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Okay, I know that in Japan this date has already passed, but here in the USA, it is still January 5th, the 28th anniversary of the birth of my first born child, a legend you know as UltraBob. I thought this would be a good time to relive that event for you, as I have been doing it all day in my mind.
UB was the first grandchild on my side of the family (I am the middle child of 5) and the second on John’s. At first, I was going to a doctor in Arco, the near town only 30 miles away, but partway into my pregnancy, the doctor moved and recommended a practice in Idaho Falls, 70 miles away. It seemed that there was a possibility of problems, so it seemed prudent to see the “experts”. As with each of my pregancies, I was “sick as a dog” for approximately 8 1/2 months. There were the odd days now and then when I didn’t throw up, but ususally I just got up and headed for the bathroom to, as my husband so eloquently put it,”talk to the toilet”.
About 3 months before Bob was born, I was lucky to win the “draw” to hunt an antelope! My husband, growing up in a family of avid hunters, wanted me to share in the love of the sport, and I was willing to try. I was a terrible shot, however, and the one I finally ended up hitting was about a yearling. I sobbed over that little antelope while John tried to comfort me with thoughts of how good and tender the meat would be! It was, and I later drew on and shot one more antelope, but I never really “got” it, and shortly after the second one gave up the sport altogether.
My baby (back then the sex of the child was a surprise) was due to be born at the end of 1975. We were a bit nervous; we lived too far away to attend Lamaze or birthing classes, so we went to stay with my parents in Idaho Falls around Christmas time. So, we were there a couple of weeks before Bob decided to make his appearance! As it turned out, we never had a problem making it to the hospital in time before the birth of any of my children, even when, later, we drove the 70 miles from Howe! In due time, Bob was born, and I was thrilled with my little red-haired baby boy, whom we named after his maternal Grandpa, Robert Wesley. My Dad, who didn’t know beforehand of the planned name, was over the moon.
Soon, however, it bacame apparent that everything wasn’t as it should be. Little Bobby was having trouble breathing on his own and was turning a rather unnatural, though becoming, shade of blue. (Many years later, I overheard UB teling a friend that he was my little “Smurf Baby”.) At that time, all of the infant intensive care was in the other Idaho Falls hospital, across town. So, my baby boy was taken by ambulance to Riverside Hospital, while I was left in Parkview Hospital to recover! At that time, 3 days was a normal hospital stay after having a baby.
I didn’t learn til later how serious the situation appeared. From medical tests, it appeared that Bobby may have holes in his lungs. There was definitely a fluid buildup around them. Little tubes were inserted to drain the water away from his lungs (the scars are still there, if anyone cares to check), and the “holes” were gone; they had only been shadows. I didn’t find out most of this til the danger had passed. When I was released from MY hospital, I was told that my son was also able to be released. Boy, was I scared! I was afraid I wouldn’t know how to take care of him!
When we went to get our baby, we found that he was already addicted to a pacifier! He was so fussy that the nurses had fastened a baby bottle nipple onto a towel to soothe him. So, a pacifier was his constant companion for the first year or two of his life. It did calm him down sometimes when nothing else would, but it was also a major problem when he threw it on the floor in, say the grocery store. Sometimes, though, we were just so desparate that we would wipe it off the best we could and plug it back into his mouth: peace at any price? And, of course, he had to have the BIG bulby kind; he would have NOTHING to do witht he cute little Nuk pacifier.
But, he really had no lasting effects from his scary surgery, and we did fine, with the exception of a little colic. He was also LOTS of fun, and was thoroughly adored and spoiled by grandparents and numerous aunts and uncles on both sides of the family. LOTS of nicknames; Bobcat, Bobolink, Bad Boy, once in a while ( I think Uncle Dan is still holding a grudge about being whacked over the head with the big corn popper toy when UB was about 2.) He loved to be held (for hours on end) and spent lots of time in a baby backpack so I could make an attempt to get other things done. We had a metal, wind up swing that would often put him to sleep, but sometimes he woke up when I banged his head on it while attempting to carefully remove him from it. Sometimes not. He loved being read to, and as I loved reading out loud, it was a match made in heaven!
UltraBob, I am SO glad you are my son, and I love you as fiercely and completely as I did when I first saw you 28 years ago. Happy Birthday, Sweetheart.
With Love,
UltraMom
Wow, Bob. Let’s see if I can summarize my year in 25 word. Let’s see: Same job, kids all gone,still involved in Weightwatchers, Husband bought a truck, hates it, wants to do woodworking. Discovered same has diabetes. nuff said.
Well, that was more about the husband than myself, but all of that necessarily has a big impact on my life, or at least it should! I actually hope that this year is a little better one for him. But first he needs to sell that dang money guzzling truck!
