Detailing Life

In recent times Phill has been working more and more at the hospital. Returned are the days of being a fellow when he'd leave before I'd wake and return after I had fallen asleep. There are various reasons for this with just one being that the neonatal intensive care unit is incredibly full and busy. The other reasons are complicated and unnecessary to relate. As this is the kids' blog, which I hope they read one day, I wanted to preserve the time that Daddy couldn't do nearly as much with them as he'd like.

The days and nights are mine to fill with activities. For most of the summer, that has consisted of visiting the pool, eating dinner there, showering there, and then falling into bed with a request to have "Daddy give me a kiss when he gets home". We've not visited half of what there is to do here in NOLA, much of that due to me only having so many hands. With the 90 degree days with smothering humidity, the zoo has been mostly off limits. We seem to have a curse over us regarding City Park's Storyland Amusement Park; rain clouds shed their contents whenever we are near.

Our neighbor's granddaugthers visited this past week, allowing both Inwe and Larien to have two vibrant children as play companions. I'm pretty sure that the doors have been opened and closed more times these past five days than they have in our entire time in New Orleans. The girls like each other so much that a few nights we had to forcibly put them in their separate houses. I should add that taking all of them to the pool certainly made being a mom at the pool easier. My presence wasn't required for entertainment. That didn't mean I kept out of the water, though. I just didn't play with them as I wasn't invited.

Just a few houses away are three children that are the same ages as my kids. The other, older neighbors on the street confess that they like hearing children yelling to each other as they run along the sidewalk to play with their friends. The other mom and I attempt to keep them quiet, but our efforts usually are thwarted by six children being children.

I volunteered to take the eldest child, a girl of 6, to the pool with us. Her mom, Em, asked if Finwe wanted to play with her boys, ages 4 and nearly 3. Before I could answer, Finwe said he would and followed Em to her house. Before he turned into their gate he spun to face me, both index fingers pointed at me. "You be good now."

OK, Finwe. I will. I'll be good about blogging so that your Dad can open up this site at night or at work while he's waiting on a lab result before feeing confident about coming home. He can read my words about how you told me to be good just before I would have told you the same thing. I will make sure that he knows how inviting and polite his daughters have been to others lately, perhaps finally learning that exclusion isn't the best way, that life isn't boring simply because you cannot set the artificial Christmas tree in your sister's room so it can be decorated. Maybe he'll like hearing that his kids don't mind the heat and know when to call it a day at the pool. So while Inwe perfects her artistic skills, and Larien sits happily beside me to complete two reading lessons after begging to read one of the books on our favorite reading website (www.starfall.com), and while Finwe discovers how to calm himself after massive frustration, Phill can know that his kids are growing and doing well this summer.