Uncle Jay!
As we were on the way to airport to get Uncle Jay, Kinnell kept telling me, “Uncle Jay’s pretty funny.” Both kids were really excited.
Kinnell, who will fight to the death to avoid holding your hand while crossing the street, happily held Uncle Jay’s hand throughout the visit. Raimi had no end of questions to ask Uncle Jason about video games, particularly Super Mario brothers.
We drove to Chicago to go to Shedd Aquarium. Raimi’s favorite was the dolphins. He was also interested in every single video screen or button that could be pushed. Kinnell could not be pulled away from the penguins–we sat and watched them for twenty minutes. He also thought it was funny to repeat his own mispronunciation: “Not Applesauce!” he said, over and over, “Oc-to-pus!”
Unfortunately, Raimi got some sort of stomach virus during the visit and became so dehydrated I rushed him to the doctor, and they sent him to the ER for IV fluids. He was completely out of it, lost three pounds in fluids, and was just very weak and scary-sick. It was so helpful to have Jason here because after I called Kevin to say we were settled in at the ER, he was able to leave Kinnell with Jay and hurry to the ER to see how we were. After they got several liters of fluids in, Raimi completely bounced back and was hysterically laughing at Tom & Jerry on the ER room tv by the time Kevin got there. They let the giggling dude and his relieved parents go home soon after.
Feeling bad that Raimi was so sick, Uncle Jason bought Raimi Avatar: The Last Airbender, and that has become Raimi’s favorite DVD. I mentioned Jason the other day and Kinnell told me, “Uncle Jay’s pretty funny.”