Horizontally Inclined

By this Friday, it will have been 6 weeks since surgery. I have not had Carrie spend the night prior to last night. Now I know why.

Carrie and Poppy hadn't seen each other for over a month what with him being gone so much lately. She walked in through the patio door yesterday and made a dive for him. She climbed up on his lap and layered kisses on each of his cheeks, his forehead and eyes all the while proclaiming her love for him. Needless to say, but I will right here, Poppy was one happy Poppy. They talked, they played and they were happy. Together they played their favorite game of "I got a surprise for you" where Carrie covers her eyes and Poppy whips out the toy he bought for her. Yesterdays' toy was a water slide. They spent a few minutes arranging it on the lawn and hooking the water hose up to it and the fun began. Carrie's old bathing suit was found and she squeezed into it. *Note to self: time for a new bathing suit for her.

Carrie spent the afternoon. It was getting time for Carrie to go home. I told her Mom would be to pick her up soon. Earlier I had tried to talk her into taking a bath and she wasn't having any of it. Now, suddenly, a bath was just what she wanted to do so I called her mother to tell her I would call her later to retrieve Carrie and we were heading for a bath. This should have been my first clue that Carrie didn't want to leave.

Bath done and almost into pajamas, Ms. Dee, the neighbor showed up to take Carrie for a walk with Bentley, the poodle. I nixed on the pjs and dressed her in red skort and a white t-shirt and off she went. It's getting later and later cause that's how time works here and when Carrie returns, she tells me she wants to spend the night. I'm leery of this. That means I will have to move the clothes rack in the spare bedroom, remove all the pillows off the bed, move shoes from my "dressing area" in there and spend the night with her as sleeping alone for Carrie is not an option. I managed to roll around that tall bed and get all this done. Bedtime comes, we snuggle down and she plays the Nintendo DS for a while. I drift. She doesn't and soon I hear Poppy calling to me. She has decided that since I'm drifting, she will go visit her Poppy.

I drag myself out of bed and into the wheelchair, thinking all this time, this is exactly why Carrie has not been staying here since this surgery. We all decide we will just spend the night in the king size bed together.

Carrie falls asleep an hour later. I think I can see the covers flutter from the snoring from that little girl. Loud? Well, yes, it is and a few minutes later, Poppy has decided that the noise level is out of his limits of tolerance and announces his exit to the sofa for the night.

I'm left with the snoring giant. I drift off and wake up to a foot hanging close to my face. I'm awake and trying to reposition Carrie. This continues throughout the night and as I sit here typing, I can count the hours of sleep I got on 1/2 of the fingers on one hand.

This morning early, Carrie will be collected by her grandmother. That would be the grandmother from Lydia, La. and when that happens, I will climb back into that king size bed and try to recover my lost night's sleep.

The next time Carrie spends the night will be when I'm done with wheelchair and crutches. Keeping up with Carrie is a job that requires one be mobile and rested and I'm neither one of those right now!