Remember Those Giant Worms in King Kong? (HoL 21)

House of Laughter 21

I stayed home sick today. I’d felt crummy the last two days, but last night I ended up feeling really awful. I had to deal with a small amount of guilt about taking the boy to daycare, but he’d probably be happier there, and I can get some rest.

Wednesday and Thursday after work, I came home and napped with the boy. I collapsed on the bed, and Isaac put his hand on my head and played with my hair. It felt like he was trying to comfort me. We napped for a couple of hours like that.

I sent a letter to Gary Trudeau about the coincidence of the helmet comic strip coming out the day after Isaac got his helmet. They posted the letter on the “Blowback” section of the Doonesbury website. (It won’t last long, as they post new letters every day.)

I did have a great milestone this week. I was playing with Isaac on the floor, and I balanced a book on his head (this is actually pretty easy due to the flat spot.) When he realized something was up, he shook his head vigorously and the book fell off. This made me laugh. I balanced the book on his noggin again, and again he vigorously shook it off. We repeated this several times. Each time I would laugh. Eventually, he would shake it off and then look to see if I would laugh.

It was a neat moment. Here was an interaction that wasn’t about food or changing a diaper or getting a bottle or being rocked to sleep. This seemed to be a real “play” interaction. I make him laugh all the time. The twist was, this time, he made me laugh, and knew it. It was very cool.

This morning, in my sickness and Nyquil induced haze, I recall Nancy saying something about “Isaac threw up.” When I finally roused from bed, all of the sheets on his bed were in the laundry so I’m guessing there were some good times this morning.

When I dropped the boy off at Little Mouse Playhouse this morning, I overheard a woman talking loudly about how her whole family had pinworms last weekend. The second woman asked if she used a flashlight to draw them out of the child’s anus. The other mom said, she knew that there were over the counter medications, but she needed something that night. The first one asked if she knew the best home remedy for pinworms, and the second mom said she did.

I’m glad they finally said it out loud, because at this point I was dying to know, but dare not ask out loud. I was both fascinated and mortified at my own fascination at my discovery of these William S. Burroughsesque assworms.

For those who want to know, cover the “Exit Port” with Vaseline.

They don’t cover assworms in the preparing for childbirth classes. I itch just thinking about it. (Admit it. You do too.)

I have to spend tomorrow and most of Sunday at a vascular conference in Chapel Hill. They are usually pretty boring to begin with, but couple it with post sickness sleepy, and it seems like a deadly combination. Maybe I’ll luck up and they will have a slide presentation on assworms.

Strength and Honor

Big Matt

P.S. It turns out that sometime between 4:30 a.m. when I calmed him down and 5:45 a.m., the little prince ralphed about seven ounces of formula all over his crib. Nancy came into his room this morning, and he was sleeping peacefully covered in used formula. Time to wash the helmet.