ADAPTING...three is enough (Part 95f)

OK... Where were we?

Jean, our oldest, had her 5th birthday on Memorial Day. There still weren’t any other girls in and around her age living in the park and as we’d done in previous years some of the girls that were around her age at church were invited. Karen, the teen who ran the nursery at church and who’d babysat for us a few times was asked as well (but for pay). The kids liked and responded to her and with Elle still struggling felt it would be best. Back in those days birthday parties, especially for young girls, was an excuse to get dressed up in nice clothes meaning a dress, fancy socks and good shoes. Karen took it to heart and showed up in a cute Summer dress with lace around the arm openings and around the hem. I picked her up in the early afternoon with the party scheduled for 2pm. I think I paid her $5 and did so before we got back. She was really appreciative of it and I remember her thanking me profusely. She was a nice girl. Her job was to run the party games and keep the kids under control.

Elle’s mother was there but her ”specialty” was the cake and ice cream. I was there as the picture taker only. Including Jean and her sister Ann there were seven in total. Because four of them only visited during birthdays the play house was a big attention getter for them. As I remember it it was hard to get them back into the main yard for the party itself. After the treats were served and devoured Karen ran games (with prizes) and the party started to run down. I was inside putting the uneaten food away and wasn’t there to see what precipitated the commotion but when I stepped back outside I saw Karen on her back with most of the kids piled on top of her. Elle was yelling at them to be careful as they could (and did) get grass stains on their clothes. As I approached the pile I saw a lot of kiddie panties for sure but under the pile was what I was hoping to see... Karen’s panties. As the kids finally climbed off her I only got glimpses but when they were all off she rolled over and away from me totally exposing most of her pink pantied backside. Elle saw me staring and, much later, gave me a talking to about it. There was nothing I could say just as there was no way I could’ve avoided seeing what I saw without putting my hands over my eyes. It was worth the “heat”. If Karen had been embarrassed about it she didn’t show it. When I took her home we chatted, easily, about her plans for the Summer. It was a nice memory to have on top of getting a pair of Marge’s panties a few days earlier.

It was shortly thereafter that we had the first problems with the baby and after a few trips to the doctor it was actually a problem with Elle. Her breast milk wasn’t satisfying her and she was always hungry (read that as fussing). The doctor told us that to be on the safe side that we should give her pre packaged formula. Even with all the additional costs surrounding Elle’s operation and resulting medications we were just holding our own as far as money went. I quickly found out that formula wasn’t cheap. On top of that the baby had a hard time digesting the first brand we tried. It was very upsetting to see her unhappy which translated into Elle being unhappy which further translated into me being unhappy. I’m not sure when it was but one night after getting up to sooth the baby in the middle of the night she flopped back into bed mumbling “Three’s enough... three’s enough... three’s enough!”. I was barely awake but we ended up talking for a bit before falling back to sleep. However, and this was important... it was the first thing she uttered the next morning. This time I could see her face and she was deadly serious. We had both wanted a boy but when Kaye was born we had left it open as to trying again. At this point there was plain and simple... NO MORE! 

I know there was no way to plan for the need for Elle’s operation and the resulting costs which were not all monetary. The addition of the baby so soon afterwards had taxed her physical abilities but at this point in time her mental strength was being taxed as well. As for me I was struggling from the lack of sex. Our last physical sex had taken place at Christmas and my last “plug in” activity had been in February right before she found out she had to have the operation. It had been about four months and each time I’d suggested even a “plug in” she’d have an excuse why she shouldn’t, couldn’t or wouldn’t. The primary reason was that she was so tired and I could visibly see that but it was quickly followed by her incontinence. So, I figured that this was as good a time as any to tackle that part. We’d discussed it before but I couldn’t pin her down. I knew I was a little hard on her but I finally got her to commit to a visit to see Buddy and Carol's parents, the doctors who’d done the bladder procedure on her before we were married. She’d used the breast feeding as an excuse and now that wasn’t an issue any longer. At least when I left for work I knew that some progress had been made. The question was “how much?”.

At work, Sonny’s absence was causing problems. He was still in the hospital but no one knew how long it would be before he’d be released or if he'd be able to return. Mrs K had granted him a medical leave of absence for a year which meant that his position could only be filled on a temporary basis. Everybody who’d responded wanted a full time position. Even with Mrs K telling them that there was only a slight chance of Sonny returning the answer was always a negative.

On the positive side was the performance of Annette, the physically handicapped girl that had been hired to fill the receptionist position. I’d found her to be very bright and quick to learn and pointed it out to both Wilson and Marty. Being shorthanded we’d all had to do a better job of prioritizing our work. In my case I found there were some things that had been part of my position for a long time and I’d had no reason to question them. Under the circumstances I began to question why they couldn’t be done by someone in a lower position. I’d noticed that Annette would sometimes have periods of time where there were no phone calls or walk in applicants. I asked Wilson if I could pass off some of my mundane tasks to her. His initial reaction was negative. When asked "why?" his response was that they were part of my job description. His stance was similar to what I was beginning to face from my oldest daughter when she’d ask for something and would be told “No”. She’d ask why and I (or Elle) would answer was “because we said so”. Frustrated, I went over his head to Mrs K.

As I’ve written in previous posts I really liked and admired her. She was the only female department head in the entire County government which indicated she had to have been pretty "sharp". Her initial reaction was similar to that of Wilson but when I asked her to listen to my reasoning she allowed me to speak my piece. Basically I appealed to her common sense and that was that the girl was far too intelligent for the job she was doing. The only reason she was where she was was because of her physical limitations. Her brain was far ahead of that and I gave her some examples of her suggestions. When I finished I remember her leaning back in her chair and staring at me. It was a bit uncomfortable for a few seconds but then she leaned forward and, staring right at me said something along the lines of “I like the way you think.” Then she picked up the phone and had Wilson come in to the office where she told him that it would be OK for Annette to assume some additional duties as long as it didn’t detract from her primary position. I remember smiling inwardly as I watched Wilson stand there with a bit of a frown on his face. When I told Annette about it the look of appreciation on her face was worth more than money.

To be continued...