A pain worse than labor

Spent last night in the ER with Kidney Stone II. KS I was five years ago. Having it removed Monday as it's on the larger size -- 5mm. The urologist has the personality of a ...well, actually he has absolutely no personality and acted superior and rude to boot. Even Jesse thought he was an ass. If it had not been a Friday afternoon and if I didn't need this damn thing out ASAP I would have told him where to shove it and found another urologist. At this point, the best I can do is insist on seeing one of his partners for follow-up. According to the pre-op nurse they are much nicer individuals. Also, she told me this doctor is rude but highly competent at removing stones.

As to Patrick -- he was a trooper as Mommy and Daddy removed him from his warm bed to get into a cold car at 2 am and go to the hospital where Mommy screamed for what seemed like forever until she got the happy meds.

Ketchup (stole that title from friend, Jessica G.)

The first half of November was a productive, busy time at work -- vestry meetings at both churches, the wrapping up of the class I led on Marcus Borg's Reading the Bible Again for the First Time, and an incredible trip to the National Cathedral to hear Desmond Tutu. All people -- Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, etc. need to heed the words of this man. What a prophet.

After all that we traveled up to RI to visit the Gates family for Thanksgiving and spend a little time in southern New England. We went to Plymouth and toured the Mayflower II, saw the rock, etc. That's when things got bad. It was great seeing our friends and I got to baptize Paige but Patrick got sick, wouldn't sleep in his pack n play and slept with us all the while coughing on us. So, we got sick, the whole Gates family got sick, and while I thought I was getting better, I fell vulnerable to another bug. I could really deal without the daycare specials here.

I'll get some recent pictures up soon.

Turtle

Patrick will be a turtle for Halloween. We had our first run in his costume at Auntie Wendy's pumpkin carving on Saturday and will go trick or treat at the houses of a few friends Wednesday night. He LOVES our staircase and is quite good at climbing the stairs with our close supervision (Jesse was right behind him in this picture but this little turtle is fast.

Feeding Piggy

I have not posted much about Piggy, Percy Piggy to be exact. He is Patrick's best, best friend. Piggy came into Patrick's life his first day in daycare (beginning of August) and has been faithful ever since. Piggy is Patrick's first stuffed animal (or at least the first one with which Patrick has had an attachment) and some of you may remember that Patrick was a little piggy his first Halloween and one of his several nicknames is Little Patrick Piggy (sometimes Little Patrick Piggy Bear -- I know, too much!). Piggy was a constant comfort while Patrick was in the hospital and he has been a special friend while going to sleep and in daycare.

Patrick loves to put Piggy in his highchair. I guess he wants to feed Piggy.

Fall pics

I have been out of town for the greater part of the last 3 weeks on business and a family funeral. Patrick and I went up to New Hampshire for a cousin's funeral. Happy babies can make everyone around them feel a lot better about a bad situation and Patrick rose to the occasion, including blowing raspberries as the pall bearers brought the coffin into the church. Later he managed to grab a font of holy water and tip it over spilling the blessed water all over the floor -- typical PK (priest's kid).

Blogger is having trouble uploading all the pics I wanted to post but here is one:





We took Patrick to a real pumpkin patch where we chose pumpkins right off the vine. He had a good time but the sun was bright and he wouldn't look up. This was his first ride in a wagon. He wanted to get out and walk but he did pretty well. Bright sun that day.

New Day Care

As of almost two weeks ago, Patrick is in a new day care. See Patrick's Expulsion from School for the beginnings of why. We were all home for almost two weeks sick, sick, sick and that gave me some time to think and realize there was no way I could send him back to Children of America. So I discovered another day care in the area, visited and loved it (will not mention the name of that day care for reasons of privacy but I would love to cast a legitimate shadow on CofA). The new, wonderful, warm, loving place is truly all those things. The first day I took Patrick in to visit I noticed such a difference in how he reacted to the people and surroundings. Watching him, I realized he was scared and overwhelmed at the CofA (and there was a lot of tension there from the director who worked against her teachers as I later discovered).

I also found out from employees of the new day care that many of the things I had experienced at CofA were against state regulations. So, of course, I reported their ass. Got a call from an inspector to whom I told my story and she uncovered even more violations. I am so glad we aren't there anymore.

Now, to get back on my soapbox about supercapitalism and outsourcing: turns out this particular CofA is owned by foreign investors. Great, so there's not a friggn' bit of accountability and they really have no idea who they are hiring to direct the center or teach in it. Lovely!

I'm walkin' yes indeed and I'm talkin

Patrick took his first real steps this week. He had taken a step here and there but now he can walk 10 or 15 feet at a time when he wants to. He also says doggie, book, baba (maybe) in relation to those things in addition to mama and dada. I thought he might have said piggy last night but wasn't sure. Takes some interpretation sometimes!