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Stories from the Daily Grind

I just finished a rather busy week at work but it ended with some cute stories:

Trying to Pee
One of the things that I work on with my patients is their morning routine. At the hospital, it seems weird to have to actually get up, brush your teeth, and get dressed when all you’re going to do is go back to bed, right? Well, that’s not how it goes in rehab. I saw this little 4-year-old boy yesterday in the wee hours of the morning as he was getting up. As he was trying to put on his socks and shoes, his little bum started tootin’. I asked him, “Do you need to go booboo?” He said, “Nooooo….but I have to go pee pee.” That’s great! We’ve been trying to teach him how to use the toilet all week. So, we made out way over to the bathroom, pulled down his pants and diaper, and waited. He’s really unsteady on his feet so as I was stabilizing him in front of the toilet, he started to rock side to side like he was doing a little dance. I asked him “What are you doing?! You’re supposed to be aiming!” He said, “The pee won’t come out!”. So I turned on the water at the sink and we waited some more. At one point the two of us were yelling “Pee Pee come out! Pee Pee come out!!” It didn’t work but at least he told me that he had to go instead of automatically going in his diaper. What a way to start a morning.

Growing Up
On Wednesday, I was working with a little 4-year-old girl on handwriting. We had the treatment room open and our Rehab Aide, Ian, came in to ask me a question. The little girl stopped her writing and asked me, “Who’s that?” I said, “That’s my friend Ian. She helps us out here in the hospital.” There was a brief pause and then the little girl said, “There’s a boy in my class named Ian and I’m going to marry him when I grow up.” Nice! So I asked her, “So is he your BOYFRIEND?” She sheepishly said, “Yea.” Trying to change the subject a bit, I asked her “So do you know what you want to be when you grow up?” She replied, “Yea, I’m going to be the mommy and he’s going to be the daddy.” Awesome…what a way to bring the conversation back to the boyfriend.

quite a pair

My dad introduced me to this Japanese-made show. The premise of this video is a monkey and dog trained to deliver a package across town. The monkey is trained to remember the path (turning at certain intersections, crossing a small stream, etc.), keep the package in his doggie’s backpack, and deliver the package to a friend. The dog actually belongs to the monkey and they work together to accomplish their goal. It’s so cute that he holds the dog’s leash, puts the package back in the backpack when it falls out, and has to problem-solve his way through the route. You can see him trying to remember which way to turn and coaxing his dog across the water.

In other episodes, their assignments include buying a certain pair of shoes at a store down the street, take photos of animals at the zoo, picking up a certain type of cheese from the store, and going through a park and into a forest to gather a certain type of mushroom. The monkey has been trained to tie up the dog before going into a store and throwing away trash that he sees along the way. He even carries a bag that holds money and he knows to pay the lady at the counter with the money in his bag. This all sounds pretty silly but you just have to watch it to understand. That’s Japanese TV programming for ya.

Baby Zoe

zoe-209.jpgI got an email from Johnny (and Patty) that their little baby girl was born on August 15th. Johnny sent two photos but I decided to post this one because I thought she had the cutest little smile. She’s 7lbs, 1oz. and it sounds like they’re all doing quite well. Congratulations!! I can’t wait to meet her!

I never thought…

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…that dental floss could reunite two old friends. But it did today.

Koa’s best friend is named Fabian Fox (see photo above taken over a year ago). If you haven’t met him yet, Fabian is a stuffed fox that Jes and my brother found at the local Albertsons in the $1 bin. He used to say “Hello, my name is Fabian Fox. Would you like a cafe au lait?” It was hilarious. We thought it would lose its novelty with the dog after a couple days but it has become Koa’s all-time favorite toy. Although it’s now missing an ear and no longer speaks, it’s in a pretty good condition considering how much abuse its taken over the past two years.

Unfortunately, two weeks ago, as a result of an extra exuberant game of tug-o-war, Fabian’s tail ripped off. Oh no! Well, that didn’t phase Koa much until he realized that it left a huge hole, which made it very tempting for him to pull all the stuffing out. What a mess. So, I decided it would be time to put Fabian away until I could come up with a way to fix him.

It’s been at least 3 weeks without his dear friend and Koa seemed a little out of sorts. So, I grabbed a small spool of dental floss and my trusty needle and did some surgery. Koa sat by my feet staring at me – patiently awaiting the results of my handiwork. I decided not to sew his tail back on but to just close up the hole. After a couple quick stitches, Fabian was sewn up and ready to go. Before I could even say “here you go”, Koa snatched him from my hands and ran to the other room. About 30 minutes later, I went upstairs to grab something from my room and and found him napping on the floor of our bedroom with his old pal by his side.

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I guess even dogs can have a Dirty Wow Wow.

I love my Admin.

About a year ago, I filed a complaint to my Network Admin. I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t fire him after all. Just hours ago, I thought my photos from last night’s party were doomed. Fortunately, I was so distraught that I told my admin as soon as he woke up expecting him to say, “good job, ya dummy”. Instead there was a pleasant turn of events. As I was rolling around on the bed in mid-tantrum saying “They’re gone! They’re gone!”, he calmly said, “Give me your SD Card and reader.” I said, “No way, I deleted them for good! You can’t get them back.” I even sarcastically said, “I’ll give you a dollar if you get them back.” So, I went and got them and with a quick Google search and a couple clicks of his laptop keyboard, my photos were on their way to recovery! Holy crap! This guy’s a genius! And so a year later, my Admin has restored my faith and my photos.

Dear Admin,

You are the bestest admin in the whole wide world! For now, at least.

Love, beakatude

And here are the few photos I took last night.  It was Howard’s Graduation Party but he was so busy chatting-it-up with his 70 guests that I didn’t actually get a photo of him.  I know, I suck.  I’ll just have to wait for the photos that Patti took.

Monkey and Dragon Loot the Town

DSC_0960.jpgMarie brought Cole over and we met up with my neighbor Khai and her 14-month-old boy Lance. We went Trick-or-Treating together this evening and what an adventure it was! Our little monkey and dragon went to about six houses and collected quite a loot! Since it was their first Trick-or-Treat outing, there was some confusion at first. Eventually, they figured out that when the door opens, you stick your hand in a bowl and grab as many colorful wrappers as you can. Cole insisted on tearing into one of the chocolate wrappers and got his first taste of chocolate. It sure was tough prying it out of his hands after that. Lance seemed to enjoy his first real Halloween and hanging out with his new friend Cole. They were so adorable in their pudgy-looking outfits. Here are the photos.