More Balloons

About a week ago, a pair of scissors was brandished and a birthday balloon was removed from its perch above Jaden’s high chair. (Note: This balloon had survived for nearly 2 months…is there a new element on the periodic table that I am unaware of?) For days after, Jaden would look up towards the heavens visibly wondering where in the heck his balloon had gone. Never fear, the post has been filled again. This time soaring above each meal is a great.big.giant.purple.hippo. Where did the hippo materialize from? The Emergency Room…of course.

Jaden got sick a few days ago. I’ll spare you the details. They aren’t pretty, but will probably be forever stained into the cream (great fabric choice) rocking chair in Jaden’s bedroom. This is our first encounter with mouth-exiting sickness, so my train of thought was not necessarily rational. I think the following scale sums it up nicely:

One sick: Yuck.
Two sick: Damn, not just a one-off. Call sister.
Three sick: WTF???? Call mom.
Four sick: Worry sets in.
Five-Nine sick: At what point do we call the doctor? Call sister again.
Ten sick: Call doctor.
Eleven sick: Go to ER.

We spent three hours with some of the nicest people on the planet. Evidence: They kindly suggested I leave the room when Jaden’s IV was being put in so I could be the “nice guy” afterwards. They wheeled in a DVD player so Jaden could “watch” Milo and Otis during our time there. They let Dustin pick out a ginormous balloon on our way out which elicited the faintest of smiles from little Jaden.

Since this episode things have been far from normal for Jaden. He has been running a fever, sleeping on my lap, watching Elmo Pets on repeat cycle, not playing one little bit, barely walking, and just generally lethargic. It is pretty scary to see. But, and I’m not joking about this, when we are attempting to get the least bit of food into his gullet I can still get him to smile by asking, “Where’s your balloon?”. It has returned, in all of its hippo glory.