Picture of Jacob, Slight fever,

Here is a recent picture of Jacob to start off tonight's post. Were the camera faster, you would have seen that bottle up the other nostril. Trust me, I scrambled and even tried to get him to do it again. But this is the best we could do. Still, pretty good. Fathers live for photo ops like this one here. At least, fathers like me live for them. Well, if you've never met us, now you know what Denise, Gracie & Jacob look like. I'll try to get a picture of myself posted one of these days. Hopefully it'll beat this picture of Jacob.

The bad news first: A slight fever is going on... just 100.6. But it's enough to whip out the cooling blanket and make me a little edgy. The neurologist said that the seizure was caused not by meds, but by the effects of the cocci on the brain. The anti-seizure meds are working well, though (whew!). And there was some vomit. I guess root beer has more carbonation than other sodas. A friend suggested opening the next can of A&W and let it go a little flat before giving it to Denise. Since she's in it for the taste, and not trying to win any belching trophies, we'll just try giving her flat root beer.

OK, now that the ugly stuff's out of the way, on to the bright side of things. We got to see Denise roll herself down the hallway, and she was wearing some pajamas instead of the usual hospital gown. Being able to dress "normal" is a big morale-booster. She even got to go outside into the courtyard. The weather was about as perfect as could be for that. She's been having trouble with the potassium supplements (liquid's nasty, pill form is horse pill-sized and like swallowing a piece of chalk. Someobody gave her the great idea of trying bananas instead. That's going well so far. Her appetite continues to grow. Her doctor from USC came by for a visit. The kids got to visit tonight, and they batted a balloon around. Jacob still wasn't as cuddly as Gracie, but he obviously had a great time throwing the ball with mommy. It's a huge relief to see him have fun with her. I had been worried that he didn't recognize her, or was scared of the hospital version of Denise. I show him pictures of Denise, and he says "Mama." But the hospital version of Denise looks much different than the pre-hospital mommy that he's known. Again, though, progress is being made. A neighbor let us borrow a portable DVD player with a flip-up screen. I can hook up the video camera to it (video camera screen was too small & Denise couldn't see it). Now Denise is able to see recent footage of the kids, thanks to the larger screen. Speaking of such things, I found moviess on my front porch. No card, though. But thank you to whoever just started our Christmas DVD collection! I remember the Hanukah Harry skit from SNL, and can't wait to see it again. Holiday Inn is one we've never seen, but it's been on the Christmas "rent it" list for years, and we're eager to see it.