Day 6

Day 6 went pretty well. Jared and I are really overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and concern people have shown us and we have started to look forward to opening the mail each day. Today I opened the door to recieve an elephant with balloons attached from Gail & Bruce Franzen (Lisa's parents) for Ethan... and he LOVES balloons (at least 20 minutes of fun:) I was hoping for some sort of song like in Elf when Will Farrell is the singing elf to his father (I'm singing, I'm on a porch and I'm singing...) but the guy just handed it to me and left. I should apply for that job because I would throw in a song for free.

So the Heisners sent a gift & so did Aunt Lucie, and Ethan's best friend Corey wrote Ethan a get well card. He is the best friend Ethan has ever had. My parents came up tonight and Ethan lit up when he saw them. Cute sidenote: my dad always points at Ethan when he sees him and Ethan has just started to point back. Well when my parents came to Egleston to see Ethan, my Dad walked in the hospital room and pointed at Ethan right away. Ethan was all drugged up, but sure enough he lifted up his IV hand and pointed at my dad. It warmed all of our hearts.

Mom & Dad brought a creeper (a board on wheels that mechanics use to go underneath cars to fix things) for Ethan to try out on his belly and see if he likes to scoot around. I can't wait to post pictures when we try it out.

Jared's parents are coming next weekend (Grandie & Pop) so that makes the weekend something to look forward to. We had our customary Saturday morning family breakfast this morning with bacon, eggs, sausage, blueberry pancakes (that Joanne Bath made for us) and orange juice. I've really become attached to these family meals, even if we are holding Ethan up at the table in a large cast. We have his train set up on the kitchen table and one of us sits in a rolling chair and holds him up right so he can play with his train. As of late, he has been taking food and putting it in various trains with an open back, so today was the bacon express where he would put small bites of bacon in each train. Of course I would eat the bacon if it came my direction. On the down side, we are finding bits of food in lots of Ethan's toys... seems he likes to hide it cars when we aren't looking.

Alicia Cook came over and brought us dinner, and then some of our favorite college friends visited and brought some different yummy things. Avery, Ashley, Rachel, and Kim (also known as AARK) met my parents dog and we had to watch them suspiciously as they coveted little molly. especially rachel. not so much kim.

Final thoughts on Day 6... Ethan still isn't taking great naps, but he did sleep through the night so that made it much more bearable during the day. I was a little weary today of what to do all day, but that's a pretty normal feeling for a parent of young ones as far as I know. Jared was reading this morning in the gospel of Matthew about Jesus being tempted in the wilderness for 40 days, and after doing the math, realized that 40 days is about 5 1/2 weeks, which is the total time as of now that Ethan will be in this get up. He shared that with me, talking about how the account of Jesus is that he was without food for 40 days and experienced a lot of temptation. Well, that put our 40 days in perspective and was just something good to think about when we sleep in comfy beds, eat good food, get gifts in the mail, and experience the comforts of life in America.

Thankful for:
that I'm not fasting for 40 days in a desert, for grandparents and friends, wagons and wheelchairs, and getting to go to Barnes & Noble while my parents stay with Ethan. I love reading the magazines, looking through the books, and drinking coffee. It doesn't take much:)