It’s an absolutely lovely day here in the hood. Jack is looking for his other walkie talkie
so that he can go on some high-fi spy adventure. Anna and I are in the front yard. I’m trying to keep her out of the dirt from
where the kiddie pool usually is and she’s trying to pick as many flowers as
she can. We have mostly weeds here in
our front yard, but fortunately for her, they’re purple weeds. Purple is her favorite color.
We’re on school vacation.
We’ve had nothing planned except annoying doctors’ appointments. Both children got clean bills of health from
the pediatrician which is nice because the previous weekend had found Jack in
the ER at Brockton Hospital with a rapidly moving strep throat. The eye doctor was not so
happy-go-lucky. According to the good
old eye doctor, Anna has shown no improvement in terms of her eyesight. This is particularly frustrating as she’s
been wearing her glasses more and has been wearing her eye patch for hours and
hours at a time while she’s been at school.
The doc has asked if she can spend one hour a day in front of a screen
while she’s wearing her patch. This was
kind of funny since just the day before I was able to say with some pride at
the pediatrician that my children spent less than two hours in front of any
screen most days. Oh well. Then the eye doctor said that he wondered if
we weren’t getting an accurate indication of what’s going on because Anna has
poor attention. You think? After waiting for well over an hour for him
to tell me that there had been no improvement, I kept my mouth shut. Had I opened it, I would have said something
that would not have been unworthy of me.
I really wanted to say, “No shit, Sherlock” and “If you do not want to
compete with her lack of attention, then perhaps you shouldn’t make her wait
for over an hour and then try to get her to do something, you dickhead.” Oh well.
So to rectify the screen time situation, I took her Target
and bought her a LeapPad Explorer.
Yup. And two ebooks to go with
it. And then, at tae kwon do that night,
I bought Jack his sparring gear. While I
know that the best parents in the world do not use gifts as a means to make
them feel like better parents, I fully engaged in a little retail therapy. Made me feel better.
Speaking of spoiled children…for my 40th
birthday, John bought me two nice Coach purses.
We got them at an outlet store in Georgia on our way back from Florida
in February. They were a bargain, but
they weren’t cheap. They’re nice and big
meaning that I can carry my gradebook and planbook as well as my laptop in
them. This is nice because it means
schlepping one less bag to and from school.
So a couple of weeks ago, John started to tease me, telling me he bought
me a present and that I would love it.
On one day, he told me that it was a pair of quarter midget earrings
(earrings shaped like the type of car Jack will be racing next month). The next day, he told me it was two wallets
to match my two new bags. I kind of knew
the present was the earrings, but I was hoping it was the wallets. Well…it was the earrings. Two gold toned quarter midget earrings. Any woman would be jealous. I think he felt guilty about setting me up,
so he went ahead and ordered me a wallet.
He meant to order the two, but one was sold out. I am truly spoiled.
So Jack wound up in the hospital the Saturday before
Easter. He woke with a strep throat at
about 3 a.m. and wound up dehydrated. We
went to Brockton hospital because the copay was cheaper (about $500 cheaper)
there than at South Shore Hospital.
Having brought Anna to South Shore’s ER a couple of times, I have to say
that I enjoyed our Brockton Hospital experience so much better. We were seen immediately upon arrival, didn’t
even have time to get cozy in the waiting room.
When I commented that I had expected to wait a little longer, the triage
nurse told me that we had come with an “expedite order.” Funny.
We had those at South Shore, too, yet still waited and waited and waited. When Jack was admitted, the doctor on call
pretty much met us there in the room.
The nursing staff was attentive (I’m not sure how many kids there were
on the floor) and on Sunday, our nurse brought in a basket from the Easter
Bunny—a well thought out basket with play dough and a puzzle among other games
and things to keep Jack occupied. Very
nice. Discharge was a breeze, an hour
earlier than we’d been told to expect.
Another thing is that they stayed in constant contact with the
pediatrician from our practice who called in the order. I’m not so sure I’d like to be in the ER at
Brockton Hospital on one of their busy nights, but I am happy to say that it
wasn’t a bad experience. They also
called and did a follow-up. I thought
that was nice.
Jack is fine. I
probably should have led off with that.
He had some IV antibiotics and some fluids. He stayed overnight mainly for precaution. By the time he’d had a couple bags of fluid
and two doses of antibiotics it was pretty late. It just seemed better to everyone to have him
stay. By Sunday afternoon, he felt so
much better that he was bouncing off the walls.
He’s been fine ever since.
Monday was pediatrician.
Tuesday was eye doctor. Wednesday
was fight with each other and be annoying.
So I decided to take them some place.
I wasn’t really sure where, but John suggested the swan boats. I hadn’t thought they were open yet, but they
are. So I drove the kids to North Quincy
and we hopped the Red Line to Park Street.
