Kahlil Update

Thought I should give an update of what Kahlil is doing these days. It's a Grandma requirement.

Play Time: Kahlil's play has changed quite a bit in the last few weeks. He is much more into looking at his books and doesn't try to rip or eat the pages. He will play with his stacking cups for quite a while and he has actually put some of his big wooden puzzle pieces back in the right place. He will also take things in and out of a container several times... this is verses just dumping everything and being done with it. He also likes to put things in the seat of his firetruck and take them along with him. It's fun to peek in there and see what the chosen toys of the hour are. I was very surprised the other day at the park when he started running and kicking a ball another little boy had brought. He was so good at it straight away I think this must be something they do at the creche. We didn't have a good kicking ball at home, so Jay bought one this weekend. Kahlil is quite interested in Jay's chess board and pieces. As Kahlil moves the pieces around, Jay explains what the pieces are and how they are suppose to move. I think we have a little time before he becomes a Chess Master :-)

Physical State: It seems he is much taller than when we arrived. I cant give exact numbers without our door frame markings at home so my feeling is based on his clothes getting snug and where the table hits him on the forehead. He has also gotten good at things like getting off the couch alone and getting on/off his firetruck. If you hold his hands, he will walk up stairs one step at a time just like a big person. He has also started to 'jump'. It's more the motion of jumping than actually jumping. He bends his legs and puts his arms up. Then quickly straightens out the legs and swings his arms down. Sometimes he actually lifts one foot off the ground. A couple times he has gotten both feet off the ground. When he did this, the reentry was a little rough. It was very cute the first time he started jumping... he was VERY proud. He came over to me with a big smile and showed me his new trick. And then he showed Jay right away when Jay got home from work.

Communication: Kahlil is quite the signer these days. He can do 'more', 'water' (which sometimes means drink in general), 'milk', 'orange', 'bath', 'down', 'all done', 'eat', and 'banana'. We just started on 'cereal'. And he waves goodbye all the time now. I'm also going to try to get the more abstract signs of 'hurt' and 'help' across. He does say Mama and Dada, but these are usually only when we are separated and reunited. Another word he started to say is 'cracker'... but it sounds a little strange. If you try to say 'cracker' without opening you mouth (sort of hum it) that is close to what he does. We have also been making faces at each other. The current favorite is to curl up our lips.

Ancient and New Age Darkness

I was in total darkness twice this weekend. Given our modern electric society, it's not very often that you find yourself in complete black, the sort of black where you can only tell your eyes are open because you feel yourself blink.

The first blackout occurred Saturday in the 5,000 year old passage tomb at Newgrange. As the tour guide said, she has yet to meet a stone mason that will give you a 5,000 year guarantee on a structure let alone one built without mortar. On the tour, they turn off the lights and let you see what the tomb is like most of the year. The only time natural light enters the tomb is for about 15 minutes each morning during the few days before and after the winter solstice. It is a little awe inspiring to stand there and think about the time, thought, engineering, and determination that was required to build such a structure.

Kahlil wasn't very awestruck, although he did quiet down when they turned off the lights. He went into the tomb strapped on Jay and I think this made Jay a little claustrophobic. Another man on the tour took about three steps down the tight, low passageway and couldn't do it. He pushed by us and headed for daylight. It was hard to miss the face of fear on him. A couple steps later I started to see the same face on Jay. But he was able to control his fear and make the walk to the internal chamber. I think he was a little relieved when the tour was over.

The picture is the entrance to the tomb. The large decorated stone at the bottom is the entrance kerb stone. Above that is the entrance you have to duck to get into. And above that, outlined by the white quartz stones, is the Roof Box; the inlet that lets the winter sunlight enter the tomb.

My second black out happened Sunday at the Harvest Moon Center. For my birthday, Jay gave me a gift certificate to HMC for a massage. He also saw they have a flotation chamber and told me he hoped I upgraded to have a float as well. When I set up the appointment for the massage I was feeling curious so I added the float.

