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Oh so lucky
It seems like nearly every day I’m reminded of how lucky Alicea and I are to have a normal, healthy daughter. There’s a dad at work who I was speaking with on Friday who’s daughter is repeatedly in the hospital with heart complications. He was telling me of another family who’s 3 year old child’s longest stint outside a hospital has been 1 month.
I just came across a little article from The Seattle PI about a 13 year old who died today of a heart attack … complications from progeria, or accelerated aging. There is a story (with a number of pictures) profiling Seth in 2004. See http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/specials/seth/
So sad.
The lows … and the highs
Yesterday was a very … long … day.
I woke up at 4:30a to the sound of Kaitlyn calling for “maaameeeeeeee” over the monitor. I’m usually pretty bad about not waking up when Kaitlyn calls out or cries, so I got up and took my turn. [Thanks Alicea for being such a great mom!]
I go into her room and she’s standing up in her crib. I ask her if she needs a diaper change … “yesssssss”. We get that done and I set her back in her crib and make my way out of the door. Kaitlyn is content.
15 seconds later she’s at a full roar cry. I know where this is headed so I go downstairs, fill a sippy cup with milk, microwave it for 20 seconds, head back upstairs and go into her room. I retrieve the mumbling ball of tears and give her a big hug. “I’ve got some milk for a very special little girl.” BIG SMILE.
So we sit in the glider/recliner and she starts drinking. And then stops and just sits there. It’s then I realize she’s very awake. Great .. I sure ain’t!
I sit for a second and pondering my options. Do I want to go downstairs and do a full breakfast with her? Do I want to put on a movie? Do we play for a while?
“Kaitlyn, do you want to go lie down in a big bed with daddy?”
“YESSSSS!”
So across the hall to the guest room. I’m SO glad we’ve got a new mattress on the futon … it’s actually comfortable to sleep on now. [Thanks Alicea for being such a great wife!] Amazingly Kaitlyn seems pretty content to lie down beside me. She fidgets and turns and tosses for about 30+ minutes and then finally falls back asleep. So do I.
About an hour later Alicea comes it and gives us a big hug. I feel like I just pulled an all-nighter. I never recover from that feeling all day. It’s not a good day.
In the evening we get home (I drifted off to sleep a couple times as Alicea drove home) and Kaitlyn is filthy from a hard day’s play at daycare. Off to take a shower with mom, but as we were getting ready Kaitlyn announces that she wants to use the “big potty”.
Now you need to know that Kaitlyn has been deathly afraid of a regular sized toilet up to now. Alicea asked Kaitlyn about 5 times “are you sure?” Oh yeah … here we go.
And she does. And the look of pride and joy on her face as she looked at Alicea and I made me forget for a moment how tired I was. What a moment.
And then I fell asleep.
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