Yes, This Is A Fertile Land and We Will Thrive

With our glorious release into the wild comes an endless stream of potential visitors.  The problem with having such a beloved part of people's lives vanish for a month due to serious illness is that, when any opportunity is afforded, all of them want to leap at the chance and grab on with both hands.  Since most of the potential supplicants don't live in the Phoenix area, we haven't had occasion to bring in Bosco, our on call bouncer.  We still have the velvet ropes up, just to class up the joint.

Jayne's first visitors were his grandparents, my parents, who came up last night.  It was a last minute decision as to whether or not my dad was going to be coming up, but to alleviate stress, he decided it would be for the best to come see our miniature Michelin man.  They came under the guise of picking up a new puppy to keep Pavel on his toes but it panned out that Jayne got out just in time for their visit.  We spent plenty of time watching him scoot around on his belly, we at some good bbq, and watched an excessively violent movie.  Jayne had a blast.  The only thing that spoiled it was his regularly scheduled medication.  Beyond that, he had fun being passed around from grandparent to grandparent, making noises, sitting up, rolling over, and yelling at his toys.

He enjoys his parents' company, he will until he's about 12 or so.  But he's an entertainer, a social creature (don't know where he gets that from), and an observer of human nature.  He loves seeing new people from time to time.  He loves seeing what sets them off, what can make them smile, or just eye-balling them.  So, it will be good for him to have a few visitors while he's outside.  It is limited to close family, due to the aforementioned lack of Bosco, but these are people he hasn't seen much in the past month.  It hasn't just been a challenge for him having to see our mugs day in and day out.  His two dueling aunts have had a rough time of it.  They can't score brownie points with our magnanimous marshmallow boy if they are quarantined from him.  I know my sister, Molly, has been missing him like crazy, and Cherla must have a Jayne-sized hole in her life that she needs filled.  Surely the other half of his grandparentage miss him just as much as anyone else.

And at some point in time, we will have to go back into the hospital, relegated to a life apart from the larger world, separated from those who love Jayne and worry about his progress, and enduring the doldrums of hospital... hospitality.  So it is beneficial, not only for our son, but for the two of us to have these people who mean so much to us to come see him and keep us near some modicum of sanity is very much appreciated.  Hell, we may even be able to approach a normal anniversary for an hour or two because of these invaluable interlopers.

I, as always, want to express my thanks to those of you who are sticking with Jayne, and with us, through this tumult.  We realize more than anyone else the sense of helplessness that one can feel when thinking about his situation.  There isn't much else to do other than offer some moral support.  The doctors and the nursing staff are doing the leg work and they are doing a hell of a job, too.  And while nothing any of us plebians can do may affect their work one way or another, it does help Shay and I to have people to reach out to, to vent to, and to just know that they are thinking of our son from time to time.  He's gathering such a large fan base that, one day, he may have cause to make the same claim John Lennon made so many years ago.  And we thank each and every one of you.