Saturday Morning Post (and Post Saturday Morning Post)

Post-Saturday Morning Post
On Saturday morning I had a post ready to publish, but on Saturday morning our plans for the weekend started to change.
At 9:00 a.m. we made a trip to Urgent Care. The Dr. thought croup, and we were put in a "wait and see" pattern, watching for increased symptoms (fast, labored breathing).
We had the symptoms by lunch time and were back in for a shot that would take 6+ hours to take effect.
We came home, and Radley took a long nap. When he got up we thought the situation had worsened but felt like paranoid parents. Urgent Care was about to close, so we took the Bud to the ER.
We quickly found out it was not just paranoia - we were whisked back directly and seen by doctors and respiratory therapists.
From the ER Radley was admitted to the hospital around 9 p.m. - that 12 hours was a blur. The concern was his low oxygen saturation level and labored breathing.
After two nights in the hospital with the Bud, we are now home and he is doing much better. The conclusion seems to be that whatever he had a month ago weakened his lungs, and made him susceptible to whatever triggered this viral "lung thingy" (that's the technical term). It may be that he caught what I had a bit ago, it just hit him far harder.

He did a super job dealing with everything during all of our hospital "fun" - even with oxygen "prongs" up his nose and other annoying stuff.
He loved the hospital TV channel with classical music and continuous nature video footage - especially when there were animals.
Here he is saying "cheese" to the camera.



Saturday Morning Post
(Here's what was ready to post on Saturday Morning - before the "fun" started)
I feel as if it has been ages since my last blog post.
Time is surging forward - it's almost the end of the school year.
One thing about being a media specialist rather than a classroom teacher, the very last days are so much calmer. I can actually get to some work that I am hardly able to think about during the rest of the year, like weeding.

Weeding (aka getting rid of books from a library) is such an interesting thing. Non-library folk don't really realize just how important weeding is. I think what you don't have on the shelf is almost as important as what you do. However books carry with them such an emotional weight. Whenever I do weeding I have to do a lot of education as to why it is important. When people hear you are "throwing away" books, they get a little agitated.
Well... if they want the 20 year old books on "space travel today" with the last chapter about the what the future will be, they can hang onto them for historical value. We'll use the space for something a little more current and useful.
(If you have had an emotional reaction reading about weeding, don't worry, I do my best to help weeded books find a new life after the library)

Since I have become a librarian I have become far better at weeding my own collection at home more objectively. We have allowed many books in the past few years to leave us an find new homes. I have also been far better with how many books I purchase. I am a good library user, and I live vicariously through my purchases for work. We are far from book free around here, however. I have so many that I just cannot part with, and I have a small collection of children's books and first editions - which I geekily put dust jacket covers on.

Simmy got me thinking about some of my favorites with a semi-recent post of hers on children's books.


The Temper Tantrum Book is one I remember checking out from the local library many times as a kid. I am sure Mom wanted it to influence my behavior. I really identified with the page of the Mom lion brushing the young lion's fur. I was always getting snarls in my hair, and I would scream in pain when they were brushed out.



I also loved the Francis books by Russell Hoban.
Bread and Jam for Francis was my favorite. Perhaps a little didactic about trying new foods, but I love how she makes up little songs for everything.
Here she is skipping rope. Singing about all the bread and jam she has been eating.

"Jam for snacks and
Jam for meals
I know how a jam jar feels
full... of... JAM!"


When I was in 3rd grade my teacher Mrs. Carter was reading aloud a book to the class. She would read a portion of it each day before lunch. I ended up only being able to hear the first half of the book. I kept thinking about that book, and later tried to remember what it was and look for it. It took me years. When I was 28 I saw The Silver Crown by Robert C. O'Brien in a bookstore - instantly I knew I had found it. As I re-read it, I remembered so many details. I could even tell where it was that I had stopped hearing the story in 3rd grade! Amazing.



The latest book I have purchased for myself for pleasure is The Invention of Hugo Cabret.

It is a brilliant book told through images and prose. It's about a
boy who finds an elaborate, mechanical, wind-up figure (an automaton), it is damaged, and as he works on fixing it he also figures out more of the mystery surrounding it.
It is beautiful and unique, and it is going to need a dust jacket cover!


That's enough book talk...
As for the Budlet, he has been very into copying things lately. Yesterday when I was there to pick him up from Kathleen's after work. His buddy A. tripped and did a slow motion fall ending with a head bonk. No tears, but he had a stunned look that needed a hug from Kathleen. After watching what happened, Radley laid down on the ground where A. had been, bonked his own head as a reenactment, got up and gave Kathleen a hug. What a goon!