The floatation chamber looks like a large igloo-style dog house. It's about eight feet long and four feet wide and high. There is only about a foot of 'water' in the bottom of the chamber. I say 'water' because is NOT something you would want to drink. The literature says it's a high concentration of Epsom salts. Given how it felt like liquid silk, I think there might be something else in there as well. After stripping, showering, and putting in ear plugs I climbed into the water. When I first stepped in, I just felt like a warm bath. But then I laid back and my legs floated right to the top surface of the water. It was a very strange feeling - maybe what it's like to be an embryo before the quarters get cramped. I pushed back to the rear of the chamber and turned off the light. So there I was, in total darkness floating on a layer of liquid silk. Strangely enough, I found it rather uncomfortable at first. I couldn't figure out how my head should be or where my arms should go. I think our muscles get so use to holding us up all the time, they don't know how to just release. It's hard to judge time in there, but I'm guessing I fidgeted for the first thirty minutes and was in a deep state of relaxation/dozing for the second thirty minutes. I felt very invigorated when I got out. If you have the chance to 'take a float', I would recommend it. I've never experienced anything like it.

The Visit Continues

Before I cover the rest of Mom and Dad's visit, I want to give an update on Kahlil's health at the time. As you recall, he had gotten sick and went to see the 'doctor'. When my parents arrived, Kahlil had a couple days left on his antibiotic run and his health was mostly better. During the day there were good hours and bad, he still had a little cough and congestion but in general he was doing ok.

The next couple days we stayed close to home. Mom had the name and key dates of her great grandfather. She wanted to see if there original documents available. Turns out he was born before they centralized records so we would have to know what parish he was a member of to get any more information on him. Mom and Dad also spent another day on the hop on / hop off bus. They hopped off at Kilmainham Gaol and Christ Cathedral.

Wednesday we loaded back into the car (sans Jay) and headed west for a couple nights. The plan was to spend one night in Galway and one night in Doolin or somewhere close to there. The drive over went well and we got settled into a great hotel right on the central square in Galway. All was going well until about 2am. Kahlil woke and started to moan and cry. He has done this before and just needed some rocking for about an hour until he went back to sleep. But in this case an hour wouldn't do the trick. He was awake about 15-30 minutes of every hour from 2 to 10. I wasn't sure what was going on but he seemed to be running a fever again. We decided to run the real test and I tried to give him some food. He wouldn't take a bite so I knew it was serious. All he would do was moan. The front desk directed us to a doctor across the square. She was a REAL doctor who checked his temperature, throat, and ears. He was running a high fever (over 103) and had a raging ear infection. She gave him ibuprofen and a prescription for a different antibiotic. By that afternoon he was feeling MUCH better.

Since it was late in the day, we decided to stay one more night in Galway. Mom and Dad walked around the city and did a little shopping. Dad found a beautiful sweater.

Finally we hit the road on Friday and headed south from Galway. We went down along the coast to Doolin. Everybody who has ever been there loved it so we had to go. I'm not sure if we were just there on a bad day or a bad time of year, but it seemed pretty much closed down. There wasn't much, if anything, going on. But we went there... yeah! Next we headed for the Cliffs of Mohr and didn't have much better luck there. It was so foggy we couldn't see much farther than about 50 feet. It was also damp and cold... not the best weather for an ear infection. So we decided to skip the hike up to the top of the cliffs and continue on our way. After a bit of debate, we stopped in Loughrea for the night. Not exactly a happening town, tourist or otherwise, but it had a hotel and restaurant. So Friday wasn't exactly a perfect day, but we did get a GREAT picture of a cow and some sheep :-)

Saturday we got home around noon. Mom and Dad had a couple last minute gifts they still needed to get so Kahlil stayed home with Jay while the three of us went out. Sunday we all headed to the National Museum. It was REALLY cool. There were artifacts from thousands of years ago. Lots of gold and silver and some gruesome ancient human remains. I highly recommend this museum. Sunday night Mom got their stuff packed - not a small task.

