Hello October!

Some belated Whitman photos:

Charles and Stephanie hanging out. I think he likes her!

Playing on Ankeny

Well, well, what have you been up to? 'Round here, we're busy ushering in Autumn in all her glory. My, how I love the changing of the seasons. As George Santayana said, "To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring.” So true, and it fits with how I feel about most things: no favorite food, movie, music, time of day, or time of year here. I love them all!

Tony with Baby Jack (he looks like Claire, doesn't he?)

I'm feeling a bit reflective today, in part because I feel like politicians and movie stars and everyone else Americans look up to these days are being huge buttholes. People in DC and Olympia seem more money-hungry and power-nabbing than ever, and each time I hear a politician, even local ones, speak, it's almost like you can feel the slime in the air. I think it's at least partly true that if you actually WANT a political position, you shouldn't be allowed to have one.

Also, this whole Roman Polanski thing? Creeps me out and pisses me off. I CANNOT BELIEVE that some people think that he shouldn't have to answer for his actions, that what he did wasn't even wrong, just because he is an "artist." Rape is rape, Whoopi, get it straight. A blogger I admire said it best in this post. Disgusting. Even more disgusting that celebrities get to be the "authorities" on everything from rape to the economy to the climate. Since when do millions of dollars and a succesful acting career make you a judge/economist/scientist?

Gah, enough of the heaviness. Did you notice how I tried to tone it down by distracting you with photos? Crafty, eh? I haven't been getting enough sleep lately (what else is new), though it appears that Charles' new teeth have receded for the time being. I could see them through the gums for a couple of days and then - poof! - gone. Hooray. We'll just have to go through all that screaming all over again.

What, don't you vacuum your children?

Anyhow, the sleep thing is the normal nonsense. He goes down without a fight every night at about 8 pm. Then, sometime later, say midnight or one am, he wakes up screaming. Tony goes in after 5 or 10 or even 15 minutes of wailing to let him know he is not alone, gets him laying down again, and Charles returns to sleep. Then, he wakes at 4 or 5, sopping wet and ready for food, goes immediately back to sleep after changing and nursing, and is up by 6 am, ready to take on the world. I don't usually get to bed before 11. This timeline sucks.

Also, eleven months. He's eleven months old. Yeesh.

That's all for now, stayed tuned for something more interesting next time, I swear.

Happenings

We left for Walla Walla on Saturday last.

Visited friends, drank wine, took in the amazing scenery of the transformed Walla Walla Valley.

New buildings on campus... could hardly resist the urge to grab some freshman by the shirt and tell him/her "why, in MY day, we weren't so lucky! We had only two elliptical machines in a tiny gym, no art building, and no campus center! My first semester, the library was under construction and I had to order books from a little desk and wait two days for them to get to me! The library wasn't even open all night! YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT WE SUFFERED, in my day."


Sometimes, it's hard to believe that colleges go on without you. It's as if, like some mythical Brigadoon, the whole thing existed only for those four years. Without you, it's not the same.


But, it is there. And it is the same. But different. I half expected to see people I knew walking across Ankeny field, heading to the library to write their theses. The transportation was surreal. Especially when I looked at Charles. He didn't belong there, in my college world. In my personal Whitman Bubble.


I can't find my camera, so I don't have any photos of that trip to show you right now. The College visit was a teeny-tiny part of the whole weekend, which consisted more of hanging out with old friends, discussing the future more than reminiscing about the past. Also, of Charles getting licked by a couple of friendly Boxers. He's a tasty guy.


We drove from Walla Walla to see our new nephew in the Tri-Cities.


We took photos of that, too, so perhaps we left our camera there. That, or it's buried under a mountain of sand in the backseat of the car, which I'm sure is great for cameras.


You see, from there, we drove to the beach. It was a long trip. Charles wailed from Wauna to Ilwaco. I guess there's only so much car a guy can take.


We were reunited with the dog at my folks house, but then Tony left us on the Amtrak to go back to work. The same day our friends the Specks drove down for vacation.


We had fun.


Charles enjoyed lasagna:
He really enjoyed lasagna:

We visited Beachdog (lilliputian photos stolen from Kelleigh) (giant dog borrowed from Kelleigh) (the dog will be with my folks for Thanksgiving) (I'm thinking of getting a saddle):

And Charles got to bathe with the ladies, both Adriana (almost age 2) and Tessa (age 3 months). Both were more demure than he was in the bathtub:

We also went to the beach, many times, running the dogs ragged.

Buster chased the stunt kite our friends flew, dutifully protecting his family from that noisy beast:

Charles didn't eat any sand. Bonus!

Tony drove down yesterday to be with us. I guess he loves us. How blessed are we?

Four Years

I was going to do a "then and now" comparison of this photo (now):
with a photo from our wedding (then), but I can't find the discs of all our wedding photos, which is just on par with how the rest of today is going, so fine, I'll roll. I just hope they aren't lost forever, as I have never uploaded them to our current computer, the one that has the hard drive backup and everything.

You'll notice from the above photo that Tony is in bed (well, we got in bed with him for an ad hoc photo shoot, though you can see that Charles wasn't too thrilled with that idea). His largest incision got infected and he has to clean it every day (I'll spare you the details, it's pretty gross), and fighting infection along with general recovery from surgery a week and a half ago has made it impossible for him to be up and about for more than an hour or so at a time.

