A Touch of History

For those who know Denver Doug, this note came in this morning from our mutual friend Jeanne:

Our dear Doug has been in the hospice Hospital for the past 3 days and is not doing well at all. Even though Doug is a fighter with a strong will to live, The outlook is bleak. His wife is at his side sending him love. She has asked me to let all his friends know this sad news.Please pass this along to all Doug's friends whose email addresses I do not have.

Love to Doug and his family.

---

When Tom first introduced me to Laurel, by the end of the first day, I could see how much she and I were alike. Shortely before they married, Tom came to me and said "you know how they say you always marry your mother...?"

So it doesn't surprise me (and delights me!) to see that Laurel is keeping a diary of Bri's baby days. I love reading the updates and seeing how things are going. I remember those days when SLEEP became such an overwhelming issue, when a baby was little. I can hardly wait until she gets older.

I was reading back over my old diary and came upon this entry from 1970. We had three kids then. Paul was just slightly over a year and I was pregnant with Tom. We also had two dogs, Mutt and Jeff. This was a typical day:

1. Mutt got out
2. I went out in pajamas with Jeff to chase him (and caught him)
3. I got a hammer, nails and wood to fix the fence
4. I smashed my finger with the hammer
5. We had no bandaids
6. Billy (our friend's son) arrived
7. Paul wouldn't take a nap and cried all morning.
8. Jeri and I spent half an hour arranging all her books in her new bookcase.
9. Ned decided to take the books 'camping' so Jeri threw them all in a big pile in the middle of the floor.
10. I went into a purple rage.
11. Billy started ripping books
12. A new quart of milk was sour.
13. Billy threw his lunch all over the kitchen floor.
14. I spilled a new half gallon of milk all over the floor.
15. Jeff pooped in the kids' room and we all stepped in it.
16. Pat (Billy's mom) came home from nursery school, dropped Steve off and went out again.
17. Ned took a drawer out of Jeri's dresser and broke the bottom of it.
18. Kids went down for naps under pain of death.
19. I folded every piece of laundry in the house and am so sore I can't move.
20. The kitchen is still a disaster area
21. I still have half a day to go

How the Day Ended: Walt came home and smashed his finger with a hammer. Ned had 3 dirty pairs of pants, we ran out of gin, I practically crawled into bed. I was so sore nd in the process smashed my leg against the cedar chest. Two seconds after I lay down, Ned came in to say 'I have poop poop.'

I ended the evening crying hysterically.

Ahh the good old days! Some things still haven't changed. I'm still dealing with dog poop, the laundry still isn't folded, the kitchen is still a disaster most of the time, and Ned is still talking about poop.

I note that I mention that we "ran out of gin." We didn't know that you shouldn't drink if pregnant, and Walt and I used to have a gin and tonic each night when he got home from work.

I look back on the days when the kids were little fondly. But boy, I wouldn't go through it again for anything.