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| James--Maybe Not the Best Patient In the Land | | Date Created: Mar 22, 2007, 01:07 PM |
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Here's a picture on a much better day for him--while we were in Florida and got to visit Captain Jeff. You can tell how James felt by the look on his face!
On the other hand, I wouldn't suggest looking too hard his way today. It started at about 5:00 this morning. Screeching: "My bed! My bed!" But you would screech too if your bed and pillow had throw-up all over it. All the commotion woke George to a semi-zombie state. He stumbled out of his room with his blue blankie over his head and Will caught him before he dove head first down the steps. Will put him back in his bed and he never noticed a thing. We changed the sheets and then repeated all of the above at 6:45. At breakfast he said he was really hungry, so I figured if he were really sick he wouldn't want to eat. So he ate fruit and an Eggo waffle. Not a good idea. I'll leave the rest to your imagination, but go ahead and imagine it a few more times, a few more lods of laundry, a few more raggedy towels on the floor, and a comforter in the washing machine that overflowed. All was calm for a while. James was happy in the leather chair watching movies. But then he got hungry. The nurse had told me he couldn't eat for 12 hours after the last episode. We were going on maybe one hour. So for about 45 minutes somewhat intermittenly, he screeched "I'm hungry! I feel better! I'm not sick now! I'm hungry! I want to eat! I'm okay! I'm not sick anymore!" You feel sorry for the guy, but good lord he knows how to curb the sympathy with all the screeching and demanding.
My mom did come over for about an hour and took the other two guys outside, but apparently not enough energy was burned because they spent the rest of the time chasing each other in the house. George was especially wild, going at John's face with his yellow and green truck, pulling off one of the "fins" on John's foam rocket, and generally pushing and tackling. Thankfully he had a just barely legitimate amount of runny nose for the ole Benadryl and I gave him a solid dose just now before quiet time.
In other news, the warm weather has given us lots of chances to get outside. Which led to the Yellow Jacket Incident. It was around the very chaotic time of 5:30 when it happened--Will's getting home from work, I'm sick and tired of everything and everybody, and somebody's got to make sure we get fed. Anyway, about this time, George comes running around the corner of the house. Will doesn't think too much about it because this kind of behavior is not unheard of. But two minutes later when he is undressing George for an early bath, George freaks out screaming and doesn't want Will touching him. I get called and we notice red splotches just below his right hiney-cheek. Luckily, I'd just seen our dear friend Anne--a dermatologist--drive by our house on the way to her mother's. So I pulled a pull-up on George and took the little monkey over to see Dr. Anne. He clung to me so tight I could tell something was wrong. Will and I asked him initially what it felt like and he said, "Abuhhd."
"What?"
"A bird?"
"No!"
"A bud?"
"No!"
"A butt?"
"No!"
"A BUG?!"
"YES!"
"Oooh." Sure enough, Anne thought it looked like a yellow jacket bite and gave us great directions on what to do. When we got back home, we quizzed John who'd been playing next to George.
"Did you see any yellow jackets or bumblebees around the bushes, John?"
"I did see a yellow jacket," then cuts his eyes to the left.
"You did?"
"I didn't see a yellow jacket."
"You didn't?"
"I did. I saw it ting my brother George. I saw it once ago." He tilts his head and nods.
Excellent witness! Very credible. I especially like the noncomittal timing. Much better than "I don't recall."
Anyway, George has fully recovered except I think he may have taken on the temperament and activity level of the yellow jacket that stung him.
While John is not above his manly instinct to tame nature with his baseball bat, tennis racket, and now rocket launcher, he does at least appreciate its charms. I thought we were having a lucid conversation about the dogwood tree in the yard that is just starting to bloom and is so beautiful I wish we could freeze it just as it is before all of the blooms are finished. I told him the name of the beautiful tree was a "dogwood tree."
He said, "Yeah, and there's a dogwood tree over there (none in sight). I saw Preston's (our neighbor) dog catch a cat in it."
Okaaaay.
We went to the park on Tuesday where I was totally embarassed in front of an old friend I saw there when James wanted to get in a swing, then get out, then get back in another, all the while John is calling me wanting me to take him 50 yards away to the monkey bars and George wants to get on another swing far from the ones James is interested in where there's no way I can push them both. And James wasn't talking like, "Maybe I'll try this one. No, this one." It was "I want this one! No, I want to get out! I don't want this one! Push me! Push me! No, George, you can't have that one!" Not a pretty picture. It was such a beautiful day, though, that after I finally gathered them up I took them across the street where there is a big field right on the harbor and a little trail along the marsh and a small grove of oak trees. We headed for the oak trees where there are usually some good sticks. The boys immediately started playing in between the big trunks which was their "castle." I breathed a sigh of relief and sat down on the bench. John and George had found excellent sticks (swords), but James couldn't find one that satisfied him. So I helped him look and I thought the one I found was pretty good. It was long, he admitted, but "not big like John's." Comparing stick size already! Geez. Before I knew how to handle the situation, James dropped his stick in disgust and then John out of nowhere offered his stick to James! I was so surprised by John's generosity. But James just shook his head, walked into the "castle" sat on a stump and said, "I'm the king and kings don't need swords."
And there you have it, live from Puke Palace where the knights continue their dutiful dueling and the king demands to eat his cake and have it all over the floor, too.
I'm going to Florida tomorrow to see my new niece, Simmons! WITHOUT the king and knights. I'll only be gone one night, but wish Will luck. Five hours there and five hours back in the car all by myself. What on earth will I do all by my lonesome? :) |
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