82% of kids under two have their own Facebook pages.

Now I realize that my even asking about this will probably piss some people off, but I really want to know the answer to this. Why does a very young child need their own Facebook page?  I am confused. Is it so they can keep up with their friends?

(Please remember that I don’t have grandchildren yet, when you’re typing your fiery response.)

Is this normally something that the grandparents start? When my first grand child is born will some magic switch be flipped in my brain and starting a page for my grand child will be something I’m absolutely driven to do, like salmon going upstream to spawn?

To my knowledge, none of my friends young grand kids have their own pages yet. To me, it feels unsafe somehow. I know you can restrict access, yada yada, yada. But once something is out there, it’s there forever and is that something you really want to put out there so soon?

I know people who have Facebook pages for their pets. I’m fine with that. Some of them are in fact, pretty funny. Perhaps the FB pages of  infants are too, I don’t know, never having read one. Perhaps since our car was stolen a few weeks ago I’m more touchy about privacy issues, still feeling violated as I do. But whatever the reason, I found that statistic amazing.

So for those of you who’s kids have them, more power to you. All I’m asking for is an explanation please.

OK- now back to Gizmo. When we first got there today, Skye, one of the vet techs, came out with the medicine we’d be taking home for Giz. He’s now on Keppra every 8 hours to prevents seizures. Six am, two pm, ten pm. That’s my new schedule. It cannot vary.

They also sent us home with multiple syringes of Buprenorphine for pain.They said he’d probably not need it, but I have it just in case. His stomach was distended and he was in a lot of pain when he arrived at VIRGI. I saw the word “Starvation” written in big letters on his chart today.

As elated as I was knowing I was going to bring him home, when I saw that word it made my blood boil all over again. I’m still looking for a coupon for a wood chipper. I will find her. It may take me awhile, but I will.

I’m now positive if we’d been delayed getting back one more day, maybe even just hours, Gizmo at the very least, would’ve been dead for sure. Perhaps others in our pack as well.

We were able to go to the back to see him today. He was curled up and sleeping soundly. They had the words “Seizures” and “Flop” written on cards attached to his cage. I started whispering his name to him but got no response. After a minute or so I got a little louder. He started to stir and looked at me with glassy looking eyes for a few seconds. Eventually he realized who I was and started to get up. Then he fell over. My eyes teared up. Now I understood what “flop” meant. They had to be careful when they opened the door that he didn’t just fall right out.

Amanda held him in a soft throw she’d brought for home for him for a couple of minutes while we were told more about his condition. Then they sent us out while they removed his IV.

I was told to keep him right near me for the next week at least. So although I never carried a baby in a sling before, I will have  Gizmo that way with me if we have to be away from the house. I’m sure some people will think I’m crazy, but that’s OK with me. I’ll do whatever it takes to insure his recovery. Some people who want to see my “baby” might be in for a big surprise though.

We stopped at Amanda’s house on the way back home where she took this photo of him. He still looks stoned as you can see.

We put him outside to use the bathroom. He squatted like a girl dog, the first time. Eventually he started to lift his leg, however he fell onto the urine soaked grass when he did so. They said that may happen for awhile. He doesn’t smell great right now. (Come to think of it, I’ve seen some guys do the same thing.) I may try to give Giz a bath tomorrow, if he’s doing better.

Tomorrow we take him to our regular vet, Dr. Parham for a follow up. I think for the first time in 3 nights, I’ll actually get some good sleep with Gizmo in his little crate on our bed. He’s not himself right now. They think he should do well. However, he’s not completely out of the woods yet. Please keep sending any spare good thoughts or prayers his way.

The rest of our furry family is coming around. I guess the chicken and rice diet is slowly doing the job. Of course, the pack thinks their new diet is just great. The twins are starting to play together again. That’s a good sign. Daisy finally picked up one of her toys and gave it a squeak. Usually I find that shrill sound annoying, today- not so much. Little Bit is starting to be a pain in the ass again, so I know he’s feeling better too.

I hate to sound mushy but I just cannot thank everyone enough for all the kind thoughts and prayers for Gizmo and the rest of our pack the past few days. I know all those were a major part of his recovery. I just know it. Yesterday this site got over 19K hits. My server actually crashed for a few minutes due to all the traffic. How wonderful to discover that so many people were thinking of him.

To all those of you who shared our story with others on your blog, Facebook, or Twitter, I will be forever grateful. I’d personally had never been all that involved with social media before. (I think it’s a generational thing.) Seeing the power of it though, I certainly will be in the future for sure.

