Imagination at work

Well, we had an exciting week here in the Pekas house.  Which means it was like any other week.

I can't remember how the week started, but somewhere in the middle of it we found ourselves in the ER.  Since we are headed back home very soon, some may say we just went ahead and got one ER trip out of the way.  My mom thinks maybe we should pre-register at Mary Lanning now that there are 4 Pekas members... not a bad idea.

Long story short, we were over at a friend's house, Jenssen was playing with their two year old, and someone got into a bedroom that had been closed off to them.  Jenssen most likely at least chewed on or swallowed some blood pressure medication.  Poison control was contacted (yet in my nurses heart I knew where we were headed) and to the ER we went.  The next 7+ hours were spent in a bed in the ER's critical room, on a heart monitor.

I of course was bawling.  I checked the room they were playing in, took out the choking hazards, locked the window, checked the outlets.  He apparently wasn't interested in any of that, just the pills.  Justin met me at the nearest ER to where I was, and the four of us (yup, Rowan, sleeping away in the car seat) sat there while they looked him over, and told us safest bet was to assume he ate all of it and to keep him on a heart monitor until the drug's half life, which would be 8 hours.  All would be well, any drop in heart beat or pulse could be quickly corrected while in the ER with another med, so we opted to stay and wait it out rather than go home and call 911 if anything happened.  With tears in my eyes, the doctor looked at me and said "mom, you can't always protect them, that's why we pray."  Oh buddy, how true!

Here I was, thinking I was such a good mom, checking out the room and all, and who would have known the series of events that led to the pills finding their way in his tummy (well, we still don't know how much if any got in there, but the white powder around his mouth and in his teeth told us he at least sampled.)  That doctor was so right, you can do all these things to prevent and protect, but putting in at least that much effort if not more to prayer each night can be highly overlooked. 

So I sat there with him (Justin ended up taking Rowan home so he wasn't exposed to all the lovely germs one can find in a hospital) until nearly 8 pm that night.  Looking back, I can now smile at some of those moments (at the time I was keeping him entertained but keeping a closer eye on that heart rhythm!)  Of course I was going to stay the whole time the doctors wanted me to, but all I had to entertain a 2 year old was a diaper bag, size 1 and size 5 pampers, wipes, a truck, a mini magnadoodle, a transformer, a changing pad, a blanket, a stuffed alligator, and some gold fish (the snack that smiles back!).  This will be a LONG afternoon I told myself.

And wouldn't ya know it, that little guy amazed me yet again.

He wasn't happy to have the monitor put on him, but once we put a wire on gator, it was a necessity that one go on his belly also.  Thankfully they only had to come in and do a 12 lead EKG a few times, 3 wires was enough for me to keep untangled!  A trip that started out terrifying, turned special (once I found out any harm done could easily and quickly be reversed).  I had the privilege of sitting next to Jenssen for 7 hours and watch his imagination run wild.

He became a doctor to Gator, having to repeat everything done on him to his little green friend.  He became a patient of Gator, having Gator checking his leads and giving his arm a hug with each blood pressure.  The truck and the transformer had an epic battle right before my eyes (which the truck won because he could fly.  Everything in Jenssen's world can fly.)  He counted gold fish "two, two, nine...", and gold fish buried the truck (after it landed of course).

 He showed me all the words he knows by saying them, then having me draw them on the magnadoodle, and letting me know if I hadn't drawn the correct object.  (Among the favorites are back hoes, tractors, combines, frogs, boots, a sun, corn, and an orange.)  Notice the combine (hey, it got better as the day went on) had to have corn added in the picture, as well as papa and Jenssen driving.

 We played hide and seek, each time him hiding under the covers of the bed, or under the changing pad, and each time him giggling with delight at finding the perfect hiding spot.  Each time we got moved to a different room (which was surprisingly often) he would sit on the bed as the wheeled him down the hall, steering away, and mumbling "beep, beep, beep," under his breath as they backed the bed into the room.

He amazed me with his ablity to take ordinary objects, and see them in such an exciting a new light.  I realized that when playing, why can't a truck fly?  Why can't a Gator have an M.D.?   I felt so fortunate to be given those hours with no TV, no computer, and relatively few distractions; to see the world through his eyes, and that new cheesy smile of his.

The trip made me even more excited to watch these boys grow.  However I'm pretty sure this won't be the last trip to the ER with Jenssen, and that I'm not so excited about.

I'll keep baby proofing, and I'll keep preventing the best I can.  But you can bet I will certainly keep praying, because at the end of the day it was never in my hands anyway.

(can't have a post without a picture of the other man!  Okay, time for me to go pack because we fly home tomorrow night!  Lots to do!)