A Good Day

Today was a good day. A holiday: Martin Luther King, Jr. day. To top it off, the sun was shining and temperatures were nearly 20 degrees. There were light snow flurries all day long with huge snowflakes drifting down. It was as if we were in a snow globe. As Gracie and I ventured out to run some errands we could actually feel the warmth of the sun on our skin.

As we headed to one of our destinations the “I Have a Dream” speech came on the radio. Even more then usual, it gave me chills. The promissory note is finally about to pay some dividends, a change is in the wind. I felt happy, happy, happy.

And judging from the smiles my little errand companion and I received it seemed as if the whole city was on the same wavelength. People were looking me directly in the eye and smiling at me. And they weren’t just generic smiles. Everyone who smiled at me gave me that smile that seems to indicate that we have a shared reason to be happy. They smiled at me like we were both in on a delightful secret.

How could it be, I wondered, that everyone was in the same happy place as me? What kind of delightful synchronicity was taking place?

Then I looked down and I remembered.

It was a warm day, and I wasn’t going to begin to venture a wardrobe confrontation. So this is who was at my side all day. And this was what gave us all something extra to smile about.

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The Ultimate in Avoidance Behavior....or....

WHAT WAS I THINKING?!?!?!?!?

I just heard a quote on the radio today. I think from F. Scott Fitzgerald: "You don’t take a trip, a trip takes you. "

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I can relate.

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Our upstairs bathroom, circa 1970 is small but has all the necessary ingredients: sink, toilet and shower/tub. The tub surround is some sort of rumpley vinyl paneling. Poor ventilation combined with my lackadaisical commitment to housework resulted in a rather unsightly caulk situation.

This summer we (Gordon and my dad) installed a powerful ceiling fan which rectified the ventilation problem. Then as if destiny was tapping me on the shoulder, I read an article in “Handyman Magazine” touting a new product: caulk softener. I was promised that one application of this miracle solvent would reduce the caulk to butter making it easily removable. Since we have another shower, I decided that I would decommission the upstairs tub and embark on a caulk removal project. I had visions of a fresh, sparkly, white bathing experience.

All this happened in between the scabies adventure and the as yet unforeseen herniated disk situation.

Armed with the miracle caulk softener and the best of intentions I went to work. The caulk softener worked…not at all. Plus I realized that the vinyl surround was not actually white anymore, but slightly yellow with numerous unsightly cracks. So, there I stood in the middle of the tub, surrounded by chunks of caulk, losing my will power.

In a subsequent conversation with my dad, the subject of tiling came up and shortly after that someone uttered the fateful phrase: “How hard can it be?” And to me, it sounded like a great alternative to caulk removal.

And so it came to pass that when my brother (a veteran tiler) came up for Christmas a decision was made that the ugly vinyl should be tiled over. Under the tree, a gift from my brother: his old tile cutter along with stern warnings to always wear safety glasses and never take my eyes off my fingers while the blade was running.

At first the plan was to rough up the old vinyl surface and tile over that. But my fear that all substances more then five years old contain asbestos and the fact that the drywall under the vinyl seemed a bit spongy meant we needed to move to Plan B: remove the vinyl, seal the drywall if necessary and tile.

Dad and bro removed the vinyl to reveal another wrinkle: the drywall beneath was significantly mildewed and water-stained. So the executive committee determined that I should remove the drywall.

Now my project was entering the realm of the ridiculous especially since “I” had not actually done any of the work to this point.

Fortunately, as word of my quandary leaked out to the neighborhood (read: I complained to anyone who would listen), I received a recommendation for a handyman. This wonderful person has very reasonable rates and is willing to indulge the homeowner by letting him or her “help”.

So after an initial consult, the project was once again a go. I learned that “demo” is what we call demolition. I volunteered to get the demo started. I was assigned the back wall which was not connected to any wallpaper or plumbing. A friend came over to help, and since there is really only room for one person in the tub area and she is taller than me, I still had very little ownership in the project. But all that changed when our Handyman let me drive a couple screws into reinforcing studs using a really cool tool called an “impact drill.” I am now officially “on the job!”

