I just got back home from a training conference in Maitland, Florida. It’s about 30 minutes north of Orlando. It was a two week training course. The thing that sucked about it (cause the training was great) was being away from Zoe for that period of time. Whilst I was away, she turned 16 months old, stopped drinking bowies and got really sick.

I was able see her via web cam sessions and Skype, a great free internet phone program. Kris and I just coordinated our sessions and I got to see Zoe, and she got to see me. It was weird because I had these horrible thoughts of coming home and Zoe not recognizing me. Yeah, yeah, I know….stupid.

During my absence, Kris had Zoe help her throw away all the bottles in the house. She sent me a picture on my phone of the trash containing all the bowies. I was a little upset not to be there for that. Another milestone. Zoe has been bottle free for two weeks now and there doesn’t seem to be any going back. Kris told me that she thought it was gonna be really hard, but having Zoe help her throw them out seems to have helped. She said it was tough for a day and then it was like she never had them.

The Friday I got back, Kris flew to Little Rock, AK to visit Kyle there. She meant to fly the weekend I was gone but got the dates mixed up. We ended up missing each other by 12 hours, her leaving and me arriving. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Zoe did fine in the cage Kris left her in. Just kidding, Kris’ mom, “Ya-Ya” took her for the day. Zoe was on the down slide of some crud that left her with blood in her stool and a temp of 104. By the time I got home, she was doing much better and it was a BLAST just hanging out with her for the four days. We did everything together and she was an absolute dream. A lady friend of my brother saw her when I took her to dinner at his house and inquired, “does she just run around and smile like that all the time?” Before I could answer, Fred exclaimed “Yup!” How true.

Anyway, I’m back home now and don’t plan on leaving her anytime soon.

Categories: Rantings
1 Comment »