Feelin' (the) Beat

That picture above pretty much tells it all about how Jonas was feeling the other day. He woke up Wednesday with a little cough we thought sounded ominously like the last time he had croup. But he toughed it out and even made it through the night. Then yesterday, it was hard to tell if our little drummer boy was feelin' the beat or just feelin' beat. It sure seemed like the latter. And even before we put him to bed, Mom and Dad were on their way to the emergency room with a boy suffering from full fledged croup, a nasty little thing that leaves Jonas sounding worse than Darth Vader on a good day. When we got to the ER, despite Mom's comforting arms, Jonas wasn't doing so hot...

...after a few failed rounds of breathing treatments, the doctors told us they wanted to transfer him to a larger hospital in Denver. Jonas had about the same expression as Mom and Dad when he heard the news...

...but his outlook improved considerably when he learned that he'd get to ride to the new hospital in a real-life ambulance. Woo-ooo! Woo-ooo! Woo-ooo!...

...in fact, Jonas got himself one heck of a set up at the new place, including the highest-tech crib Mom and Dad had ever seen...

...and he even got a customized ankle bracelet to call his very own...

...by morning, Jonas was feeling and breathing quite a bit better. And not surprisingly, he never seemed to lose his trademark appetite...

...when Dad learned it was going to be a long night, he stopped at the house and picked up some more of Jonas' favorite things, including, of course, books about trucks. This also made Jonas quite a happy little boy...

...later, Dad and Jonas got down to some serious fooling around to pass the time while we waited for the doctor to see how he was improving. And oh, did they have a good time...

...in no time, Jonas was back to his old self, smacking Dad around willy nilly...

...and finding endless amusement in Dad's unshaven face, which truly is a sight to behold...

...then it was time for more trucks, this time in the toy version...

...after a while, Jonas felt pretty comfortable there, even managing to put his feet up on just about anything he saw...

...fortunately, by day's end, it seemed like Jonas was improving. All we needed was the doctor's OK, which took quite a while. By the end, Jonas looked more like a prisoner in that high-tech bed, anxious to be unplugged from the various machines that were letting us know that everything seemed all right...

...eventually, after some great care from all sorts of doctors and nurses, we all got to go home. And when we finally got there, we were greeted with an encouraging and absolutely beautiful sign, a lucky double rainbow right outside our front door. A wonderful end to an eventful 24 hours.