We had a very nice Christmas, although only half my kids were home. It is absolutely HEAVEN to have the two youngsters back home for a few weeks to add a little “color” to my black and white world. We had dinner and games at Uncle Bill’s house on Chrismtas Eve, and dinner at Uncle Chuck’s house on Christmas, so UltaMom got a cooking vacation! The ultradaughter decided to spend the holiday in Pocatello with her boyfriend’s family. In fact, she usually brings home extra ones for Christmas, so it seemed really different without her! The plan was for Heather and Heath to make the trek to Howe the day AFTER Christmas, but that was when the big blizzard of 2003 hit Pocatello. They couldn’t go ANYWHERE! The gifts are stil under the tree, which gives lazy UltraMom a good excuse not to take the tree down! I thought she must have been exagerating a bit, and being a chicken about driving in a little snow until the big blizzard hit us! I haven’t seen this much snow in years! It started on New Year’s Eve, and on the first day of 2004, it snowed pretty much all day. Put that together with the wind (the wind actually doesn’t blow every once in a while, but windiness is the general rule around here) and you have the recipe for major drifts, road closures and power outages! In fact, the plan to spend Jan 1, 2004 in Idaho Falls enjoying a meal at a favorite restaurant and viewing a new movie in the comfort of Edward’s 14 Theater Movie House was scrapped in exchange for a day of games, pizza and a little outdoor fun. Jim, Johnny and Jim’s friend B.J. took turns driving the 4-wheeler and pulling each other behind on an inflated intertube. UltraMom even had a ride! The pizza, UltraMom’s special homemade Taco Pizza, was in celebration of good grades all around. ALL of the aforementioned boys achieved grades of nothing lower than an “A” in all of their fall semester college classes! UltraMom is bursting with pride!
Jan 2, UltraMom was due to return to her job in Arco, but, darn the luck, the roads were closed! Fortunately AFTER UltraMom had her shower and finished making waffles, the power went out and remainedout for the next 5 or 6 hours! The poor boys were unable to play Football on the Playstation, and had to play card games with UltraMom, much to the delight of one and all (mostly, UM, I gotta admit).
Christmas was very special because we got to talk to UltraSonBob and the Ultragirl. We got their wonderful, thoughtful and most of all CREATIVE packages, beautifully wrapped by Amazon.com. Their “to-from” tags were the best!
Here is an example: “Family: Step throught this door and you’ll find yourself in another time, full of dinosaurs, and other hair raising adventures. Shake before use. UltraBob and UberTomo” The gift was a Homer Simpson trivia game! Johnny is our resident Simpson’s expert, so the rest of us don’t stand a chance.
Oh, so you want to hear more? Sure. I love sharing UB’s creative streak, and it also makes my job of writing a lot easier!.........”Family (especially Kathode) We think that this pair of false teeth will provide hours of pranking fun for the whole family. Tomoko " The Mad Jokestress" Suzuki and Robert That gift was a booster pack for my favorite game of Cranium. I’ll take you on, any time, especially the Word Worms category!
Next:” Momstaroni, Tomoko and I enjoyed this particular brand of sausage so much, that we wanted you to have some. Tomoko “The Mad Gourmet” Suzuki and tiny Bob.” This gift was a DVD: namely “Spirited Away” the award winning Japanese animated feature. By the way, Johnny and I watched it last night. Very interesting, but a little strange. This was really interesting: we decided to watch it in English with subtitles. The subtitles did not match what the people were saying! We decided two different people must have done the translating. We finally turned the subtitles off because it was too distracting. I want to watch it again in Japanese and turn the subtitles on. Also, I want to watch all the extra stuff to see if some things are explained a little better. But I did really enjoy it.
“Dad, Thought this present might give you some insight into your own life:) Tomoko “The Crusher” Suzuki and little Bobby” This gift, much to our informed amusement, was the DVD “Grumpy Old Men”! No need to say more about that!
Big Bad John (Sr.) Rub this on those tired feet to relieve gout. Dr. Tomoko Suzuki and the assistant” This one was another DVD, an especial favorite of Big John Sr. “Quigley Down Under”. He really had been in a lot of pain with gout in his big toe, and sitting down and watching the movie takes some of the load off, so I guess the medicinal claims are true, in a way. Johnny made sure we got a photo of UltraDad rubbing the movie on his foot!
There’s an intriguing one for Heather as well, but we’ll have to wait for that one I suppose…
Well, Johnny is watching Batman on TV: the ORIGINAL Batman from the TV series with Adam West. The criminal is one of my favorites: The Penguin, so I gotta go. So far, 2004 has been a lot of fun. Hope yours is good too.
UltraMom
Hi UltraBob,
Thanks for your kindful advice and comment. You’re the first person who add a comment to this weblog. I just registered my weblog to the JapanBloggers Webring and added the table tag as you can see in the left block.
I like Webring because it makes me feels that I’m sort of in the social network.
Thanks,
Masayoshi Yasuda
Sounds like you had a nice Christmas UltraMom!
Also thank you very much for the wonderful smelling soap! It was such a surprise! UltraBob says the cookies tasted great too…
Thank you Mom, that was so sweet that it made me cry. I love you too, probably even more than I did when I first saw you and wondered what that thing was.
What a lovely post UltraMom.
And happy burfday again UB.
That was such a wonderful story and I want you to know that I was there UltraBob. You were so cute. What happened? Just kidding. I cannot believe you are 28. What a trip. I love you. Happy Birthday. Love AD
You have the sweetest Mom in the entire universe, UltraBob.