A Life and Death Story

Sean and I were sitting on the couch the other night and Dorothy was trying to subtly squeeze herself between us:  a typical night.  This meant that my body buffer zone was soon breached by bulldogge butt, since Dorothy always lies in the direction in which she can most easily gaze lovingly at her pack leader.  As I tried to waft the fumes in Sean’s direction, he wondered aloud why I had never written on my blog about the time he gallantly saved my life. 

I didn’t really have an answer for him, other than that the incident occurred in the month after Owen’s birth, a time both wonderful and horrible, and in which we were both getting to know our new tiny tyrant, as well as being busy forming an intimacy with certain wee small hours of the night that I for one would truthfully have been happy never to have met awake.

Plus it doesn’t really make for a good narrative.  But to give Sean his due, I was sitting innocently on the couch (I can’t pay the rent!), when I began choking on seemingly nothing (You must pay the rent!).  And not just cough cough, I can’t catch my breath, but more like whoosh! – all of a sudden I had absolutely no air in my lungs, nothing coming, nothing going, and I stood up and began to stagger in small circles, anticipating my imminent demise.  Sean had Owen in his arms, and once he realized what was happening, had to shove him onto the couch and then give me the heimlich (I'll pay the rent!).  Whatever was blocking my airway, was eventually cleared (My hero!).  And all was well, except that for the next few days I was scared to swallow.

It was really quite frightening.  But wasn’t that heroic of Sean?  I thought so and am grateful. 

But because I now told the story, I think that gives me the right to include here a photo which Sean isn’t too fond of, but I think hilarious.  Here he is in December photobombing a picture Susan was taking of Owen.

Funny, no?  But it gets better.  I texted the photo to Martha, and she and Henry reenacted the scene in a photo of their own:

Ha ha!  And then a few weeks ago I texted Martha a not very flattering similar photo of me and Owen:

And once again she and Henry reenacted the scene:

I’m sure Martha and Henry would be willing to reenact any photos of yourselves that you feel like sending her.  J

Owen and Martha

Owen is at the age where he can be a little suspicious about strangers.  But although the last time he saw his Aunt Martha he was only four months old, enough about her seemed familiar so that he wasn't wary for very long.  Besides, he seems to have a thing for blondes:

Martha came for her biannual eat-a-pa-looza visit, of which a good proportion used to be devoted to fine dining.  Since my fine dining these days generally consists of me being the restaurant, and Owen the dinee, we spent a lot of time with Owen, thus allowing an Aunt and her Nephew to have some quality time.  Sean offered to stay home with Owen on Saturday night, while Martha and I went to our favorite Philadelphia restaurant, Buddakan.  We've probably been there about 15 times now and the food is still incredible and the service exquisite.

Martha came to visit after Owen was born, and she basically gave Sean and me a quick Babies 101 tutorial for which we are forever grateful; simply put, we had no idea what we were doing, and I have a feeling that Owen somehow knows to be thankful as well.

He definitely enjoyed his Aunt Martha very much.  Martha and I sound alike when we talk, so I think at times Owen was a little confused and thought perhaps he had two mommies?  Just like that book.  And since Martha and I don't see each other that much, and since my pre-work phone time has been curtailed due to my train commute, we had a lot to say to each other, so Owen heard us in stereo in perpetua.

Martha is a good photographer, so I was also glad she was able to get some good photos of Owen while she was here.  (If you want to see more, head over to Martha's blog here).  Here is my blue-eyed boy flashing a bit of pearly whites:

And lest you think I'm forgetting someone, another member of our household was very happy and excited to see her Auntie.  Dorothy gave Martha constant lovin' while she was here, insisted on being a lap bulldogge, and would have spent the night with Martha if Martha so allowed.  In fact, I really think Martha rates a very close second to Sean in Dorothy's pack.  She even dusted off her bed zoomie skills and treated Martha to quite the display of raucous bed runnin.

Dorothy thinking, Auntie is lucky to have me as a niece!

We are all looking forward to Martha's next visit!

Eatapalooza

Dorothy's Auntie Martha came to visit for our annual get-together we like to call "Eatapalooza," since the theme of the visit is undoubtedly restaurants, restaurants, and then some more restaurants.

Dorothy wasn't included in the restaurant part of the visit, but she did her best to make her Auntie feel welcome, beginning with her specialty:  lots and lots of bulldogge kisses.

Dorothy is a vigorous kisser, and when the kisses are over, she is a firm believer in the cheek-to-cheek nap:

We tried out a new-ish Philly restaurant, Barbuzzo, on Friday, and it was delicious, except for the fact that I realized I am now officially an Oldster, since it was so dark in the restaurant that I almost could not read the menu.  I had to bring the menu as close to the single wee candle on the table as possible, and even shrugged off the fact that I was dangerously close to setting the menu on fire, since at least then for a brief instant it would have been bright enough for me to read the stupid thing.  Except for this little glitch, the food was spectacular.

On Saturday we went to our favorite Philly restaurant, Buddakan, with Sean and ate ourselves silly.  Our waiter was savvy enough to not point out to me that the chocolate bento box I ordered for dessert was supposed to be for two people and not just one, thus earning himself an ample tip.

We couldn't take Dorothy to the dog park, since she was recovering her equilibrium from an event I'll write about later, but we did walk her often, and Martha thus got to witness Dorothy's penchant for lying down and rolling over on the sidewalk in protest.  Dorothy exhibited her impressive wrestling skills with one of her favorite new friends, a Bernese Mountain Dog puppy named Haimish, and had good times with her aunt, even though from these pictures it looks like all they did was sit on the couch together.

I think Dorothy's favorite part of the visit was spooning with her Auntie in the bed at night and snoring loudly in her ear.  Martha didn't appreciate the snoring, but she did appreciate the warmth that is a cuddly bulldogge in bed.  And then we sent Martha back to Boston covered in multiple dogge and cat hairs!  How considerate of us!