Nate's First Pet

A quick update on Nate's health: We've been home for the hospital for two weeks now and life is slowly getting back to normal.  Nate still has extra junk in his chest that we have to manage, but overall it's much better.  The swelling and pain in his extremities has improved.  We've been getting out of the house a bit more.  Things are headed in the right direction.  The biggest challenge now will be helping Nate to regain all the strength he lost from being sedentary for nearly four weeks.  He is significantly weaker now and it will take some hard work to get him there, but we think he can do it.

 

Since Nate has had such a hard time of it lately we decided it was time for him to get his first (and only) pet.  Last week, while heading to physical therapy a lead bug landed on Nate's knee.  He was out of his mind excited about it and pleaded with Annie to contain it.  Annie grabbed a plastic container and they brought him home.  Nate named him Buggie and they were fast friends.

 

Now you may think I'm kidding in saying that this was Nate's pet but I'm really not.  Nathaniel would take Buggie out at least once a day and play with him.  He learned to gently pick him up by his wings and remove him from the container.  Then he would....play?....with him.   

 

 

He had a lot of fun.  Maybe even too much fun considering it was a leaf bug that just sat there.

 

Although still experiencing some pain we thought Nate was up to attending the annual Sweatin For Sammy fundraiser.  Every year Nate's cousin Sammy has a fundraiser 10k for her benefit and this year he LOVED it.  He was not happy at all that we had to leave. He was really excited to get back in his power chair and use it for the very first time in the kid's run.

 

At first I thought maybe it was kind of cheating for him to use his power chair in the race but then we kind of leaned into and ended putting spikes on his wheels, Ben Hur style.  The other kids didn't stand a chance!

 

Uncle Colin psyched Nate up for the run before hand.  And then he was off.  Be sure to note the pure joy on this kids face.

 

If you tunr your speakers up and pay close attention at about 00:21 seconds you can here Nate say "It's so exciting".  The idea of Nate getting an adrenaline rush from this kid's race tickles me to no end.

Despite obviously coming in last place (we were afraid of what might happen to other children if we let him turn his speed up) Nate declared himself the victor, "I won" he yelled at the finish line.  I told him he actually came in last but he was in no mood to believe me, especially considering he had just received a shiny medal upon completing the race.

 

Should we be concerned that he strokes it all day and calls it his precious?

 

 

And if you remember a post from a few weeks back you'll remember that Nate likes to bring one of his classmates with him to places.  He calls them field trips.  That's why Iron Man tagged along.

 

So congrats to Jenny and everyone who works on Sweatin for Sammy, it was our favorite year and Nate had a blast.

 

It's hard to say exactly what Nate's favorite part of the day was (actually it was clearly the race and winning a medal) but one of the contenders was the arm painting he received.  Normally Nate isn't interested in face painting since he doesn't like the sensation of it on his skin but he really wanted something painted on his arm from the face painters.

 

Nate being Nate, he wanted a blue goose on his arm.......?  He really liked his painted goose.  In fact this blog post could just as easily be called Nate's first TWO pets.  He even named it.  The goose's name is Pancake.  That's right, he chose a blue goose and named it Pancake.  I'm not sure who is raising this kid but there are clearly some red flags.