October is the Scary Month

We started off October with a scare--Nathan's first (and hopefully last) ambulance ride and trip to the emergency room. He had a quick-onset case of the croup. We put him to bed feeling fine, and the next thing we heard was him hacking and wheezing. We took Nate to an urgent care office, they attached an oxygen monitor to his thumb since he was having trouble breathing, and his levels were way too low, so they called an ambulance which rushed us to the hospital. He received a steroid injection to open his airway, and fought tooth & nail against the oxygen mask. Moral of the story is he had a lingering cough for a couple of weeks, but is as good as new. The general consensus at the ER was that the monitor at the urgent care was malfunctioning, because if his oxygen levels were truly that low, he would be turning blue and unable to cry. I'm glad that we were safe instead of sorry, but I know we have another scary moment to come when the hospital bills arrive!




We are trying to do lots of fun fall activities as a family. Above are pictures of Nathan helping to make pumpkin muffins. Obviously, Nate understands so much more this year than last year, so it's been fun to see him get into fall & Halloween. We're working on counting, so Nathan is making a Halloween counting book. He also practices trick-or-treating; he knocks on a door, says "trick-treat" and I give him a piece of candy. We've got the costume issues worked out--he was originally going to be Winnie the Pooh, but the costume we ordered him had a ridiculously short zipper and he got all scratched up every time he tried it on. So off to Carter's we went for firefighter pajamas & galoshes that look just like firefighter boots. Nathan is thrilled with his new costume.












We took Nathan to a pumpkin patch yesterday. He loved watching the tractor pull us on a hayride. One of his new ambitions was realized when he got to pull a little red wagon like the ones he sees kids ride in at the park. I keep promising him we'll get one when we move into our house & actually have a garage to keep it in, but he enjoyed his preview of joys to come. Nathan chose 6 pumpkins for us to take home and decorate, and it was one of those awesome moments of parenthood to watch him waddle over to the wagon, carefully holding his pumpkins tight to his chest. His grunts as he tried to hoist up the giant pumpkins were priceless! While I waited in line for our hayride, Jake took Nate to sit on an enormous toy tractor--try prying him off and living to tell the tale. We'll be back next year for sure. I'm excited to be starting traditions in our little family!













The house . . . almost done, and looking gorgeous! We stopped by yesterday to see our tile floors, kitchen counters & backsplash, fireplace, bathroom tile, light fixtures, and paint all finished. They've also started preparing the yard. We're supposed to close on October 30, so only two more weeks (and loud-neighbor weekends) in our apartment! Then comes yard work . . .