Sunny the Hamster

Prologue: This story doesn’t have a lot to do with Coby… but it is so worth telling that I am including it.

It was the day of Coby’s 5 year old birthday party. Coby came downstairs and told me that I better come look at his brother Jake’s hamster Sunny, because she didn’t look good. I went up with Coby and sure enough there lay Sunny in her cage. Sunny side up!

I went and found Jake, age 8, and sat him down and told him the sad news. He began to cry silent tears and I tried to comfort him. I asked him if there was anything I could do to help. He told me, “I want to call Dad.”

Dad had offered to take our daughter Amanda, age 11, to piano lessons that day so that I could prepare for the birthday party. I gave Jake my cell phone and let him call his dad.

Dad answered the phone and Jake began to cry and say, “Sunny is dead! I can’t wake her up! She is just laying there.”

What Dad heard on the other end was, “MOMMY is dead! I can’t wake her up! She is just laying there.”

The next thing I know I am watching Jake start to shake Sunny while he yells “Wake Up! Wake Up!” Then he slaps her in the face – nothing happens! Then he runs to the bathroom and gets water in his hands and splashes it on Sunny. I am watching in amazement wondering what in the world Dad is saying to this poor child on the other end of the phone.

Next thing I hear Jake say, “Thank you Dad.” He hangs up the phone.

Mom, “Jake what is going on? What did Dad say to you?”

Jake, “Mom don’t worry – Dad is calling 911 and he is on his way home.”

I try not to freak out and pick up the phone and keep trying to dial my husband to find out what he is thinking! I can’t get through; the phone keeps giving me a busy signal.

In the meantime, my husband had run into the piano lesson, pulled Amanda out and said, “We need to leave immediately, Mom is unconscious and we need to get home." Amanda begins to cry and runs out of piano lessons and jumps in the car with Dad.

The piano teacher happens to be a pastor’s wife so she immediately calls her church and I am put on 3 different prayer chains. My husband calls his co-workers after hanging up with 911 and asks them to go to the house to be there with Jake and Coby, because they are close by.

I keep trying to call my husband as I see a police car pull up outside of my house and my husband’s boss and my husband’s father pull up. They get out of the car and are on their cell phones. I finally get through to my husband as they are all walking up and tell him it was the HAMSTER! He starts laughing hysterically and says I need to call 911 and tell them not to come. Too late!

I yell at the door to everyone walking in that I am okay – it was the HAMSTER! I hear people on their cell phones saying, ‘It’s the hamster… it’s the hamster.”
I welcome everyone into our home and tell them what happened and everyone is laughing hysterically.

During this time I notice that poor Jake is sitting off to the side with a very sad face. The reality was that Sunny was still not waking up. He didn’t think anyone cared.

I pulled Jake aside and explained to him that people weren’t laughing because Sunny was dead. They weren’t happy about that, they were just happy that it was Sunny and not Mommy. I asked if he could understand that.

He thought about it for awhile and in a very serious voice looked at me and said, “I loved you both the same.”

Pass the Turkey

It was Thanksgiving 2003. Before we began dinner we did our usual tradition of going around the table and giving everyone a chance to say what they were thankful for. As we went around the table there was a general consensus that people were thankful for family and friends. The last person to share what they were thankful for was Coby, age 6. His response was:
“I am most thankful for National Security.”

13 Things To Do Before School Starts:

Prologue: I came home from work and found this scribbled out on a pad of notepaper by Coby...

1. Act like spy for a day
2. Adopt strange mannerisms
3. Be annoying
4. Be somebody else
5. Become paparazzi
6. Become no one (Invisible)
7. Exorcise a ghost
8. Fake an accent
9. Messaging Machine (He has an app on his phone that lets him change his voice and leave messages for people)
10. Say hey hoo
11. Play air guitar
12. Flirt with people.

Epilogue: Notice there are only 12... by the way at dinnner last night in the middle of the meal Coby yelled out, "When I say Hey - You say Hoo" "Hey...." cut to blank stares and shocked faces

Roasted Nuts

Prologue: Thought I would start the first story out with a bang... This is a story from 3 days ago:

Before 8:00 am I got a call at work. It was Coby and I ask him how he is. He says, "Terrible!" Apparently he had been cutting habaneros (Why at 7:30 am he would be doing that?? I am not sure) He was in the middle of cutting and then had to go to the bathroom. He did NOT wash his hands before he went to the bathroom. So when he called me he told me, "My nuts are burning and I need to go to the hospital! They need to treat me immediately because this is classified as a chemical burn." I say, "Let me just look on the Internet real quick to see if I can find out if there is anything you can do that will help."

I start googling "Pepper Burns" and Coby goes into a frantic rant about how I need to make sure that it treats for the specific habanero he was using because this was no ordinary habanero. I tell him that the treatment I found was for all peppers and chilies. He then proceeds to go into a two minute rant about acidity and other stuff I didn't understand.

What I discovered was that if he soaked his skin in milk for 30 minutes the burn will go away. I tell him, "You need to get a big plastic cup (for his ego of course I said big) and fill it with milk, find a good book to read and go sit in the bathroom and soak 'your friends' for at least a half hour."

Coby's reply, "Its too late Mom, my nuts are FRIED!"


Epilogue: Coby is totally fine. I sent this story to a few friends and this was my favorite response, from a friend who is a nurse in an ER: "I don't even know what to say except that: you are the greatest mom for getting him to use the "BIG cup", you are the greatest friend for sharing this "Nutty" story and you are the greatest citizen for not rushing him to the ER!"