Zia (Pete's sister, Sue) arrived on Sunday, August 31st as planned and we actually made it to the airport on time to greet her at the gate (Ethan actually set off the alarm as she came through the "automagic" doors as he sprinted towards her!). We had a fun afternoon hanging around home and then went to Boston Pizza for dinner where we managed to limit Ethan's ridiculously frequent bathroom visits to only one (there are automagic sinks AND toilets AND soap AND hand dryers - no wonder he calls it his "favourite restaurant")!
Monday (labour day) was a fun day which started off with a trip to the Superstore to get the kids' annual portrait done. We threw Sue in on the mix at the end and got an awesome shot of the 3 of them:
After the Superstore, Pete took the kids home while Sue and I spent the afternoon shopping and being pampered with pedicures.
Sue worked at the local Golder office Tuesday through Thursday so it was a pretty normal week... until Friday rolled around... (ugh).
To make a very long story short, Ethan developed a dry cough towards the end of the week and by Friday night was having considerable trouble breathing. We took him to emerg around midnight (thankfully Sue, Arlene and Aldo were all here so Pete and I were both able to go) and he was promptly put on oxygen and admitted. They were unable to diagnose him right off the bat and monitored him around the clock while administering antibiotics, steroids, ventilin, IV and oxygen. He was in the hospital for 4 days (released this past Tuesday) and it was very stressful for all of us (either Pete or I wanted to be with him 24/7 so we took shifts spelling each other off and swapping Josh). Thankfully our little trooper is home now and doing ok. The 2nd set of chest xrays confirmed a viral pneumonia and they are also treating him for asthma. He is on an antibiotic for the next week, steroids for 2 days, and flovent (a puffer to keep his airways open) for the next 6 months - possibly longer if it helps. He has a ventilin puffer to be used as needed along with a nasal spray. Needless to say, he's a walking medicine cabinet but it's not slowing him down too much (he's more tired than normal but is otherwise back to his old self, having already been to swimming lessons and school this week). He is getting very excited about his upcoming birthday on Sunday and I am so relieved that we will actually get to celebrate it at the Fun Factory as planned (for awhile there it was looking like he'd still be hospitalized).
Here are a couple of pictures that we took on my cell phone while he was in the hospital (it was a challenge to be creative - he was in isolation - but picture-taking killed at least an hour one day!):
So it wasn't exactly the week we envisioned, and certainly wasn't the fun ending to Zia's visit that we had planned for... but the important thing is that Ethan is doing well now and Zia will be back again before long (he keeps asking when as he didn't get to say goodbye properly and, most importantly, take her to the airport to help her through the automagic doors)...
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