Monday morning the taxi showed up promptly at 7:30 and they were off to the airport. It was a great visit. I forgot to ask what their favorite thing was while here, but I have a guess. I think Dad would say the old churches, Dubliner cheese, and his sweeter. Mom would say EVERYTHING in particular spending time with Kahlil.

Two Old People from America

I didn't get to posting the last few days because my parents were here. We were busy traveling around the island, sightseeing, and shopping. Kahlil was having fun just being adored. Here is a quick recap of the first half of their trip...

Mom and Dad showed up on Wednesday the 10th. We stayed pretty close to home the first few days while their internal clocks adjusted. The day they arrived, we walked around Grafton and St Stephens Green to keep them awake. We then had dinner at a pub down the street and that was pretty much the day for them. On Thursday we got a 24 hour pass on one of the hop on / hop off tour buses that travel around the city. We made stops at St. Patric's Cathedral and The Guinness Storehouse. The Cathedral was very pretty. I was surprised by the number of remembrances for those lost in world wars. Father Sydney took a liking to Mom and gave her and Dad a tour of the alter. The Storehouse was also fun. I'm really glad I'm not a cooper... making barrels is HARD work. Since we still had a little time left on our 24 hours, we got on the bus again Friday morning. The weather was better so we sat at the top and did a spin around the whole city. It was a good way to see all the sites and get a little commentary.

Saturday we all piled in the car and headed south for the night. We stopped at the Waterford factory; unfortunately there were no factory tours since it was the weekend. Bummer! So we spent some time in the show room / gift shop and watched some of the factory tour video. Then on to Cork for the night. We stumbled on to a great bar/restaurant for dinner. It was fantastic food. On the walk back to the hotel, we were overcome by about a dozen superheros. They were kind enough to pose for a picture :-)

Sunday we popped over to the Middleton Distillery. They had a cool tour where we got to see the old distillery - grain house, mill, stills, etc - and learned about Irish whiskey. At the Middleton site they produce several whiskies including Jameson, Paddies, and Middleton - an exclusive blend of 18 and 25 year old barrels. The tour ended in the bar for a whiskey tasting. Then it was back to Dublin. We got home just in time to eat dinner and for Jay and I to head to the sports bar to see the Charger game.

I'm happy I got to see the last game of the football season. Too bad they aren't having any more games this year. I guess the Super Bowl will be back next year.

The Crying Game

Last night Kahlil started coughing pretty hard. It was very unsettling. He also didn't really sleep from 1:30 to 4 am. I spent most of that time trying to convince him it was time to sleep. Needless to say none of us were in the best mood in the morning.

Jay and I decided we need to get Kahlil in to see a doctor for the cough. I called the doctors the YMCA creche recommended but since it's Sunday they were closed. There were other numbers on the answering machine so we gave one of those a call. Jay got the address and a general description of where we were going. We decided to drive and got cleaned up and ready to go.

Once we got out of the city center (not an insignificant task) finding the address was pretty easy. We parked and headed for the door. As we were walking up, a woman with two kids rang the buzzer on the door next to where we were headed. A man popped his head out and asked if we were looking for the doctor. We all said yes, so he let all of us in and told us to wait in the waiting room. At first Jay thought we might be in the wrong place, but it was the place.

There were no forms to fill out or proof of insurance requested. After the woman with the two girls was served, we were called in. We went into an office - not an examination room. The doctor asked us what the issue was. We told him it was a cough and that Kahlil had been running a fever for a couple days. The doctor pulled out a stethoscope and listened to Kahlil's chest and back. He said, yes there is a wheezing sound and I'll give you a prescription for antibiotics. Not the same treatment I would expect in Corvallis since we typically try to stay away from antibiotics unless is it really warranted. But Kahlil needs something and I'm hoping this will make a difference.

