This picture makes me smile. Last week, we had the privilege of my brother Jonathan coming to visit us. Jon had never gotten to meet his nephew Caleb, and we were so excited for them to meet. Jon booked his ticket months ago. We set up his bed in the extra bedroom. We cleaned the house top to bottom. We were very excited! I told Caleb all about how cool his Uncle Jon is and how much fun they would have together. Jonathan is the oldest of my three younger siblings. We were best buds growing up, and I still consider him a close friend. He lives in Colorado, so I don't get to see him often. I couldn't wait!
Sunday night came, the night before we would pick up Jon from the airport, and of course.....Caleb got sick. He had a high fever, congestion, and a terrible cough. He couldn't eat, drink or sleep. He woke up every hour and even vomited because he could not stop coughing. Poor Caleb. Immediately Monday morning, I called the doctor's office. I was so thankful they had an early morning appointment, so I threw on some clothes, snapped Caleb in the car and sped my way to his appointment. I just knew he had some terrible disease. I was picturing my phone conversation with Jonathan, telling him that I couldn't pick up up from the airport because I had to rush Caleb to the nearest hospital. (I can be a little bit of a drama queen occasionally.) Dr. McGuire checked Caleb out and declared it was only the croup, which is not really very serious but pretty miserable. The doctor prescribed some great meds to get Little Man feeling better as soon as possible.
After a quick trip to the pharmacy for medication and the grocery store for popsicles, we were off to the airport. Somewhere along the way, Caleb's meds began to kick in. The lessening cough was a welcome relief to my ears as he slept soundly in the back seat. Unfortunately, as I soon found out, drug-induced sleep is not all it's cracked up to be, with or without coughing. (Do you remember at the beginning of this post I told you how excited I was for Caleb to meet his uncle? Well, let me explain that I was not really excited, I was ecstatic! I kept picturing scenes in my imagination of uncle and nephew first setting eyes on each other and becoming instant, life-long friends. I imagined Jon tossing Caleb into the air with soft motivational music playing in the background, and Caleb falling into his uncle's strong hands in fits of laughter.)
So, here's how the introduction went: "Caleb, this is your Uncle Jon." (blank stare) "Caleb do you want to go play with your Uncle Jon?" (blank stare) "Uncle Jon flew all the way from Colorado to meet you." (blank stare) "Do you want to show Uncle Jon your toys?" (blank stare) "Okay Caleb, I'm going to put you down so you can play with Uncle Jon." (WAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!) So, the introduction didn't go quite like I had planned.
Well, days passed. Medication continued to do it's job, along with turning my happy baby boy into a groggy, grouchy, whiny little zombie. Poor kid couldn't even walk straight. (A few days into it we noticed a teensy-tiny label on one of the medications that stated: May cause drowsiness and slight dizziness. Slight? Ha. The kid couldn't even walk straight!) Somewhere about day four or five of Jon's visit, Little Man began to come out of his zombie-like state. After two crazy days at the beach with a sick kid, we decided to spend the rest of the visit at home to let Caleb catch up on his rest. That ended up being a good strategy because a couple of days before Jon's departure Little Man was back to his normal self. Getting into everything! We played in the backyard and went to the park. Jon put up Caleb's tepee tent, and Caleb spent an entire afternoon peeking in and out of the tent's windows and doors. Before we knew it, it was time for Uncle Jon to go back home.
The morning of Jon's departure, I left Caleb in the living room watching the Sprout channel while Jon was checking his email nearby. After a quick change of clothes and brushing my teeth, I returned to the living room to see the sweetest picture: There was sweet, smiling Caleb sitting snugly in Uncle Jon's lap listening to his favorite book.
I guess our visit started off pretty rough but ended up being a total success as Caleb waved bye-bye to Uncle Jon as he headed off to catch his plane.
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