Friday, October 14, 2005

Belly belly button, you're oh so fine/ Belly belly button, I'm so happy you're mine - Sandra Boynton

The good news is that the doctors are “almost 100%” sure that Dan’s colleague has viral rather than bacterial meningitis. My pediatrician explained that viral meningitis of the type that is most common is actually fairly benign and leaves you just feeling flu-ey for a week or so, headache, chills, etc. Bacterial, while much more serious, is also much more rare. Also, since Dan’s contact with his colleague is “casual” – meaning no diaper changing duties or utensil sharing – we’re pretty much in the clear. So thanks for all your thoughts, looks like we’re ok.

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Last night Dan called me into the baby’s room to look at his (James’, not Dan’s) belly button (my marital obligations only go so far…). It was the weirdest thing I’ve seen in ages – while he screamed, it extruded itself out of his belly, like one of those snakes you light on the Fourth of July, that curls all around itself. We both freaked. The pediatrician said this morning, upon examination, that it was just a little bit infected and that one of the veins hadn’t closed properly, which he fixed with some silver nitrate right there. Here I am, being all cocky that it’s my third and nothing can faze me, and I am running to the ped with a laundry list of things for him to check out less than a week after we last saw him. Oh well, I have never been noted for my calm, and I probably won’t start now.

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The boys each held James for the first time yesterday, mostly because it hadn’t occurred to me to let them do so until Jude asked. So I sat them down on Jude’s mattress-on-the-floor/bed and they each got to wrap their little arms around James and let his head loll over their elbows and smile uncertainly down at him. As usual, my camera was nowhere near. James started crying – wonder why – and Jude obligingly pulled up his shirt to feed James. He’s a swell kid, that Jude. Always at the ready.

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I started reading the Julia/Julie blog, and it’s some really good reading. I enjoy her down-to-earth tone and honesty. I may wait for the book, though, I may enjoy it more in that format.

And I finished The Diary of Mattie Spenser yesterday. Remember what I said about it not being grim? It wasn’t exactly grim, but it was sad. I still enjoyed it, for the most part. I am almost halfway through On Green Dolphin Street, which is a strange yet deft mix of a love affair and political affairs during the Kennedy campaign.

Mr. Darcy has been voted the greatest hero in literature. But Carl MacDougall, an author and presenter of the BBC's Writing Scotland, was unimpressed. "The fact that Mr Darcy is number one says more about Colin Firth than it does Jane Austen…” Yeah, that’s pretty much how I feel. I mean, just because Darcy is a romantic, enigmatic pain in the ass does not make him the greatest hero (even if it makes him – natch - sexy and appealing to we womenfolk). Anymore than it does Mr. Rochester or Heathcliff (both of whom I pretty much want to smack upside the head). I liked Mr MacDougall’s suggestion of Sydney Carton from A Tale of Two Cities.

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Gina, come back from pledge - I miss you!

12 comments:

Caro said...

I think you could have twelve kids and there would still be some new surprise with each one. (not that I'm suggesting anybody should have twelve kids) So cute about your son pulling up his shirt to breastfeed. aaw.

Sarah Louise said...

It is a greater thing I do now than I have ever done before vs. I like you just the way you are, Bridget (c'mon, we all know BJD is another P&P spoof...) Well, as far as romantic in the sense of usefulness, I'd say Darcy, because, he doesn't go off to his death. But as for sacrifice to his fellow men, Syndney would win. I keep meaning to reread a Tale of Two Cities. But it makes me nervous that JKRowling likes the kind of sacrifice exemplified by ST--I've heard predictions that HP could meet such a fate and I just want to send a letter to JK and say "The boy who lived!" You can't kill the boy who lived. **gees**where did that rant come from? let's see, overworked, underpaid, hormonally fragile, and discovering that autumn may bring out my melancholy...but I do love the belly button song. And, I'm only the second person commenting!! Woohoo.

Sarah Louise said...

okay I'm done, but I have to post this because the word verification is uhoptah. Is that a foreign word for hopskotch?

Joke said...

1- "uhoptah" sounds like one of those PITA British crossword answers.

2- I am underwhelmed both by Darcy (although I am certain my wife married me only because I am an enigmatic, romantic PITA, and because I can cook and I'm tolerably clever) and Colin Firth, but I suspect it may be the Y chromosome talkin'.

3- What is "pledge?"

Kathy said...

Joke -- I am also underwhelmed by Darcy and Colin Firth, and I don't have the chromasomal issues you do. :) I don't see Darcy as a hero -- a nice guy, but not really a hero. I would have to go with Sydney Carton as well.

BabelBabe said...

but darcy is SO not a nice guy...that's why most women swoon over him, because they are projecting, and are convinced that they alone can change him. yeah, i love darcy but i think carton takes this prize.

isn't uhoptah the second person conjugation for ihoptah?

pledge is public radio-ese for "give us money so we can keep broadcasting This American Life and Fresh Air for all you radio snobs who don't care to listen to dr laura/rush limbaugh/freebird sixteen times a day" DUQ's should be over soon - or Gina just doesn't love me anymore...

BabelBabe said...

see how pathetic and hormonal i am? imagine what i'm like with my *husband*...

Joke said...

Oh, pledge as in DRIVE. OK, that's way mo' better.

I may be a raving Goldwater-ite, but I give them money (voluntarily, I mean) for no reason other than maybe one day we'll have 24 hours of Car Talk and Wait Wait Don't Tell Me and hour upon hour of the blues.

Am I being selfish?

-J.

P.S. That's probably why my wife married me, and probably why she gets all hopped up when she is reminded that I am not going to stop being the guy she married and my sons are turning into me.

Badger said...

I have nothing to say except to curse you for putting the Belly Button song into my head. Don't make me come over there and sing Snuggle Puppy at you, woman!

Kathy said...

You know, bb, when I think about Darcy, he isn't a nice guy. It must be Colin Firth that makes me think he's nice and my mental picture of Darcy is based entirely upon Colin Firth as the only Jane Austen book I've been able to finish is Northanger Abbey. I think I need to try again.

BabelBabe said...

I *love* Snuggle Puppy, I sing it to my boys all the time. But I admit to a fondness for Eric Stoltz, who sings it on the soundtrack thingey.

Badger said...

I think that's a big part of why I like it, too. But my favorite is the Intermission Song. Gotta love those aardvarks!