NICU Reunion

Most, if not all, of you are aware that Ethan spent nearly 2 weeks in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) with lots of complications following his birth. Thankfully all of his health issues have resolved. We received an invitation to a NICU reunion in the mail several weeks ago, and we were looking forward to getting to visit with Ethan's nurses and primary neonatologist under much better circumstances than when we had first met. We enjoyed the reunion, but were disappointed to learn that the head neonatologist whom we really liked no longer works at the hospital where Ethan was delivered. Also, just a couple of the 20-some nurses who cared for Ethan while he was in the NICU were at the event to visit with. The event itself was fun though; They had a safari theme with several games for the kids to play and small prizes that were awarded. Ethan got a temporary tattoo of a zebra on his arm and earned a doggie baseball cap (complete with ears), a pair of tiger sunglasses, and a tiger flapper (sound-making) toy from completing the games. There also was a make-your-own healthy trailmix station where you could make up snack bags with trail mix items. They had a family photo area where pictures were developed really fast- so we got 2 pics to take home with us. There were neat door prizes too, but unfortunately we didn't win any of them. Each of us received a bag/backpack when we arrived that had the event's logo printed on it.
I took some photos of Ethan when we got home wearing his new doggie ball cap and tiger sunglasses, and holding his tiger flapper toy and "souvenir" bag:

Ethan squatted down so that you could see his doggie hat better!

Cute pic of Ethan wearing his bag as a backpack (please disregard the mess of toys in the background! ;)