Strangely, suddenly, my Flickr feed is acting very wonky. That’s why there are no thumbnails showing below the masthead (I had to remove the code pulling them in). Stranger still, when I use Flickr’s auto-posting feature to post a picture from my photostream, it’s stripping out a bunch of characters between here and there so the HTML I get from them is useless. Now I have to go figure out what’s going on.
Update: Looks like my xmlrpc.php file was corrupted. I downloaded a clean copy of WordPress, renamed the old file, uploaded a clean copy, and then went to settings -> writing to make sure the service was enabled. It looks like everything is working again.
Finn and I took our neighbors up on their kind offer to use the pool next door last night. At first, she was more interested in running around the edge and telling me what to do, but after 20 minutes I got her to join me in the water. As the sun set behind the trees and the mosquitoes came out, I had to basically drag her out of the water. In this photo, she’s asking me to put the camera down, take off my glasses, and come back in the water.
I got to spend two very special hours with Finn at the playground this evening, and while the light was right, I shot about 200 photos. And then, I put the camera down and got on the slide with my girl.
So today has been a lousy one for the Lockardugan clan. Finn came back from the river with a fever, which has been spiking and falling with alarming frequency and severity, which resulted in a seizure at the vet’s office this afternoon. She was at the vet’s office because Geneva the cat has gotten to the point where she needs to be put to sleep. Poor Mama has been bouncing between caring for Finn and handling Geneva’s final hours, and I can’t imagine it’s been easy.
The river trip itself was great, up until Finn got sick. The water was calm and warm, and we all enjoyed the chance to float and relax. Finn tried on her life jacket and spent almost an hour riding on my back as we floated in the current, and it was almost impossible to get her away from the dock and the water. She even stayed up to roast some marshmallows by the fire before going to sleep.
Sunday morning she got us up early and I took her down to the dock to watch the mist roll out over the water. We laid on the couch inside and watched a little Cat in the Hat on my phone while everyone slowly rose, then had a tasty breakfast Mr. Scout put together. Finn was uncharacteristically low-key after breakfast (whenever she turns down bacon, something is seriously wrong) and her food came up in my hands while she sat on my lap.
The pediatrician says her fever symptoms brought on the seizure, and they’re doing some tests to see what brought the fever on. For now, she’s curled up next to me on the couch while Mama says goodbye to Geneva at the vet’s office.
I will miss that feisty little girl.
I’m too tired to write anything about the 4th right now, so enjoy some pictures.
Saturday morning, I rose bright and early, got the ladies fed, and hoofed it up to Mariottsville to help a Scout buddy clean out and organize his workshop. He’s come through for me and my Scout on multiple occasions, so it was the least I could do to spend an afternoon elbow deep in insulation and auto parts to begin returning the favor. I also got to meet and work with a bunch of folks I’ve only read or heard about, which was great, and to top it all off, his mom made us some delicious barbecue for dinner.
Finn and I spent Sunday running errands and reading books together so Mama would have a day off; her reward for accompanying me from boring store to boring store was a final stop at the Toys ‘R’ Us to look for some good hand puppets. Sadly, everything we found was associated with a Major Motion Picture or theme park mascot, so we explored everything else. She spent lots of time in the electric car section (she loves to test-drive), the book section, and the Thomas the Train Engine display. I felt awful when it came time to leave, because we had so much fun playing together.
After dinner, I sat on the couch and read books with her, one after the other, until it was time to go upstairs and get ready for bed. As I left the room and clicked off the light, I said, “Thanks for a great day, Finn.” She replied, “You’re welcome. Happy father’s day, Daddy.”
→ This is a syndicated post from my Scout weblog. More info here.
I’ve been getting up with Finn at 3AM to use the bathroom, hoping the experience will get her (or, at least, her bladder) used to peeing during the middle of the night. I set an alarm on my phone and what I’ll usually do is get up, use the bathroom myself, and then go in to gently rouse the girl. These days, she’s kicking the blankets off completely, so she’ll be surrounded by her stuffed animals, splayed out in the center of her bed. I usually locate Ox first, then quietly wake her by whispering in her ear, and plant her on her feet at the foot of the bed. Steering her by her head, we stumble into the bathroom, and I set her on the potty, where she plugs her thumb in her mouth and Ox into the crook of her arm. I wait until she’s done, get her all buttoned back up, and steer her back into her room to get tucked back in again. Last night was especially foggy for both of us; neither one of us said a word until I tucked the blanket back up under her chin and whispered, “Night-night, little one.” She whispered, “Night-night, Daddy,” which made me smile. I found myself saying, “I love you,” as I stood up to leave, and she whispered, “I love you too, Daddy,” before turning on her side to go back to sleep.
This is right before I started a dinosaur puppet show for her (the theatre is behind her to the left).