Dysentery Disappointment

The first time I played The Oregon Trail I was in the 4^th grade, and no one in my class could make it to Oregon, no matter how hard we all tried.  This was back when we had Apple IIs in our schools…the screens were green and black…and The Oregon Trail was the only computer game that we had ever seen…and it was unbeatable.  Back when I started to play games there was no end to them…the levels just increased…like Asteroids and Donkey Kong (mind you Donkey Kong kidnapped Pauline and he was a brown blob on the screen) and Pac Man.  The levels never really ended, they just got harder.  Anyway The Oregon Trail came along and we got to play it in school!  How freakin’ awesome is that?!  So, we would play this game over and over and over again…and NEVER made it to Oregon…we always died along the way or our ox’s ran away when we tried to ford the stupid rivers.  It was the most exciting and frustrating thing I think any of us had experienced to that point in our lives.

I have seen over the years the new editions of the game and have never really been interested in playing them…until recently.  My husband just jailbroke my ipod touch recently and I downloaded it to give it a try…mind you it is only 99 cents if you do buy it.  I played for 3 days…forded several rivers…and floated down others…and made it to Oregon!  We had some broken bones, snake bites, and the wagon broke down a couple of times.  I only lost 1 child…to an eagle swooping down and taking him away.  No one got dysentery…at all…let alone dying of it!  I tried for 3 days and no dysentery…I have great disappointment about this, and I am feeling really robbed right now!  I have tried to understand this for several days now…I have even started the stupid game again…this time determined to die of dysentery.

As I started this game one of the last few times I noticed that this game was created and published by “The Learning Company”, which is why all those wise school administrators allowed us to play a game in school.  We were supposed to be learning from this game…yeah, I had to think about that too.   I asked my husband what he learned from playing The Oregon Trail…he said “I learned that you could die of dysentery.”  I asked my Angie what she learned from playing The Oregon Trail…and she said the same thing that my husband did…only added “whatever that means”.  I don’t know how to break this to the programmers at The Learning Company, but having been a 9 year old playing this game…1:  children have NO idea what dysentery is, let alone that it could kill them.  2:  If geography was your aim…children living in the 1980’s have no idea where “Fort Whatchamacallit” is, and nor do they care.  All this Learning Company really accomplished was irritating kids into being determined to beat a game that was unbeatable. 

 And now we who played this game as a child are downloading this app hoping to see those fateful words again “you have died of dysentery”.  Well right now all I am dying of is disappointment.   I wish we could retain what made the classics the classics…so here’s to Pac Man and Donkey Kong, may we play them forever and smile the whole time!

Belly Buttons

Lately my daughter wants to talk at night after I have read to her and helped her say her prayers before bed.  It never fails, she always asks “Mom, can we talk about something?” as she is sitting on my lap.  So I ask her what she wants to talk about…it has gone from work and why daddys go to babies to surgery to belly buttons!  I have spent more than a week now, every night, rolling up my shirt and talking about belly buttons.

I am in no way saying that belly buttons are not the most fascinating thing upon our bodies, because they are!  I, myself, find belly buttons to be one of the great mysteries of God.  As a side note…does anyone else have a list of questions that you want to ask God if you get to have a few minuets with him?  Well I do!!  The first question that is on my list and always will be is “Did Adam and Eve have belly buttons?”…don’t laugh at me, because I am serious, I truly want to know!!  The first thing I am checking for after I rise at the resurrection and my body is perfected is if my belly button is still there.  A large part of my deep thinking is focused around the complexity of my navel.

Anyway, I know that from daddies to belly buttons doesn’t seem like the most natural progression, but after last year in our lives my daughter’s questions are no surprise to me.  I went to the hospital rather large and came home skinny and holding a baby…I had surgery on my belly button and came home looking very frankensteinish…now Grandpa is going to have the same belly button surgery.  My Casey has noticed that all belly buttons are different and she points it out a lot!  We also have a history of belly button joy in our little family as well…

 When Casey was between 6 and 8 months old my husband found a Tiny Love lamb with a DVD and CD.  These really are awesome toys and we got all 3 animals for our kids and they love them!  These 3 animals have big light up buttons where their belly buttons should be and they sing a song about belly buttons when you push it.  They also sync with the tv and interacts with the dvd and also in the car with the cd…they really are awesome.

The problem that these toys have created mostly has affected my husband, in that since the belly button song has been heard he has to sing the song when his belly button is pushed.  He tends to wear a t-shirt more often when the kids are in that phase so that he doesn’t have to sing it so much.  He is very often seen lying on the floor, his hand covering his belly button, with both kids on top of him trying with all their might to move his hand.  I, on the other hand, don’t sing the belly button song…I figure that my poor belly button has given more than its share to my children.

