Siblings

Jack brought the kids to see me on his days off, and Ellen and Jack Jack are old enough to visit their baby brother.

Thursday morning we met with the child life specialist, Margarita, for an "emotional assessment." She brought a baby doll and a tub of syringes, tubes ("straws" for food and medicine), monitor wires and stickers, an oxygen mask, a stethescope, and an IV bag.

She explained what everything was, let the kids touch and play with everything, had them try it out on the baby doll, and told them they were things they might see around and on their baby brother.

Then she brought them each a bag of supplies to take home. Gloves, a paper mask, a syringe, bandages, cotton balls, antiseptic wipes, and a hairnet. They love playing doctor anyway, so they were in heaven. And distracted from playing with non-toys in the waiting room, like the water wall.

Then Ellen had her temperature taken and went in with me to see Elijah. Jack Jack didn't want his temperature taken, so after we were done and all packed up in the car about to leave for the day, he realized that everyone but him (Rose doesn't count) got to see Elijah, and he started crying. So he agreed to have his temperature taken, and I took him back up, and he got to see his brother. And look out the windows of our third floor corner room at all the cars, the helicopter landing area, the park across the street, and the entrance to the children's hospital.

The first thing Rose did when Margarita brought out the baby doll was try to pull the feeding tube out of the doll's nose. That's why you have to be at least three years old to actually visit.