How It's Gone

Peeper has done very well with all the funeral-related activities. Yesterday, she spent most of the family visitation playing with the two-and-a-half year old granddaughter of the funeral home director. Her mom also works there, and brings her along every day, so there's a nice stash of age-appropriate toys on hand.

When we first met them, they made reference to being "some kind of cousins," so I thought it was a long-distance, can't quite trace it, but everyone with that last name is related thing, but during the slide show, when Shrike's paternal grandparents popped up in a photo, the younger woman said, "Oh look, there's Uncle P and Aunt D!" so she obviously knew them.

It turns out that the grandma (director of the funeral home - evidently inherited from her dad, or farther back, as the name of the business is her maiden name) is (was?) married to Shrike's dad's first cousin - their fathers were brothers. (Her married name is the same as Shrike's maiden name.) So, her daughter is Shrike's second cousin, and the granddaughter is Peeper's third cousin.

It's a very small town.

There was a visitation for extended family and friends yesterday evening, and we'd intended for Shrike to go, while Peeper and I stayed home, so as to not mess her up bedtime. As it turned out though, she fell asleep on the way home from the morning one (after stopping for lunch) and we decided that we'd blow off bedtime and have a family nap.

Right after Shrike left, Peeper decided that she wanted to go, so I called her to come back and get us, and we got dressed fast-fast-fast and went with her.

This morning, Peeper and I ended up stepping out about half way through the service, mostly because when I'd taken her to potty before it started, we'd had to pass through the crying room, and she saw all the toys, so as soon as we were seated, she started saying "I want to go play with toys."

I held her off through most of the eulogy, but finally took her out. Then, when I heard the preacher say, "In conclusion," we cleaned up really, really fast and went potty again, and she decided that we were going back out.

I should have realized that "in conclusion" is a twenty-minute warning.

We ended up leaving as the final prayer started, and going out to the car for some goody and then I let her "drive to the North Pole to visit Frosty the Snowman and Santa Claus" until Shrike got out to the car.

At the cemetery, she did okay, but insisted on sitting - and rolling - on the ground right at the minister's feet, and way too close to the open grave. I hoped that I was just being paranoid (and a little creeped out), but afterward, when I apologized to the minister, he said, "Oh, she was fine. I was just worried she was going to fall in."

Then we went back to the church for lunch and finally back home.

We were hoping for another family nap, but Peeper had other plans. I was feeling icky by the time we got home - shaky and achey, like with a fever, but not hot - but Shrike had a migraine, so she went to bed and I stayed "up" with Peeper, but conked out on the couch while she played. That was probably around five or six.

I heard Shrike get up and take over, and the next thing I knew, she was waking me at nine, to tell me Peeper was done with her bath and ready for bed.

And that's when I figured out what was wrong with me. Tummy bug of some sort. No throwing up, but plenty of the other.

I thought I was never going to get poor Peeper to sleep, because I had to keep jumping up and running to the bathroom.

And then I put my cellphone in the washer, along with an emergency load of pants. (Yes, it was that bad.)

No, of course, we're nowhere near the free upgrade date, and of course I didn't get the insurance.

So, wish me luck on that one.