Ah Parenthood

It has been quite a week.
I started my new batch of classes on Monday, and on Tuesday spent the day and night in the hospital. Poor little Pumpkin had a fairly common condition called intussusception. You can certainly google it to get a better idea, but basically it is a telescoping of the intestines where one part goes inside another part, causing the flow of important bodily fluids to stop. He had a seriously painful fit on Monday night, and I actually called 911 but they didn't think it was an emergency (they hypothosized that it was bad gas or teething, the kid had been writhing around for an hour). It's hard to know what to do, so I decided to let him sleep and take him in the next morning if it still seemed like something was wrong. He didn't sleep that night much, and at 6 am I took him to the emergency room. They did an ultra sound and an x-ray and found his intestines to be the problem. He was given two anemas (will he hate me for reporting this when he's 12?), which worked to straighten things out. If it had not worked, he would have had to have surgery. We spent the night so they could keep him under observation, because it can happen again and usually does relatively soon after the procedure. Luckily it did not happen again (knock on wood), and we were discharged the next morning leaving me enough time to get to my classes on time.
It was a pretty tough time all around. While we were in the hospital he had an IV in his arm and I had to chase him around with the wheeled pole. He couldn't use one of his hands which frustrated him greatly.
So now whenever he cries I think it's come back, and he's getting more spoiled because of it. I want to know if he's crying out of pain so I give him whatever it is that he wants much more quickly than I would have before. O'well. I'm just thankful to have my Bunny Boy safe and healthy. That was scary.
Oh and one last note about this, there is no known cause beyond rapidly growing intestines for this condition, which I find a little frustrating. It would be easier if there was something I could actively do to prevent this from happening again. But I can't. Besides pray and visualize healthy intestines manifesting in his gut.

On a lighter note, he's back to his old self! Here's some pictures and videos of the charmer.

Ezra and Usiah fell asleep on the way to the river last weekend (pre hospital).

Ezra woke up and found a new hat!

Ezra and Tom at the Washougal River. We had a great day.

Here's Ezra and Maya. To find out what they are doing exactly you will have to watch the video found below...

Strawberry Pickin'

To celebrate my first day of my break from school we went berry pickin'! The strawberries are gorgeous, red throughout, and the sweetest little thangs. I made two pies with them, one a peach strawberry and the other a straight strawberry. I think I'll have a slice for breakfast tomorrow to start out day #2 of vacation. It is so so so nice to have a break and to spend all day with the Ezranator. He's so cool. Here he is in the patches, which he usually doesn't like strawberries but today he was eating a lot of them, you can see the red lips.

The next shot is to show off Ezra's new shorts. Grandma sent them in the package. I think they will fit for the next few days, at least. I think they are hilarious and just watching him walk around in them this afternoon was enough to entertain me. I tried to make a video but it didn't work out, but weather permitting he'll be wearing these shorts in the very near future and I will try to capture the round of his bottom. By the way, he's not upset because of the shorts. He loves the shorts, too. He is upset because he wants me to open the front door so he can stroll down the street and show them off.
No he doesn't have sign language for that, but I can just tell.
Oh and he's wearing his new sandals, too! So cute.