My Experiences as a Father... September 5 to October 4, 2001 (29th month)

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Wednesday, October 3, 2001
I was holding Hilde while sitting in a chair.  She spit out her pacifier and I asked Maeve to pick it up for me.  When she picked it up, Maeve put it in her mouth to clean if off, just like Jill does with Maeve's pacifiers.
 

Saturday, September 29, 2001 - Paramedics are different, session 4
These paramedic refreshers are at least 48 hours, or usually six sessions.  They are required every two years.  The paramedic who had to be woken up in session 2 thought he had last taken one prior to December 31, 1999.  He had been working Friday and Saturday nights, so he was barely conscious during the class.  Rarely were his eyelids more than half open.  He would get off his shift Saturday morning and sleep a few hours before class, sleep during lunch, and sleep for about two hours before he went back to work on Saturday night.

Today he was absent.  Apparently he had somehow taken a six session class this year, and just hadn't remembered it.  He was missing out on sleep even though he didn't need the class, so he isn't coming any more.
 

Tuesday, September 25, 2001 - Hilde 2 months old
Hilde went for her two-month-old physical today.  She was 23 inches (75th percentile) and 14 lb 11 oz (over the 95th percentile).  On August 28 I listed Maeve's weights at two and eight months.  At two months, Hilde is only 5 ounces away from Maeve's eight-month weight.  That's a lot of breast milk.
 

Sunday, September 23, 2001
On the way to church, I was behind a car in a traffic circle that stopped to let another car come in.  Of course, the rule is that the cars in the circle have the right of way.  It just gums everything up when people don't do what they are supposed to do, so I honked.  Maeve asked why I was honking and I tried to explain the rules of traffic circles.  She didn't understand.  After church we got some sandwiches and ate lunch by the traffic circle while I explained how they were supposed to work.
 

Saturday, September 22, 2001 - Paramedics are different, session 3
Today during the paramedic refresher class the topic of sleeping at work during the night shift came up.  One crew had gone into a cemetery to sleep, and the caretaker had unknowingly locked them in at dusk.  One crew was asleep in the cab and a concerned citizen woke them up because she thought they had been mugged or something.  Another crew opened the back doors and was asleep in the back; someone had called the police to check on them.  Another crew went to sleep at a fire scene while waiting for the fire department to need any help.  They woke up a few hours later to find that all of the firemen had left, but no one had let them know they were done.
 

Friday, September 21, 2001
When I got laid off, we told Maeve that I would be "working at home" for a few days.  When I started contracting, we said I had to go to "work away".

Maeve was breaking Jill's gum out of her blister packets and putting it in a drawer.  Maeve said she had to "work away" on Saturday, and having the gum in the drawer would help her find it when she was getting ready to leave on Saturday.
 

Thursday, September 20, 2001
Maeve was supposed to be taking a nap, but thought it would be funny to take off her diaper.  I said it was time for a nap, and that she had to leave her diaper on.  As soon as I put it back on, she started to take it off.  I got some duct tape and taped down the tabs.

When Jill went to wake up Maeve, she asked Maeve if she should duct tape my underwear on to see how I feel when someone does that to me.
 

Tuesday, September 18, 2001
We were reading a book about motorcycles and Jill was saying one was a police motorcycle.  I pointed to the caption for another picture that said the other picture was of a courier motorcycle.  Jill said the one she was talking about was a police motorcycle.  I said that I saw no blue lights on it.  Maeve pointed to the text and said that the text said there were blue lights.
 

Monday, September 17, 2001
I got a magazine with a picture of the Pentagon bombing.  I showed Maeve the ambulances and that the building wasn't as tall as the World Trade Center, so only part of it fell down.  That could be fixed.  She went to get her ambulance to compare with the ones on the cover.
 

Sunday, September 16, 2001
Jill was supposed to do the Children's Sermon today.  When we sat down for church, I said she had better tell me about it, because Hilde might need to be fed or something when Jill was supposed to be doing the sermon.  Jill reassured me that it wasn't time for Hilde to eat, but still she gave me a 30 second overview.  As I had feared, Hilde needed Jill's attention about three minutes before the sermon.  I think it turned out to be a pretty bad Children's Sermon, but I did a very good job considering the amount of preparation I had been able to do.
 

Saturday, September 15, 2001 - Paramedics are different, session 2
In the paramedic refresher class today, the instructor waited about five minutes after the scheduled start of the class to ask were one of the students was.  Two of the supervisors looked at each other and asked if anyone had woken him up.  Apparently he had worked the night before and was asleep on a desk somewhere.  I haven't seen anyone sleeping on desks at CVS, but it would be nice to be able to do that.
 

Thursday, September 13, 2001
Maeve watched the coverage of the World Trade Center bombing with us.  When Jill explained that the buildings were broken, Maeve said I could fix them.  It took some convincing to make her believe that the buildings weren't going to be able to be fixed.
 

Monday, September 10, 2001
Jill asked Maeve who she was on the phone with.  Maeve said it was Mack, her other sister.  Later in the day, Maeve was on the phone again and Jill asked who it was.  Maeve said it was Don, her sister.  Jill said she thought that her other sister's name was Mack.  Maeve said that Don was Mack's father.  Then they had to call me to tell me that Mack and Don were coming over for dinner.

Jill claims this is "imaginative play", instead of the "parallel play" that has been so popular.  I hope the "parallel play" doesn't go away altogether.  It is nice to have Maeve help me around the house or fixing the cars, and have her think that it's playing.
 

Sunday, September 9, 2001
Some women at church were commenting on how cute Maeve looked.  I said that I had dressed her.  That was true.  What I did not say is that Jill had put out Maeve's clothes for me.

Every one of the women commented on their husbands' inability to properly match clothes for their children.  Jill makes the same comments, and does not understand how I can't figure it out for myself.  Jill also complains about my request for her to match my clothes for work.  At least the comments of the women at church show that I am typical.
 

Saturday, September 8, 2001 - Paramedics are different, session 1
Today I started six Saturdays of a paramedic refresher class.  I really miss working in EMS.  Especially fun are the differences between EMS/Fire people and the rest of society.  For instance, today one of the people had their uniform shirt on backwards.  When asked about it, she said she had gone out to breakfast and didn't want to spill anything on her shirt.  At work, I think everyone would think it would be worse to have a stain on the inside of your shirt, against your skin.  However, I can think of lots of EMS people who would probably think keeping stains off the outside of your uniform is a very good idea.
 

Thursday, September 6, 2001
Maeve had smoked her vegetables like Grandma smoked her cigarettes.  Maeve and Jill were out for a walk and Maeve looked like she was crushing something in her hand, and then crushing it on the ground.  Jill asked, and sure enough, Maeve said she was putting out a cigarette.

Later Maeve was trying to go out the backdoor.  Jill asked where she was going.  She said she had to go outside to smoke.

When Jill complained to her mother about Maeve picking up these bad habits, Jill's mother said, "At least she doesn't smoke in the house".
 


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