Hanna's Birthday – kids DO say the darndest things
This unfortunately falls into the “first I have to tell you two OTHER stories so I can tell you the two things Hanna said to me in the last twenty four hours that made me laugh out loud over and over.
Go back a month or so – it had been nice out and snow was everywhere. I had Hanna out on the sled. She wiped out in the driveway (yeah, she was only just under two years old but we weren’t going fast…she just leaned out too far). When this happened she managed to get scraped on her forehead, nose, and chin. She immediately started that “I”m going to cry like there’s no tomorrow” face – so I leaned over and said “I’m glad you’re TOUGH! Let’s do it again but FASTER!”.
Being a two year old she said “YAY!” – so we did. She healed. No crying at all. Since then every time she’s gotten banged up on anything she just says “I’m OK…I’m TOUGH!” (unless it’s REALLY bad….).
Fast forward to last night. I was getting her ready for bed – I was carrying her to her crib after I turned the light off. I somehow managed to bonk my foot into the crib and I said “Oh <SHFUErrrrr>”. (When you are a parent that last part really comes out in a non-english very gutteral emphatic BUT NOT SWEARING kind of way).
Hanna said “Are you ok Daddy?”
I said, “No, I hit my toes and they hurt a LOT.”.
Hanna: “I need you to be tough daddy. Be tough.”
I nearly peed my pants laughing. Turnabout is something I know MANY people have been wishing on me and trust me – I am getting repaid THOROUGHLY.
Now, switch to this morning. It is Hanna’s birthday! For her 2nd birthday she got – wait for it – dual ear infections. Jodi took her to the doctor this morning and we found out – she’d been running a 102 degree temp for a couple of days and we called and they wanted us to bring her in.
When Hanna was at the doctor they took her temp via the “uncomfortable” route (ie, in the backside). Hanna’s pretty good about this sort of thing and was probably “TOUGH!”.
As luck would have it one of Hanna’s presents from Mom and Dad today was a doctor’s kit with 2-year old friendly play versions of the following:
- Stethescope
- Thermometer
- Blood pressure cuff
- Syringe
- Eye/ear tool
- Mouth mirror
- Pager
Since she had just been to the doctor today she was VERY into playing with this toy ALL day today. I worked all day but after work it was my turn to be the patient. Hanna checked my ears. And my eyes. And my heart. And my ears. And my eyes. And my heart. And my ears. And my eyes….
But the thing that made me laugh harder than I have in a very long time was when she grabbed her thermometer and ran at my backside saying…
“I am going to check temperature in your butt!”
Luckily I saw it coming in time and managed to talk her into doing it under my arm…
After all that happened lately – this makes it worth it.
Happy Birthday Peanut.
Bending reality to meet your needs
Let me preface this by saying I’m always looking for good stories of stuff that happens around large corporate offices. I find it entertaining on a huge scale. Feel free to send them to me.
If you work in an office, you know conference calls take on a life of their own. This is especially when project deliverables are in question and people are trying to determine to figure out what the hold-up is. Usually everyone has to pony up their failures when they happen and try to move forward.
But – there’s a rare breed of individual. This is the type of individual that can take a sentence and use cognitive dissonance to make the first part of the sentence SEEM to justify the last part of the sentence . In reality – when you examine it up close – you’ve just been swindled! The two parts are COMPLETELY in disagreement with each other.
And that brings us to this anecdote. I spend a lot of time on the phone due to multiple project responsibilities. I deal with customers, vendors, and other contractors all over the country on many different projects. In the not-too-distant past of of those projects had some tasks which are behind and they were being discussed. One of the people on the call had a fantastic quote.
Drum roll please…
He said:
“The schedule has slipped but not in such a way as to pertain to the calendar”.
Ummm…I’m pretty sure that the word schedule is pretty well tied to the phrase “a timetable”. I know because I looked it up in the dictionary and one of the definitions was “a timetable”. Various others also mention the fact that schedules are tied to time.
So, the math is pretty simple. Schedule = time.
A calendar = measurment of time. So, Calendar = time.
So, if time=time then calendar = schedule.
