Jonathan is home

There have been a few twists and turns since my last post. Yesterday morning, it seemed like Jonathan was doing very well and would likely be headed home today. Then he spiked a high fever in the afternoon and those hopes dwindled. We had a rough night and then an early morning visit from vampires, er, I mean the nurse who draws blood for further lab work.

When the doctor came by a couple hours later, Jonathan was still struggling with fever and discouraged by the blood letting.  Interestingly, the doctor reported that all lab reports were looking good and moving in the right direction. And this without any new doses of antibiotic (which they withheld to test the hypothesis that it was viral).

So, it appears Jonathan is afflicted with a mystery virus that piggy-backed the pneumonia from a couple weeks ago. Mono is one of the suspects. But whatever the culprit, there wasn’t much to do other than ride it out, so were given the okay to head home. There are a few more results that should be coming in on Monday, so we may yet discover the actual culprit, but it is good to be home.

Emailing Jonathan

Children’s has a medium set up for patients to receive email messages from friends and loved ones. Anything you send will be hand-delivered to Jonathan. Click here if you’d like to send him a message directly. He is a great reader, and loves to get mail of any variety. Thanks, Everyone!

Jonathan’s hospital stay

First, we appreciate everyone’s thoughts, prayers, offers of help, and other expressions of love that have poured in over the past couple days.

Jonathan and I arrived at Children’s Medical Center yesterday afternoon and were treated to the least tortuous, least degrading, easiest admittance process I have ever experienced (and I’ve experienced about 20 of them). Interestingly, the gentleman signing us in was apparently in training for Mr. Universe or something, and his biceps were probably bigger than my thighs. But I digress.

Jonathan was doing very well, particularly given he was running a 103 degree fever. Once we were settled in a room (and a nice room at that, think LDR), we had a nice long consultation with our hospitalist. She was pleasant and competent, traits shared with pretty much everyone at Children’s. She then ordered a battery of tests, and Jonathan made me proud as he kept his composure while they poked, prodded, measured, x-rayed, and bled him through the evening. Along the way he enjoyed a dinner of french toast and bacon, cried after spilling his hot chocolate (and not from the hot liquid all over himself, but because he was enjoying it), took in a view of Pete’s Dragon, and generally did very well. Tricia dropped by late in the evening for a nice visit that coincided with the administration of the antibiotic via the IV installed earlier, and then Jonathan settled in for some sleep. I settled in for “sleep”, as I was on this couch-bed thing that was roughly equal to a balance beam surrounded by some squishy couch material.

The night went reasonably well, though there were some rough patches as Jonathan broke his fever. This morning he had no fever, which was fantastic, but didn’t last. The hospitalist came by again, with the surprising report that the x-ray hadn’t really shown any pneumonia. So next up was a CAT scan and then a rousing game of Battleship, followed by the return of the fever and some lunch.

So we have test results drifting in, but no real resolution yet. The hospital stay has been very pleasant, but we would like to be home. And I suppose that’s a good thing.

What’s Up Around Here

Last night saw very little sleep for most of us as Jonathan relapsed with high fever, and Josiah fought a very nasty tummy bug, which he continues to fight today.

This morning after seeing Jonathan our pediatrician made the decision to hospitalize him, because he did not like the direction the pneumonia was taking. Jonathan is now checked in, and they are running a series of tests to rule out anything worse, in order to determine proper course of treatment. He is under the care of a very competent and compassionate doctor, and we are thankful for the attentive care he will receive, though we miss him terribly at home.

For his part, Jonathan was quite nervous about the prospect of hospitalization, so prayers for his little heart to be calm, and for his little body to heal are all very appreciated.

We are thankful for our sweet Grammy, who has come to be of help. Her presence has cheered us, and the house is a fresher, cleaner, more delightful place to be since her arrival.

I will try to post updates here as we have them.

God and His Athletic Abilities

During lunchtime today, the children and I were discussing a passage from I Corinthians 1, especially the last few verses:

Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: ‘Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.'”

As we talked about what “boasting in the Lord” might mean, I gained some insight into my 6 1/2 year old’s concept of God:

Jonathan: “God can do anything.”

Mommy: “But one thing that God cannot do is sin.”

Jonathan: “Well, and he can’t play soccer either.”

Not that way of matin’

A conversation at dinner that spun out of control…

Jonathan: Then you go to college? How long?

Jay: Usually for 4 years.

Jonathan: Do you live there?

Jay: Most people do.

Jonathan: Then what do you do? Do you look for a mate?

Chaos ensues.

Abigail: It’s not that way of matin’, like penguins.

Sort of bluish putty-colored

At lunch, I gave each of the boys a Trix yogurt, which have a couple colors/flavors in a single cup. Jonathan and Nicolas each stirred theirs into a single bluish putty-colored mass. At which point 6 year old Jonathan pipes up with:

“Look Nicolas, it’s sort of an indigo cerulean.”

Indigo what???

I had to look up the proper spelling for this entry.

He did look pretty enough in the movies to be wearing makeup

Our children are becoming familiar with the epic that is Lord of the Rings. In addition to Jonathan’s current reading of the Hobbit, the three older children are enjoying segmented, slow screenings of Peter Jackson’s three LotR movies with their Daddy. One can witness their fascination with the story as they play together, though obviously one of them is still a bit mixed up over a few of the characters. This morning, they were all in the boys’ room, constructing bows and arrows from K’nex, and putting on their dress-up armor in preparation for a great battle.

“I am going to be the elf-princess, Arwen,” declared Abigail. Jonathan, ready to fight, said he wasn’t exactly sure which elf he wanted to be, but that he was certainly going to win the war. Nicolas however, confidently stated, “Well, I am going to be LipGloss*!”

* For those not as familiar with the LotR trilogy, we’re pretty sure he meant Legolas.

Little Readers

This is a familiar sight at our house:

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Two little rumply-haired boys in robes/jammies reading together on the couch early in the morning. It is one of their favorite things to do. It is also one of Mommy’s favorite things for them to do, because when engrossed like this, they are at peace with one another. No cross words, bickering over a toy, or whining to me about what evil the other has just done.

But there is also humor within this picture. Please note that both boys have a Magic TreeHouse book: this is a recently-discovered series in our family, and the children have been getting every book they can find out of both the city and school libraries. Which is understandable for Abigail and Jonathan, because, well, they can actually read. Words, that is. And Treehouse Books are definitely reader books. There are not a ton of pictures to help tell the story if you can’t figure out what the funny-looking symbols all over the page mean. Personally, I’d have a hard time enjoying these books if I was not a reader.

But Nicolas doesn’t agree with me. That precious boy of mine can’t read a single word, but he LOVES reading TreeHouse books. In fact, he tells me that he’s “read” eleven TreeHouse books now. Really. And he believes he has. Every time Jonathan picks up one, Nicolas chooses one for himself. Unless of course, as he tells me, he’s “already read that one”.

It’s so cute. He wants to be just like his big brother, and “read”. I, feeling sorry for him (thinking he cannot possibly be enjoying the process of patiently running his chubby finger underneath every. single. word. in. the. entire. book. – which is what he does in order to finish reading it, mind you) offer him countless picture books off our shelves, and he politely declines, saying he’d rather read his TreeHouse book.

Until this past weekend…when Jonathan began the first in another series of books which we own: the Hobbit. I wondered which TreeHouse book Nicolas might choose to read from while sitting next to his big brother. But the four-year-old calmly reached into the same grouping of books from which Jonathan had selected the Hobbit, and settled down comfortably with his own volume: none other than Fellowship of the Ring.