Halloween

I think this was only the second time in James’ life that we took him trick or treating around our neighborhood. It’s usually either too cold for him to be outside for long periods of time, or Halloween falls on a weeknight when he’s zonked from school and he’s too sleepy. Since Halloween was on a Sunday this year, and the weather was decent—chilly, but not too bad—we went trick or treating around the neighborhood as a family.

Stacy had been working on a family Halloween costume for a few weeks, so we were lucky that the weather was in our favor. We dressed up as characters from the Wizard of Oz. James was the Tin Man, Stacy was Dorothy, I was the Scarecrow, and Maggie was the Lion. Maggie didn’t care too much for the mane, but we were able to get a couple of pictures of her wearing it.

Health Update

James continued to remain relatively healthy throughout October. He had one or two days where he needed a little extra attention, but nothing out of the ordinary. As the cooler fall weather sets in and we get into November, we start getting a little anxious. He has a habit of coming down with pneumonia around Thanksgiving.

This year he may have started early. Yesterday he was showing signs of respiratory distress, so we kept him home from school. Today he was about the same so Stacy asked for a nurse from palliative care stop by to give him a listen. She said that the right lung sounded good, but the left side was diminished. Welcome to Pneumo-ember!  That’s what we sometimes refer to November as around here.

Going on the assumption that it was probably pneumonia, palliative care started him on a steroid and an antibiotic hoping to avoid another hospital stay. It will probably take a few days for them to start working their magic, but hopefully next month’s post won’t include pictures of him in the hospital. Please say a few prayers for him.

School

James was assigned his own locker at school. He doesn’t have many books, so I am not sure what he is going to store in it. Maybe some extra medical supplies?

He put together a vision board.

Now I know this isn’t really James related, but it is school related, so I guess I’ll throw it in here, too. Stacy has added another job to her resume. A couple of weeks ago she started working as a lunch supervisor at one of the elementary schools in our district. This girl just can’t sit still. She hasn’t had a full-time job since James was born and is trying to do what she can to help the family financially, and I appreciate her for that.

Our Other Kids

I can’t believe it’s been a year since Maggie became part of our family. She’s mostly a good dog, but we’ve been trying to work on some behavior issues. When we first got her, she was really friendly with anyone that came over, but then something changed. She constantly barks when people other than us are in the house, and sometimes nips at them. We don’t know what her history is other than she was found as a stray in Alabama. Maybe this is her first real home and family, and she doesn’t want to lose it so she is being protective. We just don’t know, but we’re working on it.

They say that time heals all wounds. Well, it’s been almost 13 years since we lost Jackson and our wounds haven’t healed, and I don’t think they ever will. I can’t speak for Stacy, but I can still feel the pain, sadness, and anger of knowing that we were going to lose him. I’m getting mad just thinking about it now. Wherever you are Jackson, I hope you know that mommy and daddy love you very much, and if we could have changed the outcome, we would have.