I cancelled the babysitter for tonight. Don't know what we would have done or where we would have gone, as I was hoping Tony would surprise me with some awesome idea, but instead, I think I will pack up Charles this evening and we will go watch football with my brother. That way, Tony will sleep and hopefully recover faster. At this point, I'm not sure he will feel well enough to go to Walla Walla and the beach with us next week, but at this point, I am committed to going. Plus, Buster is already at my parents' house, and I miss him.

It is tough wrangling a child and taking care of a household all alone. I don't understand how single moms do it.

Honest, Officer, I CAN'T Drive 55!

In preparation for our trip to faraway lands (Walla Walla, Tri-Cities, and Ilwaco) this weekend*, methinks the Cook family could use a little help putting together a playlist. So, in the latest, greatest installment of theme songs, I'm looking for your list of songs about driving or road vehicles (cars, bicycles, motorcycles, RVs, etc.). Here's a few random ones I thought of:

1. I Can't Drive 55 - Sammy Hagar
2. 409, I Get Around, Little Deuce Coupe, and a bunch of others - The Beach Boys
3. Bicycle Races - Queen
4. No Particular Place to Go - Chuck Berry
5. Hot Rod Lincoln - Arkie Shibley
6. Mustang Sally - Wilson Pickett
7. Born to Run, Thunder Road, Pink Cadillac - Bruce Springsteen
8. Highway to Hell - AC/DC
9. Radar Love - Golden Earring
10. Cars - Gary Numan
11. Little Red Corvette - Prince
12. Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car - Billy Ocean
13. Drive My Car - The Beatles
14. Life is a Highway - Tom Cochrane

What's on your list?

*Thieves, don't try anything... we have a housesitter!

Table Dancing? Better: Table Walking!

This is how Charles now moves around the house:

I didn't just fly in, but my arms are tired all the same...

Tony is still recovering, thank you for all your prayers and well-wishes. He's been sleeping a bunch, especially since he weaned himself off of the narcotics and now has to deal with the pain again.

Anyhow, since I have been taking care of two men and a man-dog this week, neglecting work and cleanliness (not personal cleanliness, mind you, the house kind), my arms and back are real sore and I am somewhat tired.

So here's some stuff that happened this week:

Charles, Buster, and I went on lots of walks. Charles tolerates his stroller as long as he has Goldfish or graham crackers, toys, and it's not too hot for too long. Our days of walking for an hour or more are long gone.

A friend of ours had her son's birthday party at the Children's Museum. I think Charles was the youngest there, but he didn't let anyone outclass him in watermelon-eating.

He especially enjoyed the air box, or whatever it is really called. There is a nifty fan that blows balls up and makes them hover in mid-air. Perfect for a little guy who can't walk on his own and doesn't have a long-enough attention span for the many more-involved exhibits. Also, thank God he is not old enough to play in that indoor sandbox yet. I can only imagine finding that in the bottom of my bathtub.

Of course, my favorite part was the dress up. Here he is as a puppy, his favorite thing in the whole world. I haven't figured out what his Halloween costume will be yet, but rest assured it is in the forefront of my mind.

When Organs Attack!

Tony is sleeping the sleep of the heavily medicated right now. He is a bit lighter than he was yesterday, but I don't recommend his weight-loss plan. You know, that plan where they remove organs.

Tony had been feeling ill for a couple of days, but yesterday he complained to me that he felt like someone had kicked him in the stomach. He swore it wasn't his appendix (this is where the universe laughed heartily) because the pain wasn't localized to the right lower abdomen. I sent him to bed with some Gatorade and orders to rest and drink. He rested, but he didn't drink. By 6 pm, he was vomiting with force (or with feeeeeling, if you will). By 8 pm, he said it felt like he had been repeatedly kicked in the gut (who was beating him in his sleep? Who?). Charles went down to bed, I called Leland, and we headed to the ER. They put an IV in because he was severely dehydrated, and sent blood off for labs around 10:45 pm. For those keeping track at home, that's my BED TIME. The doctor scared me half to death when he insisted to me that it wasn't appendicitis (cue universe laughing, again) and that I was, instead, facing a rampant, vicious virus that was sure to bring our whole family down, just you wait mere mortal.

By 11 pm, even with some powerful anti-nausea medication in his IV (on top of almost a liter and half of fluid, at this point), Tony was horking again, and writhing with pain. This time, someone had kicked him in his lower back when I wasn't looking. What are these, evil gnomes attacking when my back is turned?! The bastards! Labs hadn't come back by midnight (busy night in the ER), so I asked the nurse for a ballpark time of when we would be sent home. She couldn't reasonably give me one, so I left my husband to sleep (at this point, he had some pain killers and a bigger dose of anti-nausea medication) with the promise that I would wake the baby and we would come get him as soon as he was discharged.

Charles woke at 5 am to feed, and still no word from Tony. Finally, he called at about 6:45. The official diagnosis, after an MRI and some painful (so I hear) belly-probing? That's right, appendicitis.

He had laproscopic surgery at about 11 am today, and is now on the road to recovery. When he finally woke from the anaesthesia (he's a lightweight), he told me he felt like a million bucks. I guess any thing's better than an inflated appendix. He'll be going home tomorrow. In the meantime, I'll be child-wrangling solo, so don't expect much in terms of updates. Instead, give us a call tomorrow, anytime. He'll probably be bored before too long :-)