Howdy,
And Happy Valentine’s Day to you!
It’s another whirlwind day for us.
This morning Jasper went off to school with a bag of crafted Valentine’s treats for classmates and their class party. (And came back with an even BIGGER bag of sweet trinkets.)
SCORE!
The boys are at AWANA’s now — at least the older two as Riah’s getting some G.G. time, and Sarah works until after 9:00 P.M. on Tuesdays right now, so we won’t see her until later.
If she were home sooner, it seems this year would’ve been a family Valentine’s holiday. Have you heard the Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods Market commercial that says something like “This Valentine’s Day celebration a family affair …?” [And there are kids talking and making noise in the background and maybe an infant crying — or that could’ve been our kid; I’ve only heard the commercial once.] “Then buy such and such for dinner while picking up your dozen roses …” [Maybe it was mac and cheese.] “And grab a bottle of wine for after the kids go to bed …”
The grocery store thinks they’ve got it all figured out, got you covered, and, I must admit, it caught my attention and felt like they nailed the Valentine’s of a family with young kids. Definitely seemed they captured a universal, which, actually, made me feel quite a bit better about it.
Anyway, a really romantic part of my day …? Rushing Riah’s stool and urine samples up to Modesto through rush hour traffic. Can’t have those poop samples sitting on the shelf too long. It’s a two-hour time limit on some. Glad to have that done and turned in: five collections with four types for stool and the urine. (Collected that one on the way to the hospital and just really hoped he’d comply, which he did. So I was at the hospital medical lab with three kids pulling a pee sample out of an infants diaper — and it just so happened that I had Riah laying on the exact same table that they had him on when they drew blood for testing about 10 days ago. We’re checking into why he had diarrhea for over two weeks … I didn’t link back to those posts; you didn’t want that, right?)
(Also, I would make fun of the term “stool” as a euphemism but it’s a technical, medical word, so there wasn’t much to work with on that. Definition: STOOL — Noun 2, a piece of feces.)
I wouldn’t be talking so much about poop, but in my defense I did spend the afternoon Saran wrapping diapers to collect specimens free of an diaper fibers, and it took a few tries.
Also, diapers wrapped in plastic for poop aren’t very absorbent, so it was leaking waterworks all over when the boy decided to first start with Number One when I needed Number Two. That happened a couple times.
Good times. Good times.
Did I mention I’m just glad to have handed that specimen project over to lab?
A celebration.
Also a celebration, Riah — and Jasper and Titus too — has been feeling better, which is such a relief and worth rejoicing. Having everyone healthy is a Happy Valentine’s Day in itself.
—Billy
Reading. Writing. Living.
Word Count: 66,265 / On Pace: 66,550 / Year’s Goal: 200,000
Please subscribe to mailing list for the Reading Writing Living journey we’re on and get my newsletter goods. Thank you.