The Transplant is Tomorrow Night

I can't stop thinking about him on a normal day, let alone when he's having a transplant!!!

Love love love love love that guy.
If you're not 'in the loop', Richard's transplant is Wednesday night, going into Thursday morning. About midnight.

As the countdown of days until Richard's transplant turns into a countdown of hours, I find myself unable to control my tears more and more.

I'm used to being able to 'get through all this' by looking at the bright side and being tough and just making the best of it. That's not cutting it right now. As much as I'm trying to think positively, I'm scared. Really scared. Then my mind wanders. Then I'm terrified.

I've been keeping my mind off of how sad I am by watching these two cuties around the house. They're not used to being cooped up indoors and had to re-learn how to spend hours on end in the house. I've spent the last few rainy days doing minimal errands and avoiding my feelings by cleaning my house. It helps that I have houseguests coming to watch the boys while I'm away (THANKS KIM AND JARED!) They get to play house. I'm truly indebted to the both of them for this (and my mom who will be watching them in a few more days). If it's not already clear, I'm going to be spending some nights by Richard's side during and just after the transplant. I'm kind of feeling overwhelmed with emotion, but I guess that's pretty much expected.


Playing with a box.


I had to remind AJ and Dexter that they don't have to play together all day. I forced them to have some separated time in their own rooms. It was so peaceful. I don't think that Dexter realizes that it can be fun to play alone. No one tells you what to do. No one tells you how to play or what character you have to be.


I've also been keeping my mind busy with lists and cooking (getting ready for being away for a few days). Every time I think of something like 'remember to put out the constant-feed cat water dish', I run over to my list. It's getting crazy. My mind is just trailing into branches that lead to more branches.

Dexter wants to walk around with a pad of paper and a pen all day.
He's been drawing people lately! This is Mom and Dad.

Here's what AJ does with the same pad of paper and a pen while waiting for Dexter to wake up from his nap yesterday so that we could make cupcakes together.
It says "next time we will make cupcakes, love mom".
He wrote "nex tim we will mac cupcacs luv mom".


Unfortunately, I was too lazy to deal with the clean up of using the cupcake bakeware.
So I made two round cakes and cut them up so I could put on these cute little Hallowe'en characters from Norma's cousin, Elva. Well, actually, they're from her grandson. Thank you!

Later I found the boys giggling away doing an I Spy book together in Dexter's loft bed.



Any chance I've had during the breaks in the rain to get outside with them, I've loved.
I raked the leaves again.



There's the big tree from which they're falling. I backed up all the way to my fence and still couldn't get the giant tree in the picture.

While I was back there, I just took a couple more.

Here's our new fence that the city put in for the path that's now running beside our house. There will be hedging cedars put in next. Not sure exactly when. I'm glad that tree got to stay in our yard. I love that tree.

Sunday

I took the boys to the hospital to see Daddy and Grannie (who had arrived from the Island). Grannie came bearing gifts of Transformers for the boys which kept them occupied quite well. We were there for a good two hours. It's wonderful that Richard has his own room. It makes visits with the kids sooooo much easier.

I was too bagged to head to Richmond to see my dad after, so I just headed home with the boys and we had dinner in the car on the way home.

Today

Just finishing getting ready for tomorrow. The boys are finishing a late dinner while watching a movie.
We got home late because it wasn't raining this late afternoon, so after my couple errands, I took the boys to the skatepark, as per their begging. We had been there all of 10 seconds, when AJ did a jump and came down with his face onto the handle bar of the scooter. Blood, blood, blood, and more blood EVERYWHERE. And, when AJ gets hurt, he doesn't run to me, he runs away! I just watched the blood dripping from his mouth wondering whether or not the night would be all the more exciting by heading to the ER again.
But no, his teeth went into his lip, but not through. There was a lot of blood. I had no wipes, no napkins, nothing. All I had was a clean emergency diaper in my purse. He still wanted to ride, so he rode around for the next 25 minutes with dried blood all over his chin and hands and, of course, my hands too. Nice. Could've been worse. Could've been a lot worse.
Thought I'd do this update quickly, since I don't know how much I'll get onto the computer the next few days and I have LOTS still to do tonight to get ready to be away for a few days.

The Plan

Kim and Jared will arrive tonight. I will leave for work (with everything I need for the hospital) at around 6:30am/6:45am.

After work, I'll make sure I'm all planned for next week and hopefully, stay long enough to finish up some marking. I'm such a procrastinator.

Then, I'll head to Dad's from work and take a shower there at his place. I'll leave my car at Dad's and he'll drive me to the hospital.

Kim and Jared will stay a second night (Wednesday night), take AJ and Makenna to preschool in the morning and then after preschool, head to mom's. Where the boys will stay for the next two nights. My plan is to come get them on Saturday and bring them home so that we can do a nice, calm Hallowe'en Sunday. We'll see how that all works out. Hopefully, I'm feeling safe enough with Richard's condition to leave the hospital.

Richard's transplant is at about midnight or so on Wednesday night, hence the confusion about the date. It's technically on the 28th (Thursday), but is in-a-way on the 27th because it's Wednesday night if you know what I mean.

About the Boys - Some Funnies

Here's what happened yesterday afternoon as I wrote it on Facebook.

"Just had a HUGE scare. I was putting some things in the garbage and behind my back I could hear whistling. It was WAY to clear to be AJ, so I was afraid to turn around thinking some random stranger walked into my house somehow, and seemed to be whistling 'teenage dream'. I reluctantly turned around ready to fight ...for my life, and....... it WAS AJ! My heart is still racing."

AJ and I's conversation in the car the other day....

AJ: "Mom, can our car travel through time like the DeLorean?" Me: "No." AJ: "Why not?" Me: "Because no one has invented time travel yet...at least, I don't think so." AJ: "What if we drove really fast, like 88?" Me: "No, we'd probably just crash." AJ: "Oh."

And AJ while we were driving home from the hospital...

It was rainy and I was just taking my time on the highway in the slow lane going the actual speed limit. AJ said, "What are we doing in THIS lane and why are all the other cars passing US?"

Last but not least, Dexy....

He cupped my face in his hand yesterday morning and said,
"Mom. Ooo aahh boo-i-sowl"
which translated means - Mom, you are beautiful.
Awwww. I teared up. He got some big hugs.

Potty Training

3 dry days in a row, minus a poop that I didn't catch in time.
And then today was 'in the pooper' so to speak. Pun intended. He's getting a cold and feeling under the weather (I swear he always gets sick whenever we come back from the hospital).

Online Games

Dexter is having a great time with the online games by Fisher Price. He's great with the mouse and just loves being on the computer. AJ's had some time on Boowa and Kwala again. He's just a little bit older and with being able to read, he can figure out what all the games are about, so I don't have to stay right beside him. That's been quite a treat for the boys this week.

Scissors

Dexy can cut with scissors! It was my first time showing him how and he just took them away and started cutting. That surprised me, a lot!


Thank yous

Forgive me if I've already said these ones....

Thank you to:
Karen (a lady I used to work with back in the day at Extra Foods), Bill and Elaine (Richard's uncle and aunt), Shauna and Mike (my cousin and her husband), and Elva and Tony (Norma's cousin and her husband) for the beautiful cards and gifts!