Then it came time to pay. The doctor wrote up a receipt and handed it to me. I looked a little confused and asked how I should pay. He now looked as confused as me. At this point the only information they had was Kahlil's name - no phone number, address or parent name. I asked if I needed to call on Monday to arrange payment. He said no and asked if we had cash. We were 10 euros short and they couldn't take a credit card. We asked if there was an ATM near. He called out the phone operator and she gave us directions to the ATM and sent us on our way. After getting the cash, Jay paid our doctor debt.

As we were driving away, Jay said he felt like the whole operation wasn't quite legal and that we could have walked out without paying if we were that type of people. But we aren't. Now we have the medicine and I hope to see some improvement soon.

In any event, we didn't make it to Newgrange today as we planned. Bummer! But the GREAT news is that Jay got internet service on the desktop computer. So now I'll have access during the day. Yeah!!!

Illness and Old Books

We had a rough week. Kahlil and I both got a little stuffed up right after New Years. My nose cleared in a couple days but Kahlil decided to go a different direction with his illness. Starting Wednesday night he started running a fever that got as high as 103. He was stuffed up and couldn't breath very well when he slept and just didn't feel good. I thought he was through the woods on Friday morning when he woke up with a normal temperature, but after his nap the fever was back and he just cried for 20 minutes. But after the medicine kicked in he was much happier. Today he was more himself and no fever. THANK GOODNESS!!

We went to see the Book of Kells today. It was a cool exhibit. I really enjoyed the information on how the book was made - the vellum, inks, binding, etc. The life of a monk in 800 ad was pretty tedious. The pictures they had of many of the pages were cool too. And the history of the book was pretty funny - accidental. That book survived invasions from Vikings, Danes, heathens, and "foreigners" and too many fires to list (although they did list 20 or so that covered the books first 300 years). I suppose that is one of the reasons it's such a special book. I'm pretty sure it, and the other books displayed with it, are the oldest books I've ever seen. It made me want to read "The Name of the Rose" again.

Your ticket to see the book also gets you in to see the Long Room. An amazing library that is about 65 yards long with a magnificent vaulted celling. Over 200,000 books are stored in row after row of tall stacks. Each row capped of with a marble bust. It was really beautiful. Heidi would have been especially proud to be a librarian in that room.

Speaking of Heidi and Mark, congratulations on the arrival of little Jack!

Here is a poem that was in the visitors guide for the Book of Kells. The exhibit is called 'Turning Darkness into Light' from this poem written by a 9th century Irish monk in St. Gallen, Switzerland.

Pangur Ban
I and Pangur Ban my cat
'Tis a like task we are at:
Hunting mice is his delight
Hunting words I sit all night.

Better far than praise of men
'Tis to sit with book and pen;
Pangur bears me no ill will
He too plies his simple skill

Oftentimes a mouse will stray
In the hero Pangur's way;
Oftentimes my keen thought set
Takes a meaning in its net.

'Gainst the wall he sets his eye
Full and fierce and sharp and sly;
'Gainst the wall of knowledge I
All my little wisdom try.

Practice every day has made
Pangur perfect in his trade;
I get wisdom day and night
Turning darkness into light

Happy New Year

I hope everybody had a wonderful New Years. We had a great time visiting with Carrie, Flor, and Alex. Kahlil and Alex spent the first half of the evening sizing each other up and trying to take toys from one another. But after dinner they decided it would be much more fun to follow each other around and laugh when they ran into each other. It was fun to watch them play. It was an early evening with our guests heading our a little after nine. Jay and I 'rang in' the new year with him coming over and giving me a kiss. Not quite the party as PKE (pre-Kahlil Era) but nice none the less.

Jay headed back to work today. He drove in for the first time. There were some issues coming home that delayed him so it took a total of two hours. Yuck!

Kahlil and I have been working on "where's your ear?" and "where's your nose?". He seems to have the ear down, but the nose is tricky. We also tried to blow kisses today. He got the hand to the mouth, but that was as far as it went.

I'm still waiting for internet access for our pc. They should have something worked out for us the end of the week. In the mean time I'm back to only have internet access when Jay's laptop is home.