Gracefulness is an acquired trait...especially if you are of Williams descent

Wynn takes after his father when it comes to some things involving coordination...fortunately he's pretty resilient and gets up when he falls. And not just when he falls off the train. Megan just informed me that Wynn rolled off his changing table straight onto his back earlier today when she moved for a split second to throw away his diaper in the nearby trash receptacle adjacent to the changing table. Thud!...a few tears from being more scared than hurt, and Wynn was back to his normal antics of running around the house jabbering words unknown but to himself.

I just hope he has stronger bones than his father did...

Welcome Wilk

Wilk arrived to his new home this evening. In the few hours he's been here, he's been visited by many. Good to have a dog on the place, again.

Pals already...

Halloween with the Rubble's

Jerome 4th and 6th wards combined for a 'trunk or treat' (an alternative to traditional 'trick or treating' where a group gathers and passes out candy from the trunk of their respective vehicles in one centralized location) on Saturday night...hundreds of people attended, with most everyone--including the adults--dressed up. I saw nothing there to top my brother Mike's 'Joe-Dirt' with a Borat-esque mustache outfit...
Wynn was not sure about the new Uncle Mike...
My niece Rylie was definitely not a fan of the mustached wonder, aka Dad...
Betty, Bam-Bam, Barney (or Viking as most the kids thought I was at the trunk or treat), and Pebbles...

Wilk

Here is our new dog, Wilk. A neighbor dog had a litter of 11 ivory lab puppies. Wilk snuggled up to both Meg and I while the rest of the pups were more interested in running around...we used the same test with choosing Lavell. Wilk will have two more weeks with his mother, and then he'll come to his new home.

Fall

Scenes from the old Thompson farm, Fall '11:
Dahlias: a family tradition

Apparently the above apple tree was planted about the same time my Grandma and Grandpa Thompson settled on the place some 60+ years ago.
Bountiful harvest apples=bountiful applesauce.
A very small sampling of all the stuff that came out of the garden. It's been fun to watch everything grow. We learned a lot this year.
Meg and my sister-in-law, Kelly, have been canning extraordinaires. Salsa, stewed tomatoes, red potatoes, applesauce, peaches,...come on over to sample the goodness.
Lots of pumpkins. We'll carve these up in a week or so for Halloween. In the below photo, there is a cloud that looks like a "Y"...a good omen, perhaps?

Voo-doo will raise your cholestorol...

My brother-in-law Mike, as well as Brent and Diane, brought me a box of these doughnuts from Portland on their way through to Idaho Falls where Mike had an interview for a radiology position. Delicious...and weird (the doughnuts, not the people). But delicious, still. And yes, that is a maple bar with bacon on it. Surprisingly tasty.

Not only animals belong in a zoo

 Wynn and I spent a day at the zoo with cousins, Grammy, and Aunts.  We all met for dinner later and realized we had brought the zoo home with us! 

 Wynn craned out of his stroller every time we saw a new animal for a better look.

 Easton and Xander led the way.

 So interested in the giraffe and iguana that he wouldn't even look at the camera.  He knows the iguanas are his mom's favorite. 

Kids are resilient

Wynn is back in business. He gallivants around the house, jabbering to himself, and stops at every opportunity to turn on and off lights. He also is back to carrying his bucket to the garden area. His favorite stop in the garden is the strawberry patch. The kid loves the strawberries.
Wynn loves the BYU Cougars, baby!
He laughs and points and tears things out of any cupboard we don't have child-proofed. No more fevers, no more tubes in his back...we hope this continues because the stress of the past few weeks has started to affect Megan's appearance a little.(Megan had to dress as "nerd" for "young women's"(church youth group that Megan helps to lead) the other night. Despite a stellar effort, her nerd depiction did not win the prize.)

One Tube Down

Wynn's infection seems to be responding to he antibiotics and he's resumed normal activities of unloading cupboards, dumping out Lavell's food piece by piece (and sometimes throwing it at him), and stealing the squigie (sp?) in our shower...which we are currently unable to find. This is a happy change from the near motionless blank gaze from yesterday morning.

He had the left tube taken out today by the pediatrician. It was fairly easy, not painless, but brief. He's starting to get pretty skeptical of medical-looking buildings and why we were waiting for the doctor he was constantly pointing to the door.

If all goes well the right tube will come out Friday and the infection will continue to go away...far away.

Pee belongs in the bladder and other helpful Labor Day lessons.

We spent the better part of our Labor Day in the Twin Falls ER.  We learned a few things:

1)  Wynn's condition is an oddity to the medical staff there who were happy to learn about it...not exactly a confidence booster.

2) Chest x-rays can diagnose infection, but not the kind we were looking for.

3) His blood results showed that he has an infection or has recently had surgery...again, super helpful.

4) His incision sites are not infected and look really good.

5) A bladder should have pee, not a white-blood cell filled foam, in it.  This we learned after Wynn had a bag adhered to his genitals then a catheter after the bag didn't collect anything.   Sorry TJ, your middle of the night pee collector has already been invented...check with your local hospital for supplies. 

6) That being said, no pathogen disclosed itself but the foam will be cultured to determine if we are treating the sneaky bug with the right antibiotic.  This will take a couple of days. 

7) Dad going "swoosh" by a basketball hoop can make Wynn smile generally no matter the condition. He obviously loves that sound as much as we do. His mom and dad are so proud.  He will frantically point out every hoop to you, even if it is in the middle of sacrament meeting and the cultural hall is open. 

We returned home this evening after convincing (and paying extra) the Walgreen's staff that they would need to flavor the drug in order for him to take it.  Rocket science.  He is still hot, but we are hopeful this takes care of it.  Selfishly I don't mind him curling up in a ball on me, so I will live it up now cause we hope it goes away soon.

I just took Wynn into his room to change his diaper and get him ready for bed.   I sat down to read him a story but he just looked at me and pointed to his crib.  Apparently, he was ready for bed.  It has been a long day.

Wynn--Pre-op

I'm back in Jerome while Meg and Wynn remain in Ogden for a few days. It's hard to believe that only 48 hours ago, Wynn was coming out of 4 hours of surgery. He's doing great...hopefully he continues on that path.

Pre-op

Wynn did not like getting into his hospital garb. He knew something was up. Fortunately, there were some stethoscopes to distract him.
Once we met with the pre-op nurse, we went to the designated area where patients and their family wait before going into surgery. There, we met the surgeon as well as the anesthesiologist who answered our questions and reviewed again what the surgery would entail, etc. There were 1/2 a dozen other kids in there waiting for their own surgeries...seeing them didn't assuage any of my own anxiety for Wynn, but did put things in perspective.

Wynn went in to surgery about 11:15 a.m.. Megan and I went to the family waiting room where we waited. Every hour or so, the nurse that was in the surgery room would call in updates as to how the surgery was progressing. The receptionist in the waiting room would call out "Parent for Waylyn Williams!", and Meg would go up to the front desk in the waiting room and receive the status report over the phone from the nurse. I would watch Meg's expression from afar and was relieved each time as there was no panic from her. Meanwhile, I read about half of the book "What it means to be a Cougar", which did a good job of keeping me occupied. Meg read, and took down a jaw breaker in record fashion. Also while we waited, Lindsay and Randy met us outside of the hospital to drop off a care package they and Erin/Ben got together for Wynn and us. That was awesome, as were the many texts and messages we received from family and friends. I must say, those 4 hours felt a lot longer than that, but your collective concern and support was/is much appreciated.