MDF has learned about the moon. We’ve had a full moon for the past week or so (and yes, Dixie has been extra kooky because of it), and it has been rising in the mid afternoon so it’s quite visible when I normally take MDF outside.
So we were outside Friday afternoon when I pointed out the moon. She talked about it, and pointed, for a while, and then we went to swing.
A few months ago MDF learned how to say and sign airplane whenever she saw or heard one fly over our house. And she’s continued to be interested in airplanes. More recently she learned to say “airport,” but I can’t tell if she understands anything other than airplane and airport are associated together. Regardless, I tell her the airplanes are going to the airport whenever they fly over our house.
Then the other day we were driving to Walmart, going down S. College, when an airplane when by overhead on its way to the airport. We pointed it out to MDF and she started saying “airplane,” and “airport.”
Then all of a sudden she said “Airport, where are you?”
I asked CDF, “Has she ever … ?”
“Nope.”
It was the first time we’d ever heard her say a phrase like that. Since then she’s learned to say “where are you” about other things (Dixie, Foo Food, baby, etc). It’s really funny what ends up being her firsts.
CDF had a successful book show last weekend. From what I understand, her party sold over $450 of books, which of course translates to a lot of free books that she’ll get. The lady did show a lot of nice books, especially the 3-book encyclopedia set.
Last Friday started out great. CDF was having her book party in the evening, I was going to “babysit” MDF in the back bedroom, and so on.
Then around 8:00 PM, CDF got sick and started throwing up. She made it through the last bit of the party and then we tried to get her to bed. Soon she started saying she was getting dehydrated and needed to go to the hospital. At first I didn’t think she was that serious, but then I decided it would be better not to find out. By this time MDF was up, crying, so I hurried to get all of us ready and into the van. By 10:00 PM it was COLD outside.
So we took off. She was feeling groggy and like she was ready to faint. This started worrying me and I tried to keep her awake by talking to her. She also started saying she wouldn’t make it to the Emergency Room and we should try the Ogden fire station. Looking back that wasn’t necessary. We had plenty of time to get to the hospital, and even if she had fainted, she still wouldn’t have been in any danger.
Nobody was at the fire station, nor the emergency med clinic (8am-8pm only!). So we finally arrived at Cape Fear Hospital. Even for the shape she was in, CDF was ready to go and got out of the van on her own. I tried to tell her to wait, but she didn’t hear me. I thought she was going to wait at the end of the van so I got MDF out of her seat. Apparently CDF was not going to wait, but was too woozy to make it on her own. I found her lying on the pavement at the end of the van. I told her to get up, helped her stand, and we staggered toward the emergency room doors. A lady saw us coming and got the nurse to bring a wheelchair. That was the last MDF and I saw of CDF for the next 3 hours.
After signing in, I sat with MDF in the waiting room. Between going up and down the hall, watching Nick at Night on TV, and sitting for a while to play with her stuffed dog, I managed to occupy her while the hours dragged by. She kept asking for Mommy and I tried to tell her Mommy was in another room getting medicine, but I’m not sure how much it helped.
After a while the waiting room got hot and we went back out to the van to get the bottled water there. A lady who was waiting to be seen (an allergic reaction I think) got a kick out of how well MDF could drink out of the bottle.
Finally around 1:00 AM I asked one of the receptionists how CDF was doing and she let us go back. She was doing okay, cold but okay. The doctor hadn’t given a diagnosis and so we didn’t know what was going to happen next. Eventually MDF and I went back to the waiting room.
After watching more TV, watching a guy with a stab wound come in (he was only wrestling with his buddy), MDF finally went to sleep in my arms. I managed to get her to lay on my jacket and covered her with her jacket on a double seat in the back of the waiting room. So she slept for a few hours.
Finally I dosed off at 3:00 AM, after a couple of mind numbing hours of Rosanne, Fresh Prince, and Murphy Brown reruns on TV, and I slept maybe an hour.
At about 4:30 AM the nurse came and got me again and said that CDF was getting dressed and we would be released soon. It took a little while longer, but we finally made it out.
When we got home, I got them settled, and since CDF was still feeling sick, I went back out to get the prescription filled so she’d have something to keep her from throwing up again. It was quarter to six when I got back so I was about ready to stay up for the rest of the day, but instead I lay down and we slept for a couple of hours until MDF woke, ready for breakfast.
Then I got sick Sunday morning, but it wasn’t as bad as for CDF, and I was back up by that afternoon. I still took Monday off to rest up though.
This morning I heard a Cardinal singing for the first time this year. He was sitting pretty in a Crepe Myrtle bush just outside the CFCC administration building.
I didn’t realize until today how much the Cardinal’s song reminds me of spring. But it makes me think of the green of spring and of the Azaleas blooming in Dadu’s back yard.
I got together with Mr. Johnny yesterday. We went through the band equipment so we could divide it up among the four of us (Dom, Jeremy, Johnny, and myself). We haven’t played together since the concert at Emmanuel ARP Church in August 2003. Johnny’s cousin had offered to buy some of his audio equipment and wanted to know if he would sell any of the band equipment. So Johnny called us to talk about what we wanted to do with the equipment.
Dom wanted the sub-woofer, Jeremy wanted the small 8-channel mixer, and I took the cable “snake.” Johnny kept the big, 1200 W power amp. I think he’s decided not to sell the equipment in case he wants to play more music after his son leaves for college.
So after 7 years of being together, SFB is officially disbanded (pardon the pun).
We got out passports on Monday this week. They’re much smaller than I expected, about as tall as a CD case, and only half as wide. It’s neat to have one though.
Two nights ago I was reading a computer magazine while MDF was eating her snack. On the cover it has a picture of two dueling robots to advertise the main story about the “virus wars.” Of course MDF wanted to know what it was, and I told her it was a robot. After a few tries the best she could do was “ba’dat,” but she was enthused to be discussing Daddy’s magazine (or so it seemed).
Then yesterday morning she spotted the magazine on my desk and wanted to know about the “ba’dat” again…
My leave request has been approved! We’ll be going to Japan from March 20 to April 3. We actually bought (and paid for) the tickets a couple days ago, but it was a great deal and we didn’t want to wait. Providentially everything worked out with the leave (and Durene coming to baby-sit the servers) so we don’t have to make any changes to the tickets.
Last night CDF had a “girls night out” with Kristen. They went to the Atlanta Bread Company restaurant at Mayfair. CDF said they had a great time and only left because the restaurant was getting ready to close.
Last night was also the only day that we could find to invite Dom and Heidi over for supper. It worked out though. I made tacos, and CDF doesn’t really care for them anyway. On a side note the tacos came out really well. I used the McCormicks taco mix in the meat and had cheese, sour cream, and salsa as toppings.
MDF was wound up already from playing during the afternoon, and it kept on during the evening. She had a blast being silly with Dom, and playing with Heidi.
But even though MDF played hard during the evening, she was very good about winding down. We had a snack like usual at 7:40, and then I put her in bed at 8:00. She asked for her babies, but then only made noises — not crying, just talking — for about ten minutes.
Overall, it was great evening.