Five Star Service at the Hospital

Nathan's not wincing, he's just a ham

We are now starting to get the initial explanations of benefits from Cat's and Nathan's stays at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital in early September when they both contracted viral meningitis (that was fun). The figures noted in the EOBs are not as high as I had feared, but one item that stands out is the stark difference in cost for room and board between Cat and Nathan. The room and bed charges for Nathan are significantly higher than for Cat; almost twice as much. That is to be expected for a stay in the pediatrics ward in the hospital, but I also surmised to Cat that part of the charges inevitably stem from the world-class service that Nathan demanded and received from his caregivers in the hospital. It was hardly into the first day of his stay in the hospital room that he discovered the value of that little red button next to his bed. Not only did he use it to summon nurses to his room, but he also treated it like a remote control, issuing commands like "I need you to bring me a juice and a new movie." Of course, when it was his pleasant little voice on the intercom, the nurses were quite