Airing Out

It's rainy again today, but the sun was shining yesterday when we visited Grandma Deb. Char got squirrelly after a few minutes in the hospital room, so I took her out onto the 8th floor's garden deck to burn up some energy.

At first we played the game, "Who Can Wear the Calf's Hardhat?

Hmmm...

 Char can.

Dog statue can.

Metal rabbit can.

Fountain can.

Door button can.

Angle can.

Dad can, too.

After running out of things to put a hat on, we went inside to get mom and some of pennies to toss into the fountain. Last year Char got in the habit of wiping her dirty hands on my grubby summer shorts, and she still does that now. Daphne doesn't seem to mind, as long as its my clothes that get dirty.

We stayed until 1:00, and then it was time to drive home with the windows down.

Tomorrow's forecast is for a high of 42 degrees, a chance of flurries, and plenty of back seat sunshine.

Hey, Lady! That's Our Sippy Cup!

We're not quite ready to leave the Char's drinking cup behind, but we're working on it.

Having A Beef

In the quest for continual improvement, my school district's webpage has a Parking Lot section that gives employees the opportunity to anonymously leave comments and feed-back for the district to consider.

I was surprised how many times it has been used to complain about the school's food service, especially concerning baby carrots and humus. Here's an actual post:

"Q - Why are we serving Carroteenies for 15 straight days this month?  Was there not a better option for lunches?   Also- could we not create better mixtures for our lunch menus?  Seriously- why would any kid want to eat Hummus, with Apricots, Carroteenies and taco pizza?  There has to be better options out that there that would benefit our students and still make the nutritional guidelines. I can't believe that there aren't other options." 

Although it's a little lower tech, the 8th floor at Mercy Hospital has a Parking Lot of sorts, too.

And people also use it to complain about food.

Happily, Grandma Deb doesn't share this opinion. In her most recent CaringBridge post, Deb wrote, "It seems that my appetite has pretty much returned to normal, so I'm eating well. Often hospital food has a bad name, but I've had lots of really good entrees like meatloaf with baked potatoes and baked macaroni & cheese. I can always get fresh or canned fruit, yogurt, iced tea - so the selection is pretty varied and everything I've tried has been more than acceptable. I'm just glad to be feeling hungry when mealtimes roll around. :)"

Charlotte doesn't have a problem with the hospital food, either. In fact, she has found new uses for the Emesis bags. Sometimes she slides one up each of her arms and becomes a "robot". Other times she tries to make one into a hat.

Speaking of Charlotte dressing, we're still working on the whole wearing-a-coat-thing.

Mercy Me

Daphne took Char to visit Grandma Deb after school yesterday, and I went to the store to get some groceries. I got to Mercy hospital around 5:00. Apparently it was happy hour and the drinks were two for one.

A bit later Grandma needed some privacy, so I took Charlotte down to the visitor's lounge to see what was on TV. While she watched The Cat in the Hat, I looked through the lounge's small library. As I was running my hand across the spines, I spied something poking out of a paperback copy of Hannibal.

You know, if I was trapped inside a book about a serial killing cannibal, I probably wouldn't look very excited either.

After we finished the Cat in the Hat episode, the three of us headed down to the Marketplace & Grille on level A. The cafeteria food at Mercy is really good. Although Char was happy with her a plate of "worms" and green beans, she was pretty excited about Mom's tomato soup. Because it can get so messy, we don't give Charlotte much soup. But she did a really nice job with it last night.

Most of the time Char is more interested in the decorative holes in the backs of the chairs than eating. She constantly circles our long table, tracing her fingers inside the three openings in each of the eight chairs. I briefly considered sticking a forkful of green beans through the largest hole to see if she would just eat something, but I quickly realized what a bad idea that would be.

I'm sure she'd giggle at the novelty and happily chomp down the beans. But then she'd insist on eating the rest of her meals that same way. We'd be that crazy family with the girl who only eats food through the holes in the hospital furniture. I'm not going down that road.

Instead, we promise a dessert after she eats a certain number of bites of veggies and fruit.

The cupcakes at Mercy are great, and Charlotte loves the look of them, but she doesn't eat more than two bites. The only cupcake Char has ever eaten in its entirety is from Scratch Bakery. I guess those cupcakes have spoiled her.

Speaking of being spoiled, I don't want Charlotte to get too comfortable at Mercy. If she starts to see these visits to Grandma as commonplace, then she might start acting like she does at home. I know Deb wants to see her granddaughter, but she doesn't need to see her in "terrible two" mode.

I think I'll take Charlotte to the library tonight instead. She can get some new books, and maybe I'll find another grumpy bookmark.

And Then Everything Changed

In March Daphne's mom went to the doctor for some back and hip pain. Eventually Deb was given a bone scan, and the results shocked us all.

Deb is 57, an alumnus of several RAGBRAI weeks, and a nonsmoker. She eats right and exercises daily. She's a model of what you should do to take proper care of your body. No one would have guessed she would be diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. How does that even happen? No one knows, but Deb's cancer is not curable. We are all reeling from the news.

Although she doesn't understand what's going on, Charlotte has learned a new prayer, "Dear God, please help Grandma Deb. Amen."

Deb's been on the oncology floor at Mercy hospital since March 30, and we've been spending a lot of time visiting her. After a few visits, Charlotte has really warmed up to the hospital, and she's been having fun exploring the building.

Right now it's pretty cool to push the right elevator button.

The elevator is equipped with side rails, and Charlotte likes to say, "Hold on tight, everybody." If a rider doesn't take her seriously, she'll look at them and repeat herself until they do.

After a few minutes in Grandma's room, Char's ready to hit her favorite spots. She's already named the fish on level 4. I think the white one is Jill, but I'd have to ask to be sure.

On level 3 there are animal pictures on the wall, and the buttons are supposed to trigger the proper animal sound.

It doesn't always work out that way, though.

The oncology floor has a rooftop deck that doubles as a garden when the plants are in bloom. The deck is a great place to get some fresh air without leaving the hospital.

One of the garden's decorations is a cow, which I believe was painted for a previous Iowa State Fair.

It doesn't take Charlotte long to figure out what's bolted down and what's not.

I found half of a plastic Easter egg on the deck, and we take turns hiding it from each other. Char doesn't quite grasp that hiding something is like keeping a secret. As soon as you open your eyes (after counting to ten), she leads you to the egg, "It's right here Daddy, by the fence."

As soon as Charlotte could walk she has been attracted to ramps. I think it has something to do with the speed of running down them, but she has just as much fun running back up.

After running the ramp, we head over to the fountain to drop in a few wishes for Grandma Deb.

Char likes how the fountain drops water from far above us.

Back on the 8th floor, we stop by to see Grandma, and then head to the patient lounge to watch some IPTV. Here's Char lost in an episode of Busytown Mysteries.

Besides a TV and a PC, the lounge has a library of sorts. It's an odd collection of books that were presumably left by past visitors.

I'm intrigued by some of the titles, like George Plimpton's Paper Lion and Preston and Child's Brimstone, but I don't think Char will give me much time to read anything of depth, but you never know. Maybe I'll slide a bookmark in there and see how far I can get in fits and bursts.

I did find this magazine, and I learned that short order cooks use mayo instead of butter to make the outside of their grill cheese sandwiches glow with a golden brown.

Speaking of food, maybe we'll tackle the hospital fare in my next blog post. We'll see what Char thinks of it.

Oh, and if you think of it, I believe Charlotte's new prayer would work if you said it, too. Thanks.