When it rains...

Things have been hectic in our family over the past week or so. It started around Tursday the 18th when Misty seemed to pick up the cold that I'd just gotten over. For her, though, being pregnant, the symptoms all hit her a lot harder. After several days, she wasn't improving, but instead, seemed to be getting worse. By Tuesday, I began bugging her to go to the doctor. Instead she had them call in a perscription for antibiotics. That seemed reasonable enough, and we assumed she'd perk up in a couple days.

Wednesday, Misty's mom had an appointment scheduled for surgery. Her arms were a mess from the various needles of nurses and doctors, so they were going to put a tiny port in her chest where they could inject the drugs for chemotherapy. Aunt Wanda came down to stay with Misty's mom for the operation. As fate would have it, that same Wednesday, Trion (Misty's cousin) & Stacy delivered their baby. Weighing in at 6 pounds and measuring 19 inches, they named her Patricia Paige Yeager. However, we couldn't get up to Cullman to see her because Misty was still far too sick to be near an infant and Misty's mother was, of course, in the hospital.

The operation for the port went fine, and the next day Misty's mom went in for another round of chemo. Misty drove her mom to the clinic, but had to just drop her off because she knew she shouldn't be around a bunch of cancer patients as sick as she was. Aunt Wanda was still on hand to stay at the clinic, though. After about three hours of chemo, when they started on the second drug of the day, Misty's mom's hart rate fell to 80/40. They put her in an ambulance and rushed her over to UAB. Apparently (as I learned later), they were worried she might not make it through. Misty got the call at home, and a nurse told her that they thought her mom either had a blood clot or an allergic reaction to the second drug. Misty hurried out to the hospital where she and Aunt Wanda sat until late Thursday night. The episode tuned out to be an allergic reation to the medicine, so the doctor still needs to decide how to proceed with the chemo. At least, though, they determined that Misty's mom was fit enough to go home.

All this time, Misty is still sick. The antibiotics didn't seem to be helping at all. Friday morning, feeling even worse, she finally went to see her ObGyn. The doctor told her they wanted to go ahead an admit her to the hospital and that she should go home and pack some clothes and plan on staying a couple nights. Misty called me at work with the news, so I headed home to join her. Since Aunt Wanda was headed back to Cullman, Emily and Misty's mom rode up there with her to stay the weekend -- that was maybe the one lucky thing to happen in all this mess, having a convenient alternative available for someone to watch Emily.

I drove Misty back to St. Vincent's where she was hooked up to an IV for fluids and antibiotics. They also monitored the baby every few hours, but thankfully, there was never any problem with her. They checked Misty for strep, pneumonia, and all other sorts of things, but never really came to a concrete answer as to what was making her sick. Based on Misty's white blood cell counts, the doctor believes she had had a virus that later developed into a bacterial infection. She's suppsedly improving (according to her blood work) but you wouldn't know it outwardly. The doctor told Misty that she shouldn't go back to work this week, and she shouldn't do any housework or grocery shopping or the like, otherwise she'll end up back in the hospital. After just over 48 hours at the hospital, we finally got to come home yesterday afternoon.

I'm staying home with Misty today to keep an eye on her. Later on I'll go pick up Emily, who has apparently had a great time at her three-day pajama party. Trion & Stacy brought Paige by Aunt Wanda's house Friday evening and Emily got to hold her. I wish I could have seen that, but I guess I'll get another chance when her baby sister is born in March.

Two proposals in one night

Emily asked Misty to marry her tonight. Misty was flattered and accepted.

When I told Emily that she'd need to marry a boy instead, she said, "OK, I pick you."

You don't need no readin', anyway

I mentioned that earlier today Emily and I ran some errands. We had planned to go to Bruno's, the post office, the library, and Sam's. However, when I realized that the books I wanted to return were in Misty's car, I scratched the library off my list. Emily was having none of that.

As we exited Sam's and walked into the parking lot she cheered, "now library!"

"No, I was wrong," I told her. "We don't need to go to the library today."

Emily looked crestfallen. "But Daddy, you told me," she said.

Ugh. So now, since I'd just bought two gallons of milk and I know full well how long a trip there takes with her, I had to be a bad parent and deny my child her desire to go to the library.

We got over it, though. The day progressed as usual and Emily took a nap when we got home.

Later this evening, I called my parents and let Emily talk to them for a bit. When my mom asked about her day, the first thing out of her mouth was, "Daddy say we go to library, but we not go."

I guess she isn't going to let me off the hook so easily.

The precious

Emily has taken a keen interest in my wedding ring lately. She keeps asking me to take it off and let her wear it. The first couple times, I humored her, but then I started turning down her requests because I really don't like to take my ring off, and there's no telling what'll happen to it when it's in her grasp.

This afternoon, she and I were returning home from running errands, when she asked me what was in my hand. I held out my hand and showed her that nothing was there.

"No, your other hand," she said.

I held up my left hand to show that, here too, I wasn't concealing anything.

"What's that on your finger?" Emily asked. Ah ha -- now I saw where this was going.

"What? My ring?" I replied.

"Yes," Emily said. "Why you wear that?"

"This ring means that I'm married to Mommy," I told her.

Emily didn't seem to understand and gave me a quizzical look.

"It means that I love Mommy very much," I explained.

"Oh," said Emily. "Me too."

I fully expected her to next tell me that she needed a ring too, but she left it at that.

What I'll be doing during the pajama party

On the way to school this morning, Emily and I were discussing her plans for the evening. She's spending the night at Misty's mother's house for a "pajama party." Party guests include Emily, her grandmother (Mimi), and her great aunt (Nana). Emily told me that I couldn't come because I was a boy and the party was going to be only girls. I feigned my disappointment.

Emily said to me: "Don't be sad, Daddy. You stay home and play Lego Star Wars. And you can whip Darth Vader. And you can watch the movie. And Darth Vader gonna be in it. And you'll be scared. And Mommy will hold you tight."

Aquarium pictures

I've posted several new photos on Flickr from our trip to the Tennessee Aquarium this weekend.

The hair stylings of Gwen Stefani

Gwen Stefani's new CD is awful. Misty bought it the day it came out, listened to it a few times, and promptly sold it on half.com. She tried to get into it, but, as she put it, "it just sounds too much like Gwen's trying to be a teenager."

Unfortunately, Emily is infatuated with the album, so we had to rip a few of the tracks to MP3 before selling the disc. In particular, she likes the second song, "The Sweet Escape," which has a lot of "woo-oo... wee-oo" in it. She says that the song is about a hair dryer.