Ok, I do love my stepmom very much and when her kids aren't involved (warning: jealous post alert), she and I are very close. I normally have the kind of relationship with her as I would have hoped to have with my real mom, if she were still alive. But, I've whined about this in the past -- as soon as her kids are in the vicinity, I get dropped like a hot potato.

Mind you, I'm 38, and her kids are 38 and 36. Should be well past this by now, I'm sure... but it's always been like this, for the last 20 years.

All three kids live in the same city, across the country from my stepmom, currently. She visits often, several times a year. When she does, she usually stays at my house because I have an extra guest room, but she will never make concrete plans to spend time with me "in case" one of her kids decides that he has time to spend with her. Her kids won't commit to anything and end up calling pretty much at the last minute if they end up with free time, and even when she and I do have plans, she bails on me in favor of them.

Ok, enough history. Now my current whine...

So, I'm finally pregnant - am now 4 months along. My dad is terminally ill with brain cancer, so at the moment, all of the focus is, understandably, on him. In fact, neither of them have made more than a cursory acknowledgment of my pregnancy so far, but as I said, I do understand as they are going through their own traumas. His prognosis is not good - maybe another month - so I would imagine that she'll have a little more emotional energy to celebrate with me in the spring.

For the record, I already hate everything that I'm writing. What a whiner...

Anyway, so today she brightly announces that..... her son and his wife are also expecting! Yay!!!!!... not. I'm happy for them, of course, but MAN! When is MY day in the sun?? Especially with my dad being gone by then, is she going to make ANY time for me once her REAL grandchild arrives??

god, I sound so pathetic... I'm 38 for crying out loud...