John met us there. Then we walked
through the Commons to the Public Garden.
There was a line for the Swan Boats, but it moved pretty quickly. It was a cute ride. Maybe this will become April vacation ritual
from here on out. We walked John back to
work, then the kids and I walked the Harbor Walk all the way down to
Christopher Columbus Park, making stops along the way. I showed the kids where John and I got
married and the Massachusetts was
actually tied to the dock. Then we
walked down to the aquarium and then down to Long Wharf. I showed the kids the marina where John used
to work and the boathouse he lived in when I met him. We took a ride on the merry-go-round on the
Greenway and then played in Christopher Columbus Park at the playground for a
long time. This guy came along with a
bunch of flowers made out of balloons and gave them to the kids. Jack and I pretended his was a sword and not
a flower. Then we walked back to John’s
work. When he was finished, he brought
us up to the 46th floor to see the view. That was pretty cool. Then we walked the kids to Quincy Market for
dinner. Then we hopped the Green Line
from Government Center to Park Street where we hopped the Red Line back to
North Quincy, this time with John.
It was a great, spur of the moment day and relatively inexpensive. I looked into doing a Duck Tour, but that was
kind of expensive and the timing didn’t work out for us. I had thought that it would be a good way to
keep the kids amused and contained while we were waiting for John to get out of
work, but as I said, the timing was off.
Christopher Columbus Park was a hit.
I’d forgotten about the playground at the end of it. I had thought about bringing them to the
aquarium for a bit, but ruled that out.
We only had a couple of hours tops and Jack is going there on his fieldtrip
next month. That’s really not that
expensive a trip for us either because I get general admission for free. I’d like to take the kids to the Science
Museum this summer. I know Jack would
really like it. That’s relatively cheap,
too, because I either get reduced or free admission. Whatever.
I guess the point is that the kids are so easy to cart around now. Neither one complained about all the walking
we did and they were both really good on the train. It just gives me the idea that perhaps we should
spend one day a week or one day every two weeks in the city this summer. Something to do as we really don’t have any
plans.
It’s much later now.
We’ve been to tae kwon do and have had dinner. Jack is outside with the guys doing race car
stuff and Anna is watching Tale of Despereaux
for what I think may be the 800th time since the original movie
night showing last week.
A former student of ours passed away the Saturday before
Easter. He had struggled a long time
with leukemia and his heart gave out. It
was terribly sad because it’s always sad when someone dies, but mainly because
I had seen this kid two days before he died.
I used to see him every morning.
I would pull into the parking lot at my school when he was leaving his
apartment building which is right across the street. Every day that he was well enough to go to
school, I would get probably one of the best smiles ever to grace this
planet. It was always a brilliant way to
start the day. I won’t write much more
about how sad it all is and how incredibly unfair, but I will say this: Anna has had a hard time with this.
Everyone from work went to the wake right at 4:00 on that
Friday after Easter. They went together and
then many of them went out after. I
couldn’t go with them because I had to come home and get the kids. Then, because I’m an absolute wimp, I made
John drive me to the wake. We figured
that I would go to the wake and they would wait for me. Then we would all go to dinner. When I got back into the car from the wake, I
cried. Anna wanted to know why. So I explained that I had been to a wake
which was a time to say good-bye to someone who has died. I told her about how this student had been
very sick and he died because he had been sick.
And I told her that I was sad because I would never see him again. She latched on to this and still hasn’t let
it go. When she is nervous about
something, she’ll ask the same question over and over again. So every day since then, she’s asked me why I
was sad the other day. She also asks me
about this student. She’s a little
confused though because she keeps asking me I won’t let him smile anymore. How
do I explain that to her? John and Jack
get nervous when she asks because they know it makes me sad, but I have to
answer the question. That’s too
important a question not to answer.
Jack starts racing next month. He’s going to be racing pretty much every
Sunday from the beginning of May all the way into November at Little T Speedway
in Thompson, Connecticut. I’m not that
nervous about it. I suppose I should be,
but he’s got the fire suit, helmet, gloves, and restraining devices. John seems to think that he’s relatively
good-ish at it. It’s going to turn into
a camping trip every weekend that sometimes Anna and I will partake in. And Jack is excited about it. He’s as excited about this as he was about
being moved into the Black Belt Club at tae kwon do. There’s not much I wouldn’t do to see my kid
this excited about something.
The guys are straightening out a race car by chaining it to
the truck and moving the truck forward until it pulls against the race
car. It sounds like they’re crashing into
something…I know: You are all envious of
my life. (Insert the theme song to Sanford and Son right here)
On that note, I’ll leave you. I have a daughter to cuddle with while my son
is outside doing manly car things.