Throughout much of this, Danny has been watching with rapt attention. I am relatively certain that if he gets his hands on an impact drill, we will have numerous screws driven into our upstairs walls all at about the two foot level.

So, now you are officially on the trip with me. I’ll keep you posted – we’ll see where it takes us.

And now a few Danny Facts:

• He can sign: diaper change; more; eat; sleep; and done. (There are two signs for done, actually: one approved by ASL and the other consisting of hurling food and cutlery.)


• He can say “Bye-bye”; diaper: “Bia-puh” and Mmm-mmm which either means – “Nope, not gonna do it” or “yum, this is delicious.”


• Danny is the youngest of our three to consistently “cough and cover”. However, his cover consists of jamming his fist into his mouth while coughing and then applauding his excellent hygiene by clapping with his drooly hands. Still, I’m impressed.

Here are a few pictures of some joyful moments of playtime at our house during our week in the deep-freeze during which we stayed below zero degrees for four days in a row.

Waiting to inflate the "bouncy room" ...head, shoulders, knees and toes...

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Eyes and ears and a mouth and a nose...

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Gracie wears her Clifford costume under her snake costume

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There are no words for this!

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A heartwarming brother/sister moment

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How all photo shoots end: Danny wants, make that needs the camera!

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming:

I’ve been away for a while. Things have been happening that would be complaints if I didn’t feel lucky to be dealing with all of it together as a family.

I had great blogging plans. I wanted to talk about Josh around the anniversary of his death on December 13. I wanted to capture all of our holiday celebrations. I had great shots of Danny on his first Christmas at home. I had many thoughts on the New Year and even a foray into the world of reality TV.

But life got in the way.

Danny flunked his hearing test about five weeks ago due to fluid filled ears. A subsequent visit to the doctor revealed an ear infection. No sooner was the last dose of amoxicillin administered then we learned that Gordon’s persistent leg pain was due to a herniated disk. He had surgery three weeks ago. Recovery meant not lifting anything heavier then a milk carton. This includes: kids, trash, the vacuum, snow among other things.

It was during this time that Gracie had a major relapse in potty training. She couldn’t be bothered. One night I noticed she was soaked while she was doing some coloring. I asked her where the puddle was. Without looking up or pausing in her work she said: “It’s around the corner, you’ll see it.”

Just as the dust began to settle, I noticed a small white bump behind one of Danny’s front baby teeth. The next day it was bigger and I thought it was a tooth coming in wrong. Our regular dentist probed it and it was soft, not a tooth. But while he hadn’t seen anything like it, he wasn’t worried. Both our pediatrician and I decided we should take Danny to a pediatric dentist. We saw fabulous Dr. Dan with the giant plastic toy teeth today. He diagnosed a congenital abnormality of the hard gum tissue. He agreed this was nothing to worry about. It will probably go away when his adult teeth come in. In the meantime we’ve found a great new dentist for the kids. We also learned that every tooth that could be coming in was coming in simultaneously.

Poor kid.

But Gordon’s now been upgraded to 20 pounds; Gracie is back in the proverbial saddle and I’ve stopped prying Danny’s mouth open every 20 minutes so I feel we’re back on track.Rather then trying to catch up on the back log, I’m going to start from where we are right now. Here are a few pictures from the first couple weeks of ’09.

The first day of 2009 - Happy New Year!

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Our New Year's Visitor: An albino squirrel

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Building a "Camp Fire"

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A morning ritual: Danny climbes into Gracie's bed and wakes her up. This is the happy result about 25% of the time. On the other 75%, Gracie burrows deeper under the covers and yells: "Take Danny away!"

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What else are you going to do when the temperature is 15 below zero?

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Some indoor fun. First carousel ride - not too sure!

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One of my knitting projects. It's big because I'm making a matching one with a blue background for Danny for next year.

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Gracie, Danny and "Big Bow-wow" enjoying Gracie's prize for FINALLY being completely potty trained!!

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The boy loves his baths! If you look closely, you can see the white bump behind the lower tooth on the right side of the photo.