In December 2008 our family fled our home due to high concentrations of ten different types of mold, three of which were toxic and included the infamous “Black Mold.” We could not take any of our things with us. Not one thing. Even the clothing on our backs were thrown in the garbage and we put on clean clothes before jumping on a plane for New Mexico. We had planned to move to New Mexico in August 2009, but since we got such an alarming report, we didn’t feel it was worth it to move to another place in Maryland, only to have to move again in August. Our plans were dramatically changed with that decision to move out early, and because my husband had not yet found a job in NM, he had to continue working at his company in Maryland. He came out to see us during the Christmas holiday and left after the New Year. We have not had a chance to see him since then.
Next week he is coming out to visit us. Three months have past, and I feel he has missed out on so much of the kids lives in that time. We all miss him terribly. He won’t get a chance to see Noah or Shoshie because they are traveling on the same day he is, to go and see their father for two weeks. Dom is only going to be here for four days, so we will have to make the most of it. We have yahoo messenger, so he sees Simmi and the children each day via video chat. I wonder what would happen if we didn’t have that feature? If he was away for three months and Simmi didn’t see or hear him talk to her…would she remember him? They have a very strong bond and dare I say stronger than the one that Simmi and I share. I love how when Simmi’s Poppie is here, no one else in the world exists or matters. If I come into a room where the two of them are, she runs over to him and clings to him. Sometimes she won’t even look at me. It is just Simmi and Poppie. Of course, it also means that she can get one over on him! He is such a softy and he folds like tissue paper if she gets upset. One night before he left to fly back to Maryland, Simmi started screaming in the middle of the night. He jumped out of bed, quickly rushed into her room and found her soaked to the core because she had gotten the bottom of the bottle off. All the formula spilled on her and on her things. This must have happened before she went to sleep and she never fussed about it. It was only in the middle of the night when she was cold that she made a fuss. I got out of bed to see him rushing around, running a bath and getting a new bottle ready. The child is half naked and in her glory at 2:30am where she is running down the hall and turning the corner. As I came around the corner, she banged into my legs full force and it was probably like she hit a brick wall! Her immediate reaction was to run from me and get to Poppie as quickly as possible. I asked him what he was doing, and he said that he was going to give her a bath because everything was soaked…including her. Maybe he is just a better parent than me, because I looked at him and at this rambunctious child and said, lets just change the sheets, put some clean clothes on her and we can give her a bath in the morning. I started cracking up laughing because he looked so sweet and his intentions were so pure. I guess I would never do that with her because she is a creature of habit. Changing her schedule during the day or night means a very “off” day of screaming and meltdowns in the hours that would follow such an event. She can become quite irrational at those times. I wish she could be a “go with the flow” type of girl, but that isn’t how she is.
Of course she knew what was coming next. We changed her sheets, put some clean clothes on her and she started to scream! She wanted to play…she wanted a bath…SHE JUST WANTED POPPIE! Grama is no fun! But within two minutes of giving her a fresh bottle at 3:00am, she was fast asleep. It would have been a very long night and an even longer day if she would have had that bath at 3:00am. Simmi already gets up in the middle of the night like clock work, but she usually lulls herself back to sleep. She is not usually upset unless she is hungry or having a night terror. Most of the time she is half conscious and laughing in the dark for about three hours. Then she falls back to sleep. It’s eerie and funny and alarming all at the same time.
Anyway, he and she will be reunited for a very wonderful and blissful four days. I am so looking forward to having him here again and I can’t wait till it is for good! With our economy the way it is, finding a job has not been easy and although we all miss him so much, we are all so grateful that he still has a secure job. The distance is the thing that hurts so much.
Tags: bath time, black mold, family reunited, Maryland, meltdowns, mold, New Mexico, night laughing, night terrors, parent child bond, toxic mold
Leave a Reply