Noel's third visit to the ER (and first hospital stay)

Wow, I'm tired, but before I go to bed I wanted to post a quick update on Noel. I took him to the ER at 10:30 last night because of fever, labored breathing and retraction. Chest x-rays and lab work confirmed he has pneumonia, so we were admitted, but even before then, Noel was started on IV fluids, breathing treatments and oxygen, which helped immensely. We had a long, rough, mostly sleepless night, but by this afternoon, Noel was feeling better. He even got to come off the oxygen. Mike and Dominick came to the hospital for a few hours this morning, returned home to prepare for trick-or-treating, and came back so that Mike could stay over with Noel and I could come home and sleep. So that's what I'm going to do now. I'll keep everyone posted. We're hoping Noel can come home tomorrow, but that depends on test results and whether he's drinking enough to stay hydrated.

Friday night at the Y

Halloween festivities began for us tonight with the Y's annual party. The boys donned their tree costumes (Dominick was an apple tree; Noel was a sassafras) before we headed up to Brentwood. Well, I should say that Dominick got dressed except for his tree shirt, which had plastic apples on the back and could not be worn comfortably in the car.

The Y was a madhouse, yet some intrepid souls dared to work out in the midst of it. The gym held several activities, such as cookie decorating, tattoos, games, and a huge inflatable slide. After a costume parade around the track, the kids lined up in the gym for the costume contest, judged by Thing 1 and Thing 2. The first award was for Most Original Costume, and the winner was...drumroll...the apple tree! Woo hoo! We estimated there were about 150 kids, so I was pretty excited to have won a prize. Of course, as the ribbon was presented, one of the apples fell off. We lost a few leaves, too, so I'll have to do some repair before the next Halloween event. Darn that cheap felt.

The finale tonight was a pumpkin rescue in the pool. Dominick wasn't grabbing any pumpkins, so I fished one out from the side of the pool as the canoe went by and gave it to him, but he promptly threw it back into the water on the opposite side of the boat. I did manage to snag another to bring home.

So it was a fun evening, more than worth the $5 admission. I hope the late bedtime (9:00) translates into at least a 7:00 am wake-up for the boys, but I'm not holding my breath. I should also mention that I have been a Y member for a year now, and I'm still actually going! That's something of a miracle for me.

Noel's second visit to the ER

Just a quick one to pass along what happened this evening. During his usual post-bath naked run around the house, Noel slipped and fell, hitting his head on a rectangular piece of coal from the Thomas set. It left a fairly small but deep (to me, anyway) gash in his forehead, so I took him to the emergency room while Mike stayed home with Dominick. (That was kind of funny, actually: Dom wanted to go, too, so he started putting his shoes on, though he was still naked from his bath.) The doctors initially hoped we could get by with tissue glue, but once the wound was cleaned, they saw that it would require sutures. Poor little guy. I was so proud of him. He was great on the way to the hospital, in the waiting room, where he played with Thomas, and in the treatment room. He slept in my arms for a good portion of that time. He didn't love the stitching part so much, mostly because he was being held down. He kept screaming, "Done! Done!" Two stitches and some glue later, we were. Now Noel's at home asleep, and I hope he sleeps well tonight.

Update: Noel slept until 7:20 this morning (late for him) and has been acting normally since he got up. His forehead doesn't look too bad, considering. Luckily, both the glue and stitches will dissolve on their own, so there's nothing more we need to do, other than watch for signs of infection, which are rare in injuries like this. The doctor expects it to heal beautifully and leave a small scar. Maybe it will heal as well as Noel's finger. That scar is almost imperceptible. Amazing.

Noel this morning, and the culprit

Girls and boys

This morning was my spinning class, so after dropping off Dominick at school, Noel and I headed to the Y. He stays in the nursery while I work out. It's a beautiful thing. When I returned after spinning, Noel was just about to start his snack, so to avoid a meltdown, I let him eat it there before we left. He took his goldfish and cup into a play gazebo, and I squeezed in with him. A couple of girls nearby were playing with some My Little Ponies, which they brought over to the gazebo. They wanted me to take care of the ponies, and I thought, "Awww, aren't girls so caring and nurturing when they play." Then one of the girls said, "Don't touch the blood!" Apparently, the poor ponies had fallen and were bleeding from their eyes; the girls wanted me to give them shots to feel better. It was very enlightening, although in retrospect I shouldn't be surprised that girls can be a bit morbid in their play. I was one, after all.

Health and home

Mike had a visit with the oral surgeon on Monday. He's healing well, and the biopsy came back clear, so he's in good shape. I hadn't mentioned the biopsy on here before, just because. Fortunately, there's nothing to worry about.

And now Noel and I are having our own issues. He's been limping since yesterday, and today he held his leg and said "hurt." Also yesterday, something happened to my right pinkie toe. I have no idea how I hurt it, but it's bruised all around, swollen and painful. Very strange.

On the house front, the chimney is finished and looks beautiful. Getting rid of that nasty red has greatly improved the appearance of the entire house. Here is how it looks now:

And for comparison, a really "before" picture, taken just before we bought the house in September 2000:

[Shudder] I hadn't looked back at this roll of pictures in a long time. Wow, we've done a lot of work on this house! Maybe some day I'll add more photos of the house before and after to Picasa. Some of you may not have seen all the changes we've made, and some might just want to relive such special memories as the (badly painted) bright blue garage doors, fuschia playhouse trim, fake parquet and fake flagstone carpets, gun racks in the basement, and the Schlitz light fixture. Actually, all of the light fixtures were hideous. And yet, despite all of the renovation, our to-do list remains a mile long. It never ends.

New photos

At my parents' urging, I've uploaded September's photos, which include our trip to Branson, bike riding, Eckert Farms, and the Missouri Botanical Garden. I guess October just started, but it seems like a long time since I last posted pictures, so here they are:



We've got another busy weekend ahead: chimney painting, moving several shrubs, fixing the broken hose so that I can water the transplanted shrubs, working on Halloween costumes (the boys will be trees), and many other things on my list upstairs. Tomorrow we're doing something fun, at least: the fire station is holding its annual open house, which we attended last year. I'm sure I'll have pictures from that to post later. Have a great weekend!