Oct 21 - how many weeks are you staying ?

A four-year-old's perspective on time ... hours ? days ? weeks ? a lifetime ?

Jeffrey is at work. Sara has a doctor's appointment. Emma is bouncing around on her ball. Abby is nosing my knee to get away from the bouncing. Sandy is making French Toast.

Here's a question -- if French Fries are called Frites in France, what is French Toast called ?

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Who will be next, that's the question. Yes, who will be the next to visit us in Florida -- of our kids, that is. Megan was the first, enjoying the new house, watching the dolphins ... but even she was there with rental furniture. Jeffrey, Sara and Emma were next, at Easter last year, still with rental furniture. David is thinking about coming down; Sandy said that even Stef has intimated that she's interested, but who will take the plunge !

Shortly after we get back we are moving our furniture from Saxon to Keely. Enough is enough. We're also going to move forward and look for a long-term rental. If I can get enough for the place, I'd happily take it off the market for five years -- who knows, at some point we could sell Keely and move back to Saxon ! Certainly there's more of a market for the Keely home than the Saxon home, just because there is only so much waterfront property to go around. Of course with global warming, existing waterfront could be underwater, creating a whole new market ! One of these days the cottage, at about 600' over sea level, could be oceanfront ! I don't think that will happen in our lifetimes, however.

Sara, Sandy and Emma are out with Abby at the Exeter (?) trail. I think that's what it's called. Abby gets a new are to sniff, but will they let her stop and smell the roses ?

I just got back from the BofA branch closest to here -- 5 miles -- not exactly close. This is not a hot area for BofA, obviously.

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Abby is flopped on my lap. She's tired from about 3 miles of walking on the trail. She needs to get more exercise !

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Chunky beef soup -- goulash -- mashed potatoes, meatloaf ... locals are still donating food, not sure how long that's going to / supposed to last. Tomorrow will mark one month since Alexander's passing.

I was doing some reading on SIDS, because Jeffrey was saying that SIDS babies don't or cannot recover. I found two cases, one where a baby tended to giggle in his sleep and the day caregiver decided to video it for the parents. The caregiver also attached a monitor. Anyway, the baby did giggle but shortly afterwards, stopped breathing. The caregiver immediately started CPR and called an ambulance. Some time later, in the ambulance, the baby started breathing on his own again. Was this sleep apnea or SIDS ? In either case, the baby would have died. This baby recovered.

SIDS isn't smothering. There's no struggle. The brain simply shuts down or at least shuts down the breathing. The video from the death of the giggling infant showed no struggle.

In another case, a mother had a baby on her lap while she was doing email. The baby passed away right there. When she realized that he wasn't breathing it was too late.

Alexander was blue when Sara found him. The heart does keep beating throughout but sometime, obviously, there is irreparable brain damage. There is no pain, per se.

The more that people hear about Alexander, the more cases of SIDS come to light. I got an email from Dick Fenton yesterday to say that his wife's grand-daughter passed away from SIDS in 1982. The parents had been living with them (Dick and his wife) until the baby was 2 months old. After they moved away, the baby passed away. Dick says that his wife still visits the grave, almost 30 years later.

I take back what I said earlier. There is pain - on our part, not on the child's part. We'll never forget.

Sara posted on Facebook yesterday that she'd been to the obgyn for a checkup and they found no fibroids etc. which had plagued her earlier, removed through surgery. They do plan on trying again but it's not without risk. There is a high risk of pre-eclampsia again, 30%-50% or somewhere in there. That means risk for Sara and risk for the child. Regardless, that's their decision. They may have to go through fertility treatments again. I don't want to even think about the risks associated with multiple births and pre-e. Anyway, that's all might-be's in the future.

We will move Onward.

Today we are going to have dinner with Mariadela and Leonas with Emma for company (entertainment ?). Jeffrey and Sara will go to a movie or something. Nothing else is planned at this point.