Babies Are So Resilient

My sweet, baby grandson has been in the hospital for a week now. He'll be here another 2-4 days unless he needs surgery. His doctors are doing everything they can to avoid operating. The staff here has been wonderful. Riley's does everything it can to make a hospital stay easier for families during a very stressful time. They provide free around-the-clock transportation to and from wherever families are staying, and the Ronald McDonald House in the hospital provides breakfast, lunch, and dinner (free of charge) to the parents, grandparents, and siblings of patients. I only have good things to say about the staff here, and I am so glad little W is in such kind and caring hands.

A Beautiful Sunrise

My bathroom window at home faces east, so I often wake up to a spectacular sunrise. The colors are much more vibrant than my camera captures, but the pictures are still quite pretty.

Mr. Pillow to the Rescue

When my kids were babies and wouldn't sleep, I would put Mr. Pillow in bed with them, then take him away after they fell asleep. I sleep with Mr. Pillow, so he smelled like Mama, and it tricked my poor dumb kids into thinking I was close.

The other day, little W would fall sound asleep in my arms, but wake up and cry every time I laid him down. I had Mr. Pillow with me, so I put him in bed with W. Little by little, W wiggled closer to Mr. Pillow, then threw his tiny little arm around him.

Thing 2 came to Indy to see W yesterday. When we left the hospital last night, she came "home" with me. My room only has one bed, but the chair pulls out into a single bed. I opened it up to make it and laid down on it, and it was REALLY uncomfortable, so she slept in bed with me (and she hogged the covers). As usual, I fell asleep holding Mr. Pillow. When we woke up, she was holding him!

My kids fight about what I'm going to leave them when I die ... mainly who gets my Bible ... but also who gets Mr. Pillow. I may put it in my will that they have to flip a coin to see who gets Mr. Pillow!

Genius Idea

Riley's Hospital has a huge supply of wagons to let the patients or their siblings ride in. It's the perfect solution to "contain" little kids who have to be at the hospital for hours and hours. The older siblings can pull the littler ones, so everyone is occupied and happy... or parents don't have to juggle kids and mounds of luggage ... or sick children don't have to ride around in a wheelchair, which brings a little normalcy to their lives. Kids often see strollers as "confining" and try to escape, but they never try to get out of a wagon. I don't know who thought of this, but having a fleet of wagons readily available really is a genius idea.

Santa Came to See a Very Special Baby Boy

Santa stopped to visit yesterday. Little W was sound asleep, so Santa was extra quiet.

P.S. W isn't wearing a hat, nor did he grow an entire head of hair in one night ... that's the corner of the blanket!

The Food at Riley's

Riley's Hospital in Indianapolis serves only low/no fat foods, diet drinks, and very little red meat or pork. When Thing 3 was in the hospital last year, I had biscuits and gravy for breakfast every day. It was comforting and filling, and easy on my stomach. For breakfast the other day, I got biscuits and gravy and a couple sausage patties. The biscuits and gravy were great ... but I have no idea what the sausage patties were made of. I know it wasn't pork, and it didn't taste like any turkey sausage I've ever had. I tried to eat it, but I just couldn't take more than a few bites. Whatever that "sausage" was made of does not occur naturally in nature, of that I'm sure. I'd much rather take my chances with real pork than whatever that stuff was!

Taking a Much Needed Break

Because one can only stand and look out the window for so long before one must rest!

This Seems Like a Lot of Unnecessary Math to Me

I honestly can't imagine every wanting to know the temperature bad enough to do this.

Can You Find Olivia?

Thing 1 is setting up her guest room, but her cats think it's their room. I was at her house the other night to help decorate. Her husband came home and went upstairs for something. When he came back down, he asked if the cats had moved all day ... they had been in the exact same spot when he left for work that morning!

Louie prefers to "hide in plain sight", but Olivia goes for the camouflaged effect. It's really not necessary for her to hide ... Roo won't get on the furniture without permission and Gus is too little to get on the bed without assistance. But Olivia ... who has no use for pets ... doesn't want the dogs to even look at her. 

I had to dislodge her to hang some pictures above the headboard, and she was not happy. She didn't get off the bed, she merely moved closer to Louie ... and glared at him indignantly as if to say, "You lied to me! You said no one would bother us here".

Superman's Christmas Tree

When Superman and I started dating, it was December, and he had a big tree that year ... and the next. He then decided he didn't want to mess with a big tree, so I gave him one of the small ones I used to put outside, in urns on my porch. He used that small tree for a few years, then decided not to put up a tree at all. His youngest daughter lived at home at the time. She was okay with not having a tree, and so the tradition of no Christmas tree at his house began.

His birthday is in December, making his birthday and Christmas doubly hard because he doesn't need anything. He doesn't even want anything! If he needs or wants something, he buys it when the need/want arises. I thought about buying him a Charlie Brown Christmas Tree several times over the last few years, but never did ... until this year. For his birthday, I bought him a Charlie Brown tree. Last night, as he was eating pizza in the kitchen, I told him not to peek, and I set up his tree on the coffee table in his living room. It isn't his birthday yet, but there's no law against giving a birthday present early!

After we finished eating, I took him into the living room to see his tree ... and he loved it! This "tree" is small enough that it doesn't need to be stored in the attic. He can put it in a drawer when Christmas is over! Putting it together and decorating it or taking it apart takes mere moments, perfect for someone so busy he tries to shave seconds out of everyday tasks in order to add a few more productive minutes to his day.

A scrawny Christmas tree should look out of place in his nice home, but it somehow fits the house ... and him ... perfectly! Happy early birthday, Superman!