For those that were able to send something towards his huge bill, I hold a special place for you. I know that many people wanted to help financially, but just were unable to.  Do not fret, we will be fine. Of course my career as a bikini model will soon be over after I sell that kidney, but I was tired of doing that and eating is just way overrated anyway.

My God, it feels so good to be able to laugh again.

And for those of you who have just found my blog, please come back sometime soon. Usually this is a great place to spend a couple of minutes then leave with a smile. It’ll be that again soon, I promise.

I’ve really been trying for some time to figure a way to get my blog to grow. Obviously, though this wouldn’t have been they way I’d chosen.

A big wet kiss from Gizmo and the rest of our pack- a big hug from me.

Amanda and Nate are both in college and this week is finals. I think they’ve been living off Taco Bell and Little Caesar’s pizzas. They have a great little kitchen in a house not too far from us. However, when finals approach Amanda gets kinda panicked and just doesn’t cook; all she does is either study or work on projects. She doesn’t know how to give 100% at school. With her it’s 150% or nothing.  She did a 21 page book report in 5th grade.

She gets that “over the topness” from her father. That’s why she makes straight AAA’s. That’s why he has over 300 ties.

I told her that I’d be happy to help and I was. But I had to plan what to make, then get to the store, then get it to them, doing all this while trying to coordinate with Doug, since at this moment I don’t have a car. On top of that, I was asked if I could help looking up some info so she could review business management. No problem again. It was 90 questions. I started it last night and finished it this morning. It was mind-numbingly boring, but I persevered.

I was feeling pret-ty good about myself and all I’d accomplished until I got a call about 10am. It was Brett.”Hi, what’s up?” I told him everything that’d going on and that I was tired but almost done with the third thing I was cooking for them. “What’s up with you?” “Not much. Hey, what’s the date?” “May 11th.” As soon as I’d said it I had a sinking feeling.

“Oh no, I’m am so sorry,” I said. Yesterday was our only son’s birthday and I forgot. Bad mom, very bad mom. Luckily Brett really doesn’t want “stuff” anymore; at least nothing that I can go to a store and get him; he just wants cash to improve his DJ equipment. So I just transferred money from my account to his in attempt to ease my guilt. It helped- but not very much.

He was actually laughing and said he understood, that he’d spoken to Amanda yesterday (when she’d called to wish him Happy Birthday) and knew I was helping her out. He got 75 birthday wishes on Facebook, so he wasn’t forgotten by everyone else, just the woman who’d given birth to him. I felt like pond scum. I called Evelyn to explain what I’d done and as bad as I felt, I think what she did one year on Nate’s birthday topped my forgetfulness.

She said she and Nate had just gotten in the car when she said “Nathan, your 7th birthday is just the best birthday ever! It was my favorite!” Then, as she backed up they felt a bump. It wasn’t a toy. It was his cat. (Sometimes some birthdays are more memorable than others). Almost 20 years later they can kind of laugh about it now. Then of course, not. But after hearing her story  at least I don’t feel quite so bad.

Has anyone else ever forgotten their kiddos birthday?

My Facebook photo

I think most of us are creatures of habit. My morning routine is pretty much the same 6 days a week. First I check my email, then I go to CNN.com to see what’s been happening in the world. Finally, I read USAtoday.com to see what CNN didn’t deem important enough to cover. After all that, I usually do the USA today crossword and Brainiversity in attempt to keep my ancient neurons talking to each other.

Of course, if I’ve gotten a message from gmail that says I have a Facebook message then I go directly there and check it out.  I’ve been on Facebook for a year or so now. Brett AKA Beef, urged me to set up my page. (Frankly, I hadn’t really felt any pressing need to do so.) I thought that the people in my life had plenty of ways to find me already. However, following his advice I went ahead and set up my page. You only put details on your page that you’re comfy with being made public. You can also post a photo of yourself or anything else if you wish. As you may have surmised, my photo isn’t exactly “current”. (However it is my best photo ever.)

I must say that it’s been interesting. People that I hadn’t thought of in years have “friended” me. “Friended” means that somehow they’ve found/seen you on Facebook and would like to get back in touch. You have to “confirm” them as a friend before they can leave you a message or see your entire page . I’ve read that the average number of “friends” on Facebook is around 100. I have 61. Beef has 861. (Of course I’m not the social butterfly that he is.)

A lot of the baby boomers I know see no reason to do any social networking of any kind. But overall I’d say that it’s been a positive experience for me. I’m just trying to stay at least a little connected to what’s going on with the MTV Generation so I can relate to my kids world. Do you Facebook?