago:
Carla comes home and talks about how much fun she is having and how much River is growing and has quite a personality. The first time I hear the question, “We should have a baby, what do you think?” My answer, “ok, but something has got to give. You can’t teach private voice, nanny, audition every other weekend in New York, Chicago and San Francisco, and consider the possibility of moving to Germany for two or three years.” Carla would reply, “Whatever, we would make it work.” I think to myself, how serious is she about having a baby?

About 11 months ago:
I continue to hear about awesome River and how much fun Carla has watching all of her verbal and motor skills develop. Carla performs with Gilbert and Sullivan and her day is completely packed and there are a couple mentions about babies, but not much.

About 10 months ago:
Carla turns 27 for the 3rd time… and we are heavy into filling out applications for the New York, Chicago, and San Francisco audition junket that is coming up. Not a lot of baby talk but it comes up every now and then…

About 9 months ago:
We start to receive letter informing her of auditions granted across the country. We start planning her travel schedule, housing, etc… I start a class for my doctoral degree. There really isn’t any baby talk and I really don’t think about it much.

About 8 months ago:
Carla is flying around the country auditioning, coming home teaching voice and nanny, and driving up to Bellingham for rehearsals. I have no idea how she is remaining sane! I really haven’t thought about babies in awhile since the school year has started and I am working and taking a class.

About 7 months ago:
Carla is heavy into audition season and I am doing status quo working and taking a class. On a few phone calls home she mentions how much she misses River and feels bad for being away from her for so long. She says, “We should have a baby, what do you think?” I reply, “Ok, but I something has got to give. You can’t teach private voice, nanny, audition every other weekend in New York, Chicago and San Francisco, and consider the possibility of moving to Germany for two or three years. Oh yeah, BTW, there might be a job opening in the country of Oman for me… what do you think about moving?” We start looking into the culture of Oman. We find out that the Royal Opera House is building an opera house to be open in 2010… interesting?!?! We start talking about having a baby in Oman and we both think how cool would that be!?!??! J

About 6 months ago:
Carla is in New York for 2 or 3 weeks for auditions and we continue to talk about moving to Oman and just how awesome that would be. I am working with a contact, which has a contact, who is working with someone at the university. We have many conversations about Oman and babies in December. I finish my class and get a break from reading and writing papers. As we continue to talk on the phone, it feels to me that we are talking about babies more and more. I am thinking, there is no way she is serious about having a baby. When she asks about having a baby, I reply with… “you can’t do everything you are doing, you have to stop something.” She replies back to me, “you know I am not going to stop performing,” and I say, “I would never expect and want you to stop performing.” She finally returns from her many, many auditions.

The last five months:
January – I start another doctoral class and Carla returns back to a ‘normal’ busy schedule. Things are back to normal in the Anderbrand household, but we start to have some real serious conversation about having a baby. Where would we put a baby in our house? What fears do we have? What would be the perfect time for a baby to be born? Is it better to have summer or winter maturity clothes?

February – We start planning that August would be a good time to get pregnant, right after she is done with Gilbert and Sullivan. I haven’t heard back from the Oman folk, so that is off the table… I am getting excited about the baby, but trying to keep things to as planned. After our many baby conversations, I am convinced that Carla is completely serious about getting pregnant. I start thinking… August? Really… that far away? Yeah… that will work. Then, we start talking about July, and then it becomes June…

March – Carla cuts back on her nanny hours and gets a part-time job teaching music to pre-schoolers and infants. Things are getting serious in the Anderbrand household… June became May and we are both really happy about this decision. I finish my class; she is back on a ‘normal’ busy schedule. We appear to have a household baby plan in place… May? Really? May?

April - F$^& it! Let’s get this train moving. What difference does 30 days make? The test comes back pregnant and well… the deed is done! Didn’t take nearly as long as I thought it would. I started thinking… can I tell people? Who do I tell first? Do I need to tell certain people? What the heck are the ‘rules’? J

May – We start telling certain people and a few people find out at parties via a very obvious educated guess.

So, there is the last year… probably way more information than you wanted to know.