Saturday, July 2nd, 1977-in which we spend a Lazy Saturday, and Petey gets a haircut

I gave Pete a haircut yesterday and eliminated all his curls so now he looks very "little boyish".  Oddly his hair looks thicker since I cut it than it did before.  Mine seems to be falling out a lot.  I keep finding long red hairs on the carpet.  This morning Pete got up early to watch cartoons.  I turned the TV for him and slept while he ate his breakfast.  Then he wanted me to watch with him so we both took pillow and blankets into the living room and settled ourselves in the bean bag chair...I watched the cartoons for a while then fell asleep again, but Petey seemed satisfied that I was in the same room with him.  At 10:00am, Thelma called.  She came over and took Pete to her house to watch cartoons.  They'd mowed the front lawn and Pete and Tommy loaded up Tommy's trucks with the cut grass and played "hauling hay" into the back yard.  They had a picnic lunch, hot dogs and iced tea with saccharine and watermelon.  But Thelma let Petey eat 3 hot dogs and he had a cup of orange pineapple juice and he's not supposed to have any citrus.  That's all his carbohydrate ration for ages.  Pete got some sunburn on his arms, too, but it doesn't seem too painful (I rubbed a lot of Nivea in afte3r his bath),  Fortunately, he was wearing long pants so his legs didn't get burn.  I gave him all his medicine before he went so he was set fair till 41:00pm-but when I called Thelma just before 4:00, she'd started cleaning her oven and couldn't bring Pete till it was finished...so he didn't get his second Predisone till 6:00pm (and right now I'm waiting to for it to be late enough to give him the third).  While Pete was gone, I vacuumed the living room and kitchen and cleaned the bathroom.  The enamel is pretty thin in spots, so it never looks really clean, but I know it is clean, and that's what counts.  Pete helped me to wash the dishes when he got home.  He had cheeseburgers for dinner and this time he put on the cheese.  He had his dinner on a TV tray, being "the patient in the hospital".  He had green beans-he put them in the pan and turned on the stove by himself.  He knows how to turn it off, too (when we were young, Betty and Howard called me frantically at school-they'd decided to toast marshmallows, turned the  stove on, and couldn't turn it off again).  Thelma told me her father is dying of lung cancer and "it;s only a matter of days".  She doesn't think they can get back there in time to see him...Thank God Pete and I have had some preparation time!  Borrowed $5.00 in food stamps from Thelma so I can buy something for the 4th.  Pete took a bath tonight-he was filthy -and washed off most of his band-aids.  Read Day Lewis:Whispers in the Gloom.