So about those good days I mentioned…here are a few photos Grandma Lynn took during our time at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. We had a fantastic day with Grandma and Papa! We’ve been to the Garden before for the Holiday Train Show, so it was a treat to see everything in bloom.
Several of Run Fox Run’s regular readers (!) looked over the last photo album and asked the question, “Where’s Cleo?” The answer is that she was feeling a bit under the weather during many of the featured activities. Since Labor Day, she’s had more days feeling down than up — though she did have some up days, and Grandma Lynn took a few pictures to prove it. In 2 weeks she visited her pediatrician 3 times and received 3 different diagnoses for what was causing her symptoms and general malaise. And last Tuesday, her worried Mom had started to worry enough that she took her feverish, shaking daughter to the ER.
Here’s what I thought would happen: (1) the doctors would be a bit skeptical, and say, Lady, this kid’s fine. Take her home and don’t be stingy with the Motrin. Or, possibly, (2) they would administer a bit of medicine themselves, and send us home after a few hours. At the ER I always suspect there’s a standard 3 hours per patient and they make that work more often than not. Either way, I figured they’d chalk me up as one more paranoid, overprotective mom.
Gentle readers, I was wrong. Cleo endured a variety of tests — blood work, urinalysis (which, if you’re 17 months old and not so much with the peeing in cups, involves a Kubrickian catheterization), a chest X-ray — and late Tuesday evening the ER doc and her pediatrician decided that she’d have to stay overnight. She got a mighty antibiotic, and IV fluids, but her fever kept spiking. It should be noted that I did not feel especially vindicated for having brought her to the ER. The professionals decided that she had a bacterial infection on top of a virus, and she hadn’t been able to fight it without help. We stayed three nights before at last, she went 24 hours without a fever, and started to want to eat and play again. By our last day she looked like this:
The pediatric wing was quite nice — Cleo and I had a room to share, and down the hall was an amazingly well-stocked playroom with a patio to play on. Cleo made friends with an energetic boy named Henry who liked trains. She charmed all the nurses and techs as we walked the hallways with her IV pole. In our absence, Leda had a delightful time with Daddy, Jack, Charlotte, Erica, and other friends. All the same, we’re both quite glad to be home.
For whatever reason, you’ll find a lot of ponies and plentiful jazz hands in the first September 2008 album. There were also some Rancho Carne spirit fingers, but those are less clearly captured on film. But then Leda is rarely as still as she appears above, at the local farmer’s market. Two weeks into September: everybody’s back to school; we’ve hung out at the beach and at the Botanical Garden; and — as you’ll see — ridden our fair share of ponies. More to come…
Photos up now from a super sweet weekend: a family shore day; a trip to Fosterfields farm with pals Sophia and Olivia; time at the pool with Charlotte and Jeremy; a farmer’s market trip; and of course a localized outbreak of Olympic Fever. Check out the creatively named Beach Farm Weekend album and hum a little Spinal Tap with us.
Among the many things I admire about Jamie’s mom is her cleverness. When Jamie announced that he wanted a Ratatouille party for his 4th birthday, she could’ve shelled out for Pixar-sanctioned Remy-ness: Remy plates, Remy napkins, Remy cake, Remy balloons, a pin-the-tail on the Remy game. But Cate cleverly granted Jamie’s wish by dressing him and his young guests as chefs, and letting them prepare their own pizzas, mix fruit salads to their own specifications, and frost and decorate their own cupcakes. There wasn’t a corporate rat in sight. And the critics, like Anton Ego, were ultimately satisfied. Above, Charlotte, Jamie, Jack and Leda dig in for some homemade pink frosting. Many more photos document the big event in the Jamie Turns 4 album.
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