Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Hospital Visits and Burnt Cookies

Here's a little bit of Bella to sate your thirst, but read on after watching the video...

I started this week with a couple days of vacationing-with-a-baby recuperation. Among the approved activities were shuffling around the house until two o’clock in my workout clothes and supervising Bella in her sleep. Having the internet connected after a two month fast didn’t boost productivity either.

Much sooner than I wished, I remembered the speaking assignment we had been given for the following Sunday. Bella distracted us enough at Carthage that we almost didn’t notice the second counselor of the bishopric lurking at the Visitor’s Center. We said “hello,” and left with an assignment to speak about the restoration in sacrament meeting. Nine o’clock church squeezes out any ideas of writing a talk on Sunday morning.

Besides starting my talk on Wednesday I had the opportunity of being stood up with the missionaries. Sister Updike called me just in time to pack up the diaper bag and jog to the institute building with wet hair and Bella’s stroller in tow. We waited for an hour, but their most reliable investigator never came.

Ryan came home with a surprise on Thursday; steel toed boots. The city handed him the box, along with a pack of socks and some T-shirts with the city logo on them as he was leaving the office. They weren’t hinting at his choice of apparel. Steel toed boots are required for all street workers, which is where he will be for the next few weeks. It appears he’ll be getting a free farmer’s burn too!

Last week we played tennis at night when you have to hop across the court to avoid crunching beetles into the cement, and keep your mouth clamped shut to avoid unsolicited snacks. On Friday we decided to brave the twelve o’clock sun instead of playing after dark.

Two serves after we started our match we threw our gear back into the trunk and bolted to the hospital when Bella appeared to be gagging on something. After half an hour in an emergency room, shoving tubes and nasal sprays into Bella’s nose, she was red all over from screaming so hard and was still choking. Dr. Rundquist, after speaking with an ear, nose and throat specialist, diagnosed Bella with an acute case of “unspecified conjunctivitis.” Once she calmed down and went to sleep her breathing returned to normal and so far she hasn’t had any relapses.

The magic of a Saturday morning can cure almost anything. Bella forgot the trauma of the day before. She was in such good sprits that she started rolling onto her back consistently. Although she hasn’t gone beyond army crawling, she’s much more mobile than a 3.5 month old should be, in my opinion. Is it too much to ask for her to be stationary for two more months?

On Sunday we decided to bake cookies as an act of service. The first gooey batch exited the oven steaming with melted chocolate chips. We helped ourselves to a few of them while the other batch was baking. When we took the other ones out we discovered that sacrificial batches aren’t limited to the first. There were only 4 good cookies left by then, so we decided to try again next week.

Ryan went out with the missionaries that night. Carlos is from Mexico, and didn’t understand much of the first lesson that the missionaries gave in English. Ryan tried to recall the first lesson, and teach it in Spanish. What a coincidence that we had just given a talk on the first discussion in sacrament meeting that morning. Maybe the assignment was inspired after all. We will be going back on Wednesday.

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Love Ryan, Celia and Bella

3 comments:

Milly said...

wow, that is scary with Bella and not being able to breathe. I am so glad that everything is fine. I can't believe that she is only 3.5 months old! She is so tiny (relatively. Look what I have to compare her to). I can't believe she is rolling over! I was pretty lucky that mine didn't roll over untill he was 6.5 months, but a week after rolling over he was crawling faster than lightening. Good job on meeting your goals! Keep it going.

Andrea said...

I'm so glad to hear Bella's okay now, what a scary experience! And it's amazing how active she is--she's doing great! Good luck with your goals. How fun that you guys are learning tennis. Oh, and I submitted my vote...I think it would be fun to see older videos of you guys. What a creative idea!

Alicia and Ryan said...

Well, I'm glad Bella is okay! She sounds resilient. I think it's the Darley in her. :)