the good, the bad, and the ugly

Or, How We Spent the Last Days of Summer Vacation

The Good
Last week my mom passed through Brooklyn en route to the Baltic cruise she was embarking on from Copenhagen. Her visit with us was short, and for the most part, we kept our activities low key and close to home, with one grand exception. On Wednesday night we headed into the city to try our luck again at the Newsies lottery. It was our second attempt to win tickets, but when we saw how big the crowd was, it seemed the odds were stacked against us once more. And when, about half-way through the drawing, they still hadn't called either of our names, I stopped holding my breath in anxious anticipation.

And then -- they called my name! I claimed my two tickets and we were in. While it was the same production and even the same cast as the off-broadway version I saw last year at the Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey, I enjoyed it a lot more. Maybe the slightly altered story line and song lyrics had finally grown on me, maybe the practice of a longer run helped the cast performed better, or maybe things just really are better on Broadway. Whatever it was, we both had a blast and I enjoyed the show a lot more the second time around.

The Bad
Earlier in August I took the boys in for a routine dental check-up. Caleb checked out fine, with the exception of the devastating news that he had to stop sucking his fingers because he was developing an overbite. (And like I mentioned in his birthday letter, he has amazed us all by immediately quitting cold turkey. He hasn't sucked his fingers since, day or night.)

It was Garrett's first time to get x-rays of his teeth, the films of which showed that in the six months since his last appointment his bottom molars had grown together, and plaque, which we hadn't ever needed to floss out before, had caused three cavities to develop, consequently requiring two follow-up visits to fill them. Surprisingly, Garrett didn't mind. In fact, he was thrilled because, as he frequently told me, he loves the dentist! The first cavity was filled with no problem, but when I took him back for his second filling appointment last week, the dentist discovered that the decay was worse than originally thought. The nerve was exposed, leaving us with the only option to perform a baby root canal. Yikes! Garrett was a trooper, though. They did it right then, and he hardly flinched. (I might flinch, though, when the bill for that unexpected procedure arrives!) And now we've learned the hard way that flossing our children's teeth is extremely important.

The Ugly
Late Friday night, after we'd all gone to bed, Caleb came to my bedside, told me his mouth hurt, and then threw up all over me, beginning a string of never-ending trips to the laundromat as over the next four days nearly every one of us fell prey to a nasty stomach bug. (Matthew, by some miracle, is so far the only one of us who has avoided it.) Garrett, who bit the dust late Sunday night, had it the worst, and somehow managed to vomit all over his bed and Caleb's twice in a twelve hour period (the second time occurring, of course, shortly after we'd washed all the bedding and remade the beds). I'll spare you all the gory details, but I will say that all of our household linens and our floors have been thoroughly cleaned several times. It hasn't been pretty. We all finally seem to be on the mend (Garrett claims, when I ask him how his tummy feels, that he is "Good and great and healthy!"), and just in time, too, because Garrett's first day of kindergarten is tomorrow.


So while the end of our summer vacation wasn't particularly spectacular, it's over nonetheless, and I'm more than a little relieved. And tomorrow begins an undetermined amount of years that will revolve around the academic calendar. That is a routine I think I can wrap my head around.