A Day with Grandma

On Sunday Vivian and I left Jo and Evan to their viruses and went to visit Grandma. The trip was ostensibly to rescue Abe (the small brained cat), but more about that later.

It was a beautiful warm sunny day in the hill country after a rainy gloomy start. We decided to go walk the dam - a favorite past time of the denizens of Canyon Lake - and a particularly favorite one on that lovely morning. Among the many folks and animals crowded on top of the dam, there was a couple who struck up a conversation with Vivian. On the way back we ran into them again and I took a picture. Proof that this sort of thing happen doesn't just happen to Vivian in India.

Later that afternoon Vivian helped Grandma clean the pool and I chopped firewood for the impending freezing weather. Here's a picture of Abe laying on the playscape close to where I was chopping wood.

Recall that about a month ago we had banished Abe to Grandma's. He was to be an outside cat there, along with dear Milie, Carrol's devil cat. Apparently Abe is smarter than he looks. A couple of days back I got a call from the pet recovery service that services the chip under the skin of Abe's neck. Turns out that Abe had taken refuge in the back porch of Carrol's generous neighbor who then took Abe to the vet who then discovered that he was chipped. So on Sunday morning I went to pick Abe up from the back porch of said neighbor.

Bless his heart - the poor cat jumped into my arms when he saw me. I returned to Carrol's with a loudly purring cat in my arms. I fed him his favorite flavor of Science Diet in his favorite food bowl and set up a blanket and a box for him in the screened porch. During the day he strayed here and there but returned several times to hang out.

A side story - when I carried Abe back to Carrol's my black sweater was covered in cat hair.

Vivian asked me: "Daddy is that cat hair?"
I replied "No - it's elephant hair"
Carrol interjected: "Vivian - is your dad funny?"
Vivian replied: "No Grandma, my daddy is sarcastic"

Flu and Back

Poor Evan caught the flu. After getting poked twice with flu shots. Or because of that - as one of our anti-vaccine friends said. 

It all started on Wednesday. Jo and Vivian went to San Antonio. After dinner I got Evan dressed in his pjs and went over to say hello to Gunaraj and Rajeeta. Evan enjoyed looking at art. But you can see a hint of droopiness in his eyes.

Thursday's bath in the kitchen sink helped him feel better. But he quickly established two things: that he's male, and that's he's his daddy's son - he whines like a champ when he's sick.

After two trips to the doctor and five days of fever, he finally kicked it this afternoon. But when he was sick he was in one of three states: pitiful whining, asleep, or on the boob. He stopped eating solid food - which he had been devouring up till now. But he nursed so often that when he was weighed at the doctor's on Friday and then again today, we noticed that he had actually put on weight.

Vivian was a terrific sister. She played quietly while Evan slept (though not without many frequent shusshes from us). And cheered Evan when he was awake - even at his grumpiest, Evan cracked a weak smile at the sight of Vivian.

This afternoon when Evan awoke from his nap it was as if someone had thrown a switch. He was finally his old self again. He jumped on Vivian, ate a bowl of pasta, and chatted away.

Nice to have you back old chap.

Saturday Morning

The girls went to Presley's birthday party this morning leaving Evan and me to ourselves. We couldn't walk to the Draught Horse via the park as it was raining and generally yucky outside. So we rode Rody and played on the "gym" and practiced Evan's latest pet trick - clapping his hands.

Fo lunch he ate a full bowl of tortellini and olive oil (earlier this week he fully and completely rejected baby food - he'll only touch stuff that we eat) and a quarter of a pear and fell into a food coma on my shoulder.

Yesterday he tentatively tried to smack his hands together (I clap my hands when I call him - specially when he crawls towards me like an excited puppy). This morning he clapped several times when I clapped and we showed our new trick to mommy. By late morning he was clapping in response to me saying the word "clap". And by afternoon he gave himself a huge and very enthusiastic round of applause every time he slobbered over Jo's arm or neck.

If all else fails, he'd make a great professional applause artist.

Curly

It's what you'd expect. Vivian's hair is so straight that she wants curly wavy hair. On Wednesday after swim class and shower, Jo put many tight braids into Vivian's hair. She kept it like that for a day and then, viola - for a few hours she had curly hair.