Saturday, March 22, 2008

Crawlie

During the Appendix Incident, I was able to find thirty minutes to dash up to Toys R Us and buy the bug habitat we've had on our list for a while. See, we've been finding ladybugs in the house (as many do), and the girls are concerned about them. While Dan was in California, we even rescued one ladybug from drowning in the toilet. After his wings dried out, and he had rested up a bit, he crawled off and found a safe place to sleep. After rescuing him, Penny decided we should offer him a safer way to find water, and she began putting a damp washcloth in the bottom of the sink every morning. But both girls were worried about what the ladybug was going to eat, and whether or not he would die before the weather warmed up enough for him to go back outside. Hence, the bug habitat. And magnifying glasses.

So we readied the habitat and left it on my sewing table, near the bathroom. Yesterday afternoon, the girls noticed the ladybug crawling along the baseboard, dangerously near the toilet. I carefully scooped him up and introduced him to his new home. We added a moist cottonball and a plump raisin (thanks to The Ladybug Lady for advice on what to feed him). The girls have named him Crawlie and we've placed the habitat on the dining room table, so I can remember to give him a fresh raisin and a fresh moist cottonball every day. Welcome, Crawlie.

Friday, March 21, 2008

Gimmie an "A" . . .

Gimmie a "P"

Gimmie a "P," "E," "N," "D," "I," "X!"

Last week, Dan was in California for work; only two days after his return home, his gut started aching. A Tuesday visit to the doctor resulted in a CT scan of his abdomen, which resulted in admittance to the hospital for an appendectomy. During the course of the Diagnosis Day, my Outback was in the shop and Dan's stick shift Audi was in the hospital's parking lot. Fortunately, the CT scan was late enough in the day that Dan was able to come home and take me to pick up the Outback (it was the rear brakes). Then, I loaded everyone into the Outback, dropped Dan off (by this time he had gone close to 24 hours since his last meal. Ugh.), and took the girls to the bookstore, then dinner, then to the hospital to check on Dan. Of course, they were running late, and he finally came out around 7 pm . . . except nobody told him we were there, or what waiting room we'd been directed to use. Sooo, around 7:30, he wandered past us by chance. About 15 minutes later, the doctor called him and sent him down to the ER for admittance; I took the girls home and explained what would happen, that Daddy wouldn't be able to roughhouse for a while, showed them Emma's scar from her chest tube, and shortly afterwards they fell asleep. Dan was wheeled in to surgery (laproscopic) around 7:30 Wednesday morning; the girls spent the day at Debbie's (thank heaven for Debbie!), I spent some time with Dan, who was sent home in time for the girls' bedtime that day. I guess the fact that he had the nurses in stitches most of the day was a big clue as to how he was doing. Oh, and the girls came down with a cold, too, which is really knocking Penny for a loop. Whew! I feel like I just competed in an Olympic Multitasking Event.

I want to note, here, that Dan has an exceptional bunch of coworkers. I sent an email out, letting them know what was up, and three of them stopped by the hospital to visit him briefly while he was recovering. When the girls were born, and in the NICU for 3 and 5 weeks, two of his coworkers took the time to drive all the way into Boston to visit us and see the girls. I was just so (pleasantly!) surprised, both times, but I really shouldn't be.

Anyway, Dan is home, camping out in the guest room (on the main floor) for a few days, and our Easter will be shockingly low-key, and the Ikea furniture purchases will be put off until sometime next week, when Dan anticipates being comfortable enough to keep an eye on the girls while I take care of the lugging.

Friday, March 7, 2008

Easter Eggs

Today, Dan let me sleep in (the board meeting ran until midnight last night!), and when he came in to wake me, he did so with the news that Penny and Emma were playing a DVD game on Penny's Mickey Mouse DVD; Penny had discovered the game by finding an Easter Egg. As I looked at Dan and wrapped my brain around this accomplishment, he laughed and said, "Should we really be surprised?" Penny has an intuitive sense with electronics. She has figured out every remote control she encounters, knows how to record programs and even remove deleted programs from the TiVo trash can. It's cool.