Minky & Me

We had a great visit from my Dad and Diane (aka Gigi) Sunday and Monday (see the photos by clicking the thumbnail on the right). Minky provided the entertainment.

It was very hot on Sunday so I put Minky in her bathing suit and Layr sprayed her with the hose. Gigi, Papa and I all watched. At first she liked it and repeatedly called out, “again,” but after awhile she didn’t want to be sprayed anymore and would say, indignantly, “don’t water me, daddy!” We had a good laugh over it.

Minky got some great gifts from Gigi and Papa. A raincoat with frogs on it and an umbrella to match. At one point during the spraying Gigi (I think) suggested that Minky stand under the umbrella while being sprayed. There were Dora books, too, which we have none of and a really cool magnetic counting book.

On Monday morning, Gigi, Minky and I were in the kitchen chatting. Papa had gone to take a shower. Suddenly Minky was pulling my arm saying we had to go see Papa. I said no that he needed his privacy. She said, “okay.” The next thing I know, Minky is standing in the bathroom talking away to my dad as he was getting out of the shower. Hysterical.

Last week was the week of our first vacation away from Minky, and what a letdown it was. We went to Nantucket Monday with the intention of coming back on Friday. Mainey (Minky’s grandmother) came to babysit.

During our nightly calls, we were apprised of the fantastic time Minky and Mainey were having. Minky got new shoes, painted outside each afternoon, and took lots of walks with her delighted grandmother.

Layr and I on the other hand were having much less fun. The cold I had for a week before leaving turned into, I suspected, a colossal sinus infection. For my part, sleepless nights, constant headache and fatigue were the highlights of the trip. Layr had more fun but it was of a lonely variety.

As for Nantucket, it’s very tony, not to mention pricey. After having appetizers at The Brotherhood of Thieves the first night, Layr read the check and said, “welcome to Nantucket.”

Tuesday I got acquainted with a lot of the history of Nantucket as written about in one of the guide books. I did this from bed. Layr got out some but couldn’t muster much enthusiasm for sightseeing or biking on his own.

I rallied on Wednesday and we rode our tandem to the beach. It was lovely, as was the island in general. We sat in the sun reading: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close for Layr and Breakfast at Tiffany’s for me. Layr dipped his toes into the ocean.

By Thursday it was clear I wasn’t getting any better and even a trip to the local clinic wouldn’t patch me up enough to enjoy another day. We checked out of our hotel and headed for the ferry, from which I called my doctor. Now after three days on antibiotics and Mucinex I am still sick.

In hindsight I should have known it might be an ill-fated trip owing to a vacation I took there with my parents and sister years ago. I was in college, my sister still in high school. We bickered the entire time. I remember trading insults – the way only sisters do – late one night in the bedroom we shared.

My parents, surely out of an innate compulsion to save money (and after seeing the prices, who could blame them), decided to forgo the car, which wouldn’t have made a difference had the house they rented been closer to the center of town. We took a taxi out to the cottage when we arrived but I remember feeling humilation at having to walk alongside the shoulder of the road in order to get to the restaurant to have dinner (it seemed too Beverly Hillbillies at the time).

Another thing I remember about the trip was scalding myself accidentally one afternoon in the shower. I was stunned for some time after at how I ricocheted around the stall like a pinball while clawing at the faucet. The worst part, being then and now an avid beach goer, was that the uninhabited beach was strewn with unfriendly rocks – not a speck of sand anywhere – and was the size of a beach blanket.

I was surprised this week to read that there are actually 80 miles of beach on Nantucket. I guess the upside is that I got to see a few more this trip.

Minky recently learned how to give the ‘thumbs up’ sign. She’s into it. She digs where we’re going with that hip opposible gesture and uses it whenever she sees fit – often and generally appropriately. Today, I brought her to the park. She climbs very well – fearless and reasonably careful. I decided to help her to the top of a big, scary, for-older-kids-only, modern rope-based jungle gym to see what she’d do. Instead of being scared, she kept climbing higher and higher, scaring even me, and I don’t scare easily. When she reached her personal apex, her highest, scarriest point, she confidently removed one hand from the ropes, looked me in the eye, raised a thumb and said, “thumbs up, Daddy.”

The other day, Minky and I (Daddy) were chatting about Diet Coke (just for adults), and about scratchy beards (only on Daddy, not on Mommy). Coco told me that Daddy has a scratchy beard because he drinks soda. It was her first scientific hypothesis. Daddy drinks soda. Daddy has a scratchy beard. Soda causes scratchy beards. Perfectly logical. I need to cut down on my soda intake. Think of the money I’ll save in razor blades.

It’s the sixth day of rain. I took Rocky for a walk. We met no one and for our neighborhood at 8 AM, that says something. We strolled down to the park, which was recently redone. It was lovely and wet and fragrant.

My overall pant legs and my neck are soaked. It is so dark out that it seems like a winter afternoon. We might take Minky to see the Shaggy Dog later. Otherwise we might all go bananas.

It has rained all week long. Though it is not raining at the moment it is very gray. Minky is sleeping. I have been reading “The Year of Magical Thinking” by Joan Didion. The weather and the book go well together.

Last night my sister called from New Orleans to tell us she and her beau got engaged. We are thrilled for them both.

Our new game consists of me closing my eyes to “sleep,” and Minky opening one of my eyelids. Every time she gets an eyelid open she laughs.

She is saying “I did a good job!” quite a bit lately. Her voice has also changed. It may have to do with her intonation, I’m not sure, but it is very cute. Maybe it’s that she sounds more grown up when she speaks.

Today in the car she said spontaneously, “I miss Mainey.” She hasn’t ever said she missed anyone before.

Yesterday Minky slept later than usual and when I burst into her room singing she seemed happy to see me and feeling good. When I got her out of her bed, however, she began crying and hugging me. One thing this kid never does in the morning is cry right off the bat or hug me like I’m a life raft.

Sure enough she has the beginnings of an ear infection.

At 2:15 AM this morning my belle fille came to tell Layr that The Brawn was having terrible chest pains. Several minutes later Layr came to ask me to get up and help.

When I went into Tristan’s bedroom, he was clutching this head board. I stayed with him while Layr got dressed. They went to the emergency room at the closest hospital and then on to another when the first couldn’t figure out what was wrong. They arrived home at 10:30 AM with a prescription of Zantac.