Here is a pic from the 19 month photo shoot.

Trying to stage a photo with him is exhausting - I wanted to take a nap after this shoot was over. But it is worth it to see them all together. I will have to update the "Growing" video again soon.

As for yarn...
I have stalled on the Lorna's Laces (aka camouflage) socks for now. I have been distracted by some luxurious cashmere. I was inspired by the Purl Bee.


In other news...
We have a large yard, and we can't seem to keep all of it under control at the same time. But I am pretty proud right now of the part I refer to as "my" garden (there are other garden areas around the yard I don't usually refer to as "mine") . I am excited about a few new things coming up:
Irises transplanted last fall from Mom's (which originally came from Grandma's), are starting to bloom.


I have been waiting three years for two transplanted peony plants (from Mom again) to start blooming. They are ready to burst open any day now. I think I will have three different colors of peony this year!


I have yet to plant tomatoes. Perhaps this weekend.


...With all the "fun" we ended up having, I guess tomato planting will have to wait at least one more weekend.

It was a difficult end to last week. My grandmother died late last Thursday night. She was my last remaining grandparent. It would have been her 84th birthday on Sunday (Mother's Day).
She was a incredible speller (I did not inherit this trait) and made amazing pancakes as thin as crepes. I have tried for years to make them like her, but they just are not the same.
When I was young I would spend a week with my grandparents during the summer. I have many memories of summer mornings at the kitchen table (not the dining room table) eating pancakes off of grandma's pastel Melmac plates. It was one of the rare times that it was just the three of us together. Most other times there were always cousins, aunts and uncles. But those mornings were just for us.

This week I will be spending time with family and saying goodbye.

One hot kid!

What's up with the Bud:
Last week started with lots of snot and coughing, but seemed to resolve itself near the end of the week.
One of his new favorite outdoor activities is picking dandelions. Here's the budlet on Thursday.

Friday night he started getting a fever. We didn't think too much about it, gave him some Tylenol and went to bed. Sat. morning more Tylenol... but after his afternoon nap he was burning up (103 underarm temp), so we went to Urgent Care.
6 hours later we were home. During that time, his temp went up a little and Urgent Care was closing for the evening so we finished up at the ER with a number of tests to determine the cause.
The only thing they could find after poking and prodding was what looked like a urinary tract infection.
He was a so agreeable - even when feeling sick. But at the end - after 3 rectal temps, 2 catheter "inserts", and blood taken, he was saying "no" to whatever he could. Poor kid.
This was the first time we had been with him to the ER - there was a concierge for the waiting room! She was very nice and even gave the Bud a handmade finger puppet to amuse him. What a great, easy idea to make and donate to hospitals.

The good news is that he seems back to his normal self today - ready to go out and pick some dandelions, if it weren't so windy and wet outside.

Today's Concert:
This afternoon was my spring concert for RSE. It finally worked out to have Sara play with us. Here we are in the lobby beforehand.

In the past the Budlet needed to leave and walk around during the concert, but today he sat enthralled on Grandpa's lap the WHOLE time. It was an hour and a half with a short intermission. I was floored. Grandma Sharlene said his favorite piece was the Handel and thought the Britten was just o.k. Hmmm.
It got me thinking about what concerts we might go to this summer. I think the MN orchestra has a kids series - I will have to look into that. Sara said she would join us. Yeah for fun summer plans!

Yarn News:
Thanks to Magnusmog for filling me in on the official name of my Scottish stirring stick: a Spurtle. I have learned so much now that I have been able to look it up by its proper name - there is even a Golden Spurtle Award for porridge making.
I used it again this weekend - not for porridge, but for yarn ball winding.
I dyed some more yarn using orange and yellow. I went from natural to yellow to yellow-orange to orange.

I am still working on my camouflage socks - sorry no photo update.
They seem to be coming along more slowly, perhaps because I am working on them both at the same time.

Blogiversary
I realized last week that I missed my blogiversary. I started this thing last year on April 20. It is hard to believe a year has gone so fast.
I read recently on a lovely blog called the Happiness Project - that the days are long but the years are short. Grandma Sharlene added to that the other day by saying that often the days aren't even that long!
Too true.

Final Picture:
I couldn't resist. Here's the Bud first thing in the morning after going to bed with his hair wet.