That really only leaves two possibilites:
If a schedule slips – some very fancy quantum mechanics must be in effect to prevent it affecting time. This is…unlikely.
The second possibility is much more fascinating. This person actually had the ability and courage to go in front of a group of people (well, it was a conference call, but you get the idea) and tell everyone that just because the schedule had slipped it wouldn’t affect the schedule.
Now, I accept there are ways to keep things on schedule even if things slip – you can incent workers to move faster, shave a few corners in other places, etc – but the real lesson here is this – the person said this out loud – AND EVERYONE BOUGHT IT. No one questioned the statement at all.
I need this ability.
© 2009 William Rentfrow’s Blog All Rights Reserved
Loss.
The past few days have been full to say the least.
Monday was normal. Tuesday was very busy but also normal – the last thing of any importance was my wife and I going to the “Y” to the trainer appointment. Since she was 12 weeks pregnant (give or take) the trainer was showing her some more low-impact things to do and generally running us through a few other things.
Wednesday – things changed. We had our first major pre-natal appointment. This was the one where we would hear the heartbeat the first time. Before we go there, let’s cover recent history.
We had one pregnancy that was successful – we have a great 2-year old. The second one terminated naturally around 9 weeks. My wife was naturally very nervous for this appointment and I was a bit tense too. However, no one thinks something bad could really happen twice – the odds are against it (although surprisingly right in the poker-player range of odds).
During the appointment – no heartbeat. So they did an ultrasound with a small, portable ultra-sound. No definite results. They moved up to the larger cart-based ultra-sound. No definite results.
This resulted in the next step, using the “BIG” ultrasound that was effectively the size of a large computer workstation on wheels. This time we got definitive results – we had to wait to see the doctor to get the official results but we could see it ourselves – an empty sac which should have been filled with a 3″ or so embryo. We had the same experience before we know what to look for – and my wife summarized it best by saying “this seems all too familiar”.
The rest is details – pregnancy #3 is over. My wife is recovering. But that leads us to how people react to this sort of thing.
If an old person dies – or even someone who is roughly classified as “not young” (including me) at this point – people try to comfort the family with sayings like “At least he/she got to live a full life” or “They got to do many things others don’t” and what not. And that’s not just a trivial comment – it’s true. Anyone alive in American (and most modern countries( is living longer, better, and healthier than the majority of humans throughout history. We instinctively know those comments have some weight and meaning. That’s not the case with a miscarriage. There’s just not a lot you can other than the aforementioned “that sucks, etc” clause.
The problem is threefold. First, there’s nothing you can really say that isn’t a modified version of “That sucks and we are thinking of you – if you need anything let me know”. I am not questioning the sincerity of anyone’s comments – they have all been sincere and appreciated. But you can’t simplify it – you can’t downplay it – it just proverbially is what it is.
Second, if you are single – or if you have never tried to have kids – you can’t really identify with the situation. You can certainly sympathize – but you can not empathize. If you are a single female you simply haven’t sat there and felt like crap for 12 weeks (= 84 days = 2016 hours = 7257600 seconds) hoping to it is all worth it and having those dreams crushed by a harsh reality. If you are a single guy you haven’t experienced any of the major forms of weirdness guys develop with a pregnant wife (I tend towards the sudden over-protectiveness) and then had to deal with it all changing plus your own emotional stake in the process. You just can’t identify with it.
Third – if you are a guy – you can never really appreciate the woman’s point of view. You can certainly try – I know I have – but we never have the physical connection with a child that women have during pregnancy and birth. I’ve had multiple guys tell me that when their children were born they didn’t have the immediate love and closeness that their wife had. It took some time.
So – no matter how you summarize it – we had a loss. But we’ve also had a win – and she is two years old and cute as a button. Her birthday is that week. We’re concentrating on that and moving forward. After all – life is measured by how you pick your self up after you get kicked in the teeth by reality.
Quote of the Day
You’re a pragmatist, I’m not worried about you.
-From a friend of mine in regards to the miscarriage, asking how my wife was doing.
Little Peanut goes sledding
It snowed here yesterday and we found time to get outside. I shoveled – so did little peanut.
We also managed to get some sledding up and down the driveway in.
