Caleb was a happy, happy boy all the way while on the interstate, and for nearly all of the way from the interstate to the hospital parking ramp. He quite obviously recognized the pavilion and parking ramp area as he got noticeably agitated and upset as we drove in. We got him settled down and looked at the football players in Sports Illustrated to occupy his brain.
This time, when they called his name, instead of wailing and crying big'ol crocodile tears, he just did his little whiny noise which tells us that he is experiencing some pretty intense anxiety.
He settled in when we saw the big fish tank and toys. He got to play for about 5 minutes until they called his name for gathering vitals and asking Mom and Dad some questions. He was worried but no tears.
For those unaware, this marks some MAJOR progress for the lad.
We spent some time in the room reading books and doing temperatures and blood pressures and weight and stuff like that.
When the good Doc came into the room, he repositioned himself and latched on to my neck tight enough to make me squirm to regain airflow. But, no tears!
Finally we were done with all of that hoo-hah, and went upstairs to get some blood drawn.
Uh-oh...
We waited up there for a short time, maybe 6 or 7 minutes and he had me check his tummy a few times so that I would KNOW that he was hungry. As if the steady reminders of, "Hungee. Caleb hungee. Me hungee. Hungee?" weren't good enough.
Then Anthonia Ibeawuchi (that's pretty close) called his name as best as a foreigner could. "Kallob?".
More whiny groaning, but still no tears.
Anthonia was a God-send, to put it lightly! She pulled out the rubber gloves and Caleb started to cry a little. She immediately said, "No, Kallob, touch my hand. Touch my hand." He reached his hand out and put it in hers with the gloves on. She started gently rubbing his hands and saying stuff like, "It's okay, it's okay.". He settled right down. He was sitting on my lap, so I had first hand evidence of it as you could feel his body relax.
She showed him the little tool used to prick his finger, and you couldn't see the needle. He looked it over, approved it, and she told him as she gently took his finger, "Little sting, okay, little sting. It's all done now.". She then massaged his finger to get the blood in the vial, which he watched with razor sharp precision! :-)
Once she was completely done, she gave him his choice of flourescent band-aides, he picked orange, and put it on him and released us.
Free at last! Free at last!
He was happy as a clam that we were done and walked tall like he does when he's coming home from preschool.
So we left the hospital, went over to Kinnick to take his pic with Herky up behind him.
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| He was excited that we were at the place where they played footbal. |
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| Next, we drove to the Amana Colonies to have some lunch and do a little wine tasting. |
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| The little dude in front of place where they might sell some flowers and stuff for your yard... or something. |
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| The boys on a swing that put daddy to sleep. Quickly. |
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| Momma and Master Caleb on the bridge. |
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| Caleb has taken a shining to walking on whatever walls that he can find. |
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| The chocolate haus. We were looking around in here when the lady working asked us if he was from Korea. We explained the situation that he was from China and we had only had him for about 5 months. She has a five year old girl that they adopted from Vietnam a few years back. Always good to run into folks like this and get some other stories (and chocolate!) and perspectives. |
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| The building off to the right is where we had lunch. We got Caleb a smoked pork chop that was outstanding. He thought so too, but he wanted my sausages, and he wanted them bad. I cut the two sausages up into bite sized chunks and gave him three pieces of each kind. He gobbled down a few bites of his pork chop, piles of sour kraut, tried the spiced apple, tried the cottage cheese, tried the lettuce salad, tried the taters n' gravy but poo-pooh'd them all. He was happily eating away when all of sudden, he noticed that my plate was empty. He got a really mad look on his face and said, "HEY!!". The poor boy wanted more sausage and we were nearly dying laughing. Thankfully, he was content with the remainder of his chop and green beans so we avoided ordering another meal. :-) |
We visited the Fireside winery as we experienced their wares at the Swine festival at DMACC a few years back. They were just as good today!
We left there and drove back into Iowa City to go to John's Grocery where a fella can choose from probably close to 1000 different kinds of beer from all over the world. Choose I did. Football season can't get here soon enough now!
One of the reasons that we wanted to drive back into IC, is so that we could time how long it would take to drive from the hospital to Ely Iowa where we were staying with some new friends. A heaping pile of thanks to Dan, Shauna, Lydia and Brooks. Especially Mr. Brooks as he is the dude who gave up his bedroom for the night. Brooks also filled the void about as good as anybody ever could for me missing Robby. He wanted me to read a book to him, I did. He wanted me to play tickle monster with him, I teased, but didn't. He showed me a good number of all of his toys and cracked me up while doing it. Apparently, he had experienced a lengthy nap earlier in the day and the boy was firing on all cylinders!
Before heading to their house, we went to Applebees for supper as they weren't home from work yet. Caleb was eating away and out of blue, asked where Robby was. I told him at home. He looked concerned, because we obviously weren't at home and that would make big brother be home alone. He asked again. I told him that, "Robby is at home with grandma & grandpa".
Whoops...
Caleb said, "OH! Grand-a-ma & pampa? Home? Caleb home?". "No. Not yet", I said. He responded and surprised me, "Why?". Ummmmm...
Yikes. I didn't go into the whole hospital/surgery thing with him. I told him that we were going to meet some new friends and that he could play with some new kid friends. Thankfully, that was enough... for a little while. On the way to Dan and Shauna's, he again asked if we could go home.
I have to say, as painful as it was for him to ask that and know what was coming in the morning, it was also very assuring that he calls our home, well... home.
Home is where we all wish to be and we'll be back there soon enough. Until then, there's a few roadblocks and hurdles for us.
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