she shocks shell-shock by the.. um... something.

Well, little baby Mali, squid's smallest, is out of the hospital. She had some quiet, happy moments and I got to see her sleeping and nursing, in between wheezing, bubbling, coughing, and sounding like a baby with pneumonia. Actually it was kind of cool how while she was nursing, she'd stop for a second and it sounded like she was taking a bong hit....

Iz: her usual self, desperate for attention, glib, weaselly, and charming. Leelo -- greeted me by name, spontaneously! and sort of discussed Mali's breathing asthma-mask thing... his observations were something like, "white in the nose mouth, in out the nose mouth, in out in (demonstrating how you put the mask on your face) mouth on the mouth.....orange...." etc. He seemed delighted with the inhaler mask and I guess I'd never seen him get excited about a thing and talk about it quite like that -- while looking at me as if he wanted to talk with me. It was nice and I tried to talk back about it all but am not sure if I did it right. It was like this massive honor -- Leelo really talked to me! I can't tell if he likes it when I hug him, or not.

Seymour clearly in hell from severe ear pain. His and Squid's methods of enduring are different than mine, and seem to involve brightly keeping a stiff upper lip interspersed with slight hysteria. There is smiling, and chirping, and everything seems slightly unreal. Is this a canadian thing?

My methods of enduring the situation would be... grim, sullen retreat into reading, demanding that everyone serve me, and an inner dialogue that goes like, "Just 10 more minutes of this day, and then another 10, and so on, and then I can be unconscious for a while, if there is any mercy in the universe..." interspersed with desperate sobbing and extreme self-pity. Then there would be the drugs and whiskey. And I would want everyone to go away. And small children would be terrified and would not dare disturb me.

Seymour took off to go to the urgent care clinic.

"Are you tired? Do you want some tea? You look really tired."
"Jesus Christ. No. I'm not tired. I'm tired but i'm not TIRED. Can I scrub something? Do anything? Get anything? Stop getting up. Fuck. Please let me do something. Aaaaa, stop, I will do that..." She has nerves of steel!

How. Does. Squid. Do what she does? and take care of everyone? How? She assures me it is not really so hard, but she is lying. That kind of amazing competence is never easy...

Props to the Acrobat for watching Moomin while I went off to do get the prescriptions and try to be useful. I couldn't take Moomin with me as baby Mali is not supposed to be around any other children for the next week or so. I tried not to breathe on her or touch her! And washed my hands 8 million times!

While trying to put Iz to bed, I had a complete brain freeze. Leelo was talking to himself and sort of doing his usual things. It was like, an hour past bedtime by this point. A story? "Um, once there was, um, a little girl who, um, had a spaceship, and......... was, uh, looking for the planet of... uh....the unicorns...." "What was it called?" "......" "Come on, what was the planet named?" "Uh. Planet of the Unicorns. I don't know what they called it in their own language." "oh. Then what?" *deer in headlights* "Um. I don't know. I can't tell a story right now... uh, sorry...." "But you have to tell me what happened! It's not fair! Please tell me!" *no story came to me* *complete failure of brain to function* *fleeing incoherently upstairs with lame injunction to close eyes, go to sleep, and imagine the story*

Watched 2nd episode of Battttlestar Fantastica with squid. Wow it was great! Rook is suspicious, and rightly so, for all I was able to tell him was that it had some great explosions.

Maybe that's how I should have told the unicorn planet story. "And then there was a MASSIVE EXPLOSION IN SPACE and LASERS WERE FIRING EVERYWHERE and there was a cool space battle, the end." "And then what happened?" "The planet exploded."

Comments

[Iris]

Just from reading blogs I had formed the impression that squid is beyond wonderful.This is not how I have viewed other Canadians that I have met so perhaps she is secretly a goddess in human form.
Also - have you seen that ad. for a new pc. game which goes 'Blow Things Up!'. 'Then Blow Them Up Again!'. 'Then .. Blow Them Up Some More!'. Obviously the way to a boy's heart.

[Severin]

Battttlestar Fantastica is really friggen cool. ;-)

[elswhere]

Stories! I suck at stories! When I'm stumped, I just tell the 3 little pigs or something. But Iz is probably too old and sharp to be fobbed off with that.

[Jo]

I tend to tell really scary stories that do nothing to calm the kid down, even though I start off tame enough. By the end everyone is lying in pools of their own vomit and the wolves are coming. Argh.

[Prentiss Riddle]

I used to get the story brain freeze all the time. Which is why I switched to reading them books. Or trotting out my Swiss army knife of meta-stories, The Girl Who Wanted Too Many Stories. Which I need to write down and copyright and then retell here.

[badgerbag]

Well, I am spoiled as Moomin is very undemanding; I can just suggest a few vague things, like some magical animals in a sparkling forest where everything is made of diamonds and raindrops, and then he just lies there with a huge dreamy smile muttering about the enemy and the treasure and the beautiful moonlight and how there are flying mice with wings or whatever. He only requires atmosphere. at best, I do a setup, and then make three things happen and then they win. The end. In desperation one night, I told him Zork 2. How is this possible with all the books and stories I've read? Ridiculous.

Rook, this should horrify you. Teach the child plot, could you?

[Prentiss Riddle]

Well, all his mom requires is a travesí in an alley in Buenos Aires, and a black swan, right? :-)

[badgerbag]

jajajajajajaja!!!!!!1111!!! claro que sí !!!

[Prentiss Riddle]

Saw this, thought of you sweet unicorn-lovers. (Via this.)