Mamalade

Poor Miles! Last year it was a broken arm, the year before it was a hernia operation, now he’s had his appendix out!

We thought he had a tummy bug a few weeks ago, but when he got worse a scan showed that his appendix was twisted around his bowel. No wonder he had been looking pale for a long time! Frances stayed with him in the hospital and I helped Joel to look after Hayley. Joel was quite capable of looking after her on his own, of course, but I stayed to keep her from missing her Mummy and brother.

The first night Miles was in hospital, I was wakened in the early hours by a sudden storm. I could hear Nelson, Joel’s corgi, shuffling around, trying to find a place to hide from the thunder. He’s terrified of storms. After a particularly loud clap of thunder, a strange voice suddenly cried out, “Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas!” Then it started to sing,

“You’d better watch out,
You’d better not cry,
You’d better not pout, I’m telling you why –
Santa Claus is coming to town!”

Surely not, I thought. It’s only May!

The song was repeated with the next roll of thunder, accompanied by second deeper voice that intoned mysteriously “T’was the night before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse…”

Hayley’s toy reindeer and musical bear had miraculously come to life! They burst into song with every clap of thunder.

It was impossible to sleep. Also impossible, I thought, to find the culprits amongst the many toys scattered through the house!

After a while I heard a snuffling sound in the corner of the room. Nelson! Now I knew where the midnight revellers were. Nelson was lying on a pile of stuffed toys in the corner and pressing down on them each time he tried to escape the noise of the thunder! I burrowed my hands down under Nelson and pulled out the offending toys. Peace at last!

I’ve never been a morning person, but Hayley was up just before sunrise.

“Wake up, Meemar,” she ordered. “Read a book! Don’t close your eyes, it’s morning!” Apart from that she was very easy to look after.

When we were having dinner, Hayley dropped her spoon and a piece of carrot on the floor. “That spoon will be yucky now,” I said.

“I’ll wash it,” she said, and she took it off to the kitchen. When she returned with a clean spoon, she swooped on the piece of carrot on the floor. “There’s my carrot!” she said – and promptly ate it!

letters

Miles was in hospital only two days after the operation. When we went to bring him home, he was propped up on pillows playing a playstation game. He was in no hurry to come home. He wanted to play the next level of the game.We gave him the bag of letters his teacher had sent. Every child in his class had written to him.

Frances explained to him that the pieces of tape on his tummy would wash off after a few days, but he still looked a bit anxious. “But what about the camera inside me?” he asked. He had been told the doctor had put a camera inside him to do the operation. (keyhole surgery.) He was relieved when he was told it wasn’t left there!