Last week I was able to have Emily over a a bit of play time. It was a rainy day, bleary, dreary kind of day. As soon as we enter the house, she starts what I call the "walk through." She immediately goes to William's room to see if his pens are still on the table beside his bed. Of course, I follow close behind, shutting the hallway bathroom door as I am catching up, and call out, "Now, Emme, we can't be in here." I redirect her and close the door behind us. She then takes a right out of William's room and goes straight to my bathroom where she locates the cat's water bowl. I always make it to the bowl just as she is picking it up with the water holding onto the lip of the bowl. As I take the bowl and sit it in the tub, she turns to the toilet and pats the seat. I take her out of the bathroom closing the door behind me and the walk through continues down the hallway and straight into the kitchen. I am usually a step ahead of her and catch the dog water bowl before she has completely lifted it...and usually turn around from sitting the water bowl on the counter, just in time to take the cat food out of her hand, place it back in the bowl and sit it on the counter. Usually, then the walk through is complete and she will head to the toy room and the fun begins.
I always think of the Family Circus cartoons when this is going on...
Anyway, I store water bottles in play room that on occasion she had shown interest in. This week I had a plat of the little 5 oz. cans of V8s that I get from Sam's Club. I could kick myself in the tail for not having taken photos of her picking up those little cans and pretending to drink from them. She had a blast with them...they were mixed in with the toys, I found them in the living room and in the computer room. That night when I went to bed, I found one on the floor on my side of the bed. And I thought, how blessed I am to have a V8 by my bed. And I never wanted it to be moved. My little Emily placed it there, and how many other Mimi's in the world run into V8 cans at their bedside. It was a true treasure. Until Papa picked it up two days later and sat it on the back of the bed. Of course, I whined a bit and he responded with, "It's sitting right on the back of the bed where you can still see it."
"Ah, but honey, honey, Emme didn't put it on the back of my bed!"
It made me think, life is so crazy...you can have mini V8 cans placed by angels by your bed one minute and the next minute, it's gone...so treasure the little things, Donna. All those years, I tried to keep my house in order. All six of my brood can attest to the order and cleaning that kept things running smoothly. I would have never let my kids play with the water bottles or the V8 cans...let alone think it precious.
Today, I sat in the hospital with my sister as her son who is very close to Emily's age was getting ready for an MRI. He had nothing to eat or drink for hours and hours. This is the second time he has been hospitalized in the past two weeks. His little leg is in pain. His little crackling voice would make me fight back tears. When they sedated him, and he fell asleep, I did tear up. Little life so precious. So innocent and vulnerable. So dependent. Last week, the day before Ethan had to go to the emergency room, I had a dream. I dreamt that Scarlet and Ethan were drugged by a strange man. He drugged their Chinese take out food and had taken off with them. They were unaware of the danger they were in. I hunted for them and finally found them. In my dream I had to kill the strange man. I did everything I could to protect them.
We didn't even know Ethan was ill, we thought he just had a virus like everyone else. In our dreams we can do things that we are not capable of doing in real life. In my dream, I protected my sister and my nephew...today, I stand helpless in fighting the battle for them.
The MRI results show that he has Osteomyelitis, a bacterial infection in his little leg bone. It will require weeks of intravenous antibiotics. His moma is tired. As he was coming out of his sedation in his hospital room, he grew heavy in his moma's arms and she had to readjust him. It woke him up for a minute, he fussed and dozed back off, holding onto his moma's shoulder. "Don't let go of me...I need you." He seemed to say...I remarked, "No matter which way you turn him, he's gonna make sure he's holding onto you, even in his semi unconscious state."
"And that's okay'" Scarlet said, "Next year he probably won't even want to sit in my lap."
And she's right...so even though it's late...my New Year's wish for my family and friends would be to seize the little moments in life...cherish your family and friends...and may you be blessed with V8 cans, placed by angels, beside your bed.
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---------------------------------Ethan a few months ago--------------------------------
--------------------- -------------Emme B on the V8 day------------------------
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