Suddenly I Like Rob Thomas A Lot More

One of the positives of running on a treadmill with a television built into it is that I can channel surf, which can really make a run go faster, especially on days when I am not so in to it. On one of my runs/surfs, I came across the new Rob Thomas song video, Her Diamonds. The song is catchy, like most of his songs, and I really liked the video. When I got home I goggled the lyrics. My infertility radar stated pinging like crazy because this song, I thought, could easily have been written by someone sympathizing with someone going through infertility. But I have been know to have an active imagination

So I buy his album, and then I hear the song “Mockingbird” and there is no doubt in my mind that infertility is a theme. Here are some of the lyrics:

“Here we stand
Somewhere in between this moment and the end
Will we bend?
Or will we open up and take this whole thing in?
Everybody else is smiling and their smiles don’t fade
And you don’t even wonder why you just don’t think that way
Maybe you and me got lost somewhere, we can't move or we can't stay here
Well maybe we've just had enough, well maybe we ain’t meant for this love
You and me tried everything
But still that mocking bird wont sing
Well man this life seems hard enough
Well maybe we ain’t meant for this love”

This is, without doubt, a song about infertility. I am convinced of it. So I head back to the internet and google Rob Thomas to see if he has children. He does, but then, I discover, that child is from his first marriage. He has remarried and he and his new wife do not have children. On top of that, his wife has an autoimmune disease. And autoimmune diseases, as we all know, make conception difficult, if not impossible.

I bring all this evidence to Nicole, and make a case for infertility themes in Rob Tomas songs. And this is when she points out the title of the album: Cradlesong. Leave it to me to overlook the obvious. It is a great album, and now I look at Rob Thomas and his wife in a completely different way. This, of course, makes me like the album a thousand times more. Broken hearts are so often the subject of songs, but who sings about infertility and child loss? There is a Dixie Chicks song and that heartbreaking song “Tears in Heaven,” but other than that, I am hard pressed to come up with any.

I started my 30-Day Push Up Challenge and my baseline won’t be hard to beat: Two push-ups. And, yes, those would be modified push-ups. That may be few, but they were excellent form, with my nose touching the ground before slowly pushing myself back up. Two that I was proud of. I figure I will go though this challenge twice: The first time doing modified push-ups and the second doing straight-leg push-ups. By the end of this challenge, I should be able to do dozens of push-ups in a row. We’ll see about that.

Pictured above, the girls, on a recent playground trip. Avery has become attached to her blankets, and even carried one around at the playground, dragging it in puddles and down dirty slides before I could wrench it from her little hands. She also insists on cuddling up in them on the couch when watching the TV. And of course, she has lots in the crib and sleeps in a veritable nest. I think we have a Linus in the making.