Coughs

He woke up at 2:40am Saturday with that distinctive seal-bark cough. Bob had croup and was having trouble taking a breath. Taking him into the cold night air was the best thing I could do for his wheezing, according to my old pal, WebMD. We left Jeff and the dogs in bed and I bundled Bob up in a puffy coat over his pajamas. We got in the car for a slow drive around the neighborhood.

Bob was very brave. He took big gulping breaths, holding his head out the window like a Labrador. His breathing eased. We toured the nearby streets. We drove past Bob's school and Clementine's house. We drove past Sabine's, and Micah's, Desmond's, Felix's, Ferruccio's, and Cleo's grandma's place. We pictured our friends, sleeping in their beds. We talked about who in the neighborhood still had their Christmas lights up and who turns off their porch light at bedtime. We sang along to songs on the radio. We cruised.

We came back and had a drink of water. I set up the vaporizer next to the bed and and as Bob fell back to sleep he whispered, "Mom, I love you." Our dog Teddy crawled up and rested his head on the pillow next to Bob's. It was a regular night again. Soon, we were dreaming.

Smacksy Sunday Links

Wonderful thoughts about confidence and failure from Kelle Hampton.

Loveliness from a 92-year-old travel blogger.

And I'm loving watching these kittens while they watch ice skating.

Happy Sunday.

Smacksy Saturday Photo: Rosenfurs

The much adored, furry pals.

Whodunit

"Who took 87 pictures of himself on my phone?!"

"I don't know... Was it Dad?"

Rocking So Hard

"My band is going to be rock and roll like Black Sabbath but with some dance music and disco and a little jazz. Felix and Ringo and Cleo and Brandon can be the drummers. Micah can play the bass and Muan can do keyboards. Me and Desmond and Clementine and GeonHee can do guitars and I'm going to sing and do dancing and Sabine and Ferruccio might do dancing too. We'll be called 'Dynamite Menace.'"

"Our first songs are going to be called:
Dynamite Menace
I Say: No Victory
Magic of the Grave (I'll tell you the story later, Mom.)
Poker
Wolf War
Robot Suit
We might do a country song too but I'm not sure yet. That's a maybe."

Another Day at the Shire

"So, Mom, while you were gone me and Dad watched Lord of the Rings on TV. It was super cool."

"I saw it once but I don't really remember what it's all about."

"It's about these little guys who have breakfast and then after that they have second-breakfast."

"That's it?"

"No they have lunch, second-lunch, dinner, and second-dinner too."

Into the New Year

Wishing you a beautiful new year of clean starts and messy kisses and lots of your favorite thing. Your favorite thing is whatever you thought of first when you read that - possibly lemon meringue pie, or kitten breath, or the ocean, or ice tea on a hot day. Whatever your best thing is, I wish you all of the that you can handle. Go for that.

Happy New Year.