Speaking of Lillian, what size is she wearing and could she use any clothes? Several friends gave me tons of adorable clothes when we left NC, but since it's still 90 here and projected to maybe get down to 80 in the next few months, I don't think Ellie will ever get to wear them.

She's about 19/20lbs, and about 29", I think. She's about to move up to a Hanna 80, and is growing out of her 12 month clothes at last, so I'd say she's in 12-18 month, with the occasional 18-24.

What size is Ellie?

Is she anywhere near fitting into the bowling outfit or the cheongsam, Plei?

(PICTURES!?!)

In my head Ellie still looks like this .

Me, too!

What size is Ellie?

She's a 12 months, generally, just passing into a Hanna 80 herself. The thing is that she's got tons of 12-18 stuff that she will never wear. We are going to my parents next week for 10 days, but I don't think we will be back in the States again until maybe next spring at the very earliest. If you want, I'd be happy to send you the 12-18 stuff.

OMG why will this day not end? Why will this week not end? Why am I SO damn tired? Bah.

She's a 12 months, generally, just passing into a Hanna 80 herself. The thing is that she's got tons of 12-18 stuff that she will never wear. We are going to my parents next week for 10 days, but I don't think we will be back in the States again until maybe next spring at the very earliest. If you want, I'd be happy to send you the 12-18 stuff.

Sure. I'll see what all we have in lightweight I can send your way, too.

Me and Irene: LET"S GO MEET THE PANSIES!!!!

YAY!!!!!

and chatter monkeys will BITE the fingers off people who are too bossy. They will bite them right off.

LOVE.

Hec, I would love to come visit, but I don't think I'll be able to until Sunday. Will JZ be out by then?

Stephanie, ZOMG! Ellie's so big

You want to know why I don't have kids? Because I have to deal with my dad, that's why.

t rant on

He calls me this morning, I ask how he is -- even though his hospital tests yesterday gave him the all-clear -- and he says he feels okay, but he's been having some trouble breathing. He says this as calmly as if he were telling me about what he ate for breakfast.

I tell him that having trouble breathing isn't generally considered a good thing, and he should call his cardiologist. He says, oh, I was going to just wait and see if it went away. And I say, right, it'll either go away or YOU'LL DIE.

He says, it's not that big of a deal. I say, Dad, NOT BREATHING is a pretty big deal so call the damned doctor or I am going to flip my shit right now on the phone with you.

He agrees, a little irritably, to call the doctor, and we get off the phone. I try to calm down from the aneurysm.

Fast-forward to just now. Dad calls, said he talked to the cardiologist, and they said that all the tests yesterday were good, nothing is amiss, they don't think that the breathing issues have to do with his heart, and he should talk to his primary-care doctor.

Then he says, off-handedly, that his breathing troubles are like what he had a month (or 6 weeks) ago, when his primary-care doctor gave him an Advair inhaler.

I'm sorry, I said. He gave you WHAT?

His primary-care doctor didn't definitively diagnose him with asthma, but the symptoms Dad went to him with were definite asthma symptoms. And then he described them to me -- chest tightness, he wakes up at night b/c he's laboring to get a breath, his chest burns when he can't get enough air, etc.

Having had asthma myself, I say, Dad, why didn't you mention to me that your doctor gave you an inhaler for asthma?

Oh, says Dad, after a day or 2 my breathing got better, and I never used the inhaler, so I figured it wasn't asthma.

I say, Dad, if you had told me IN THE FIRST PLACE that your primary-care doctor gave you an inhaler, then when I yelled at you this morning, I would have just told you to use the inhaler and see if it helped.

I am currently slamming my head against my desk and hoping my brain just falls out and rolls away so I don't have to deal with this hand-holding caretaker shit any longer.

Oh, Steph. Your dad's a piece of work all right.

Oh, poor Steph.

Kids - Parents. Parents - Kids. meh.

Finally talked with J. Mom got more pain meds. The kidney has good blood flow and is thinking about doing its job - just hasn't decided to work full time yet. They say this is not unusual.

I didn't get to talk with mom, though. I'm doing better about that emotionally. BUT both J and DH have asked if I'm driving up there this evening. wtf? It is a 3 hour round trip, with no traffic issues. I have ignored homework since Sunday (with teacher permission) but I can't do that forever. Nevermind caring for my kids and being half alive for work tomorrow. Work - where I'm still doing my job plus covering for my assistant who is still recovering from cancer treatments.

After work, K-Bug and I are going to get mani-pedi's and ignore the world for an hour. We will probably even ignore eachother.