I had a navel ring when I was pregnant with Casey, it was expensive and gorgeous and I loved it!!  Now 2 children and 1 surgery later my belly button looks like Dr Frankenstein dug me up and went to town on me.  Now I look back on my navel jewelry and wish I could have a belly button fit for that again…alas, my scars prevent that.

As I sit and talk to my daughter about the purpose of belly buttons and she is avid about how it is that her belly button was once connected to me.  She gets a look of consternation encompass her face and then points out that hers is different looking than mine.  It is almost as if she is trying to fit our belly buttons together like puzzle pieces.  And then I go on to tell her that Ryan was also connected to me in the same way…you can almost see the smoke billowing from her ears…then she goes onto some other topic, as if I have worn her thinking cells out.  I leave the conversation there and I chuckle to myself as I close her door behind me and go off to find my relaxation before I head to bed.

Here I sit realizing that the small buttons on our bellies teach us some of the most important lessons in our lives…The biggest lesson I have learned is that time does not heal all wounds…all time does is create scar tissue to cover what was once a great big hole in your stomach.  I recently heard a quote “It has been said, 'time heals all wounds.' I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, (protecting its sanity), covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But, it is never gone.” By Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy

Here’s to belly buttons and the lessons that we can learn…here’s to scar tissue and the way it mutes what once was searing pain…Thank you God for that lesson that you have given us the opportunity to learn.

Kindergarten

First I have to say that I did not go to Kindergarten, my mother kept her kids at home with her for as long as possible.  And most parents do not realize that Kindergarten is not mandatory in the State of California, so I did not have to send her to school this year.  She also is not turning 5 until November, so she barely made the cut off for this year.  With all that said, after much deliberation and debate, we made the decision that she would benefit from Kindergarten.  Taaa Daaa!!!  Gosh, we parents have such hard decisions to make, and God doesn’t even send them with a manual.  I really believe each child should come with their own manual, but that is a blog for a different day.  There are a number of people around me who home-school or use a Charter school to educate their children, and I have noticed that they are very vocal about what is wrong with the public education system in their opinions…now opinions are like a**holes, everyone has one and everyone thinks everyone else’s stinks!  Now first I appreciate that you feel very strongly about the public education system and home schooling, but I don’t care!  I am not a teacher, so in my opinion I am not qualified to teach my children at home, especially in elementary school.  I have no problem if you want to teach your kids at home, but don’t push your junk on me!  This being said…I just took my Casey-bug to her very first day of Kindergarten this morning!

This child woke me at 6 am this morning, then again at 7 am wanting to know if it was time for her to go to Kindergarten.  I almost ate her before we even got there.  So I get up and get Ryan…she is following me everywhere!  We picked out her outfit last night and I take her downstairs and get her meds into her before I start on her hair and clothes and lunch.  We get her in her clothes and she watches tv while I brush out her hair and braid it.  Her socks go on and then I can get her breakfast and pack her lunch, holy crap I am packing a lunch!  I check to make sure that I have written her name on everything…including each shoe, pack her backpack, and watch as Aunt Angie takes pictures.  As I see the pictures I start to cry…yes I am a blubbering idiot!  All I can see is my baby girl with tubes and leads coming off her with her batman glasses on.  OHMYFREAKINGGOSH!!!!  Who is this little girl in the pictures?

Let me explain a little…my little girl was dreamed about by both my husband and I long before we met, we each had a name in mind, and we loved her more than life itself before we even met her.  Cassiopia Camilla; which means “clever virgin”, she is named after a constellation and her grandmother, and we call her Casey.  When she was born she was taken from me almost immediately…I didn’t get her back for 2 weeks.  The day after she was born she was taken by ambulance to Loma Linda Children’s Hospital, where she stayed for that 2 week period.  In the NICU and because of the federal newborn screening it was discovered that my little Casey had Congenital Hypothyroidism.  Before the newborn screening this was the leading cause of Mental Retardation in children…my little Casey was on medication within 8 days of birth…with no long term effects.  She takes her medication every morning, as she has done since this was discovered.  Because of the wonderful doctors there, we have a healthy, happy, and very intelligent 4 ½ year old girl.  This is all we were seeing this morning as she jumped around happily waiting for me to drive her to school…an under 6 pound girl being fed and nourished with tubes as she layed under the UV light in the NICU at Loma Linda.

So here I sit waiting ever patiently for 12:25 to arrive, thinking about my baby girl…I am sure she is fine, but I wonder if she is happy and being a good girl.  I remember when she turned 1 and 2 and 3 and 4…I remember taking her to Los Angeles to see the agent that she is still with…I remember the night we brought her home…I remember when she picked Pooh…I remember when she poked Ryan in my belly because he wouldn’t stop kicking her while she was sitting on my lap.  So here is to you Casey!  You are a big brave kindergarten girl!!

Now off I go to sob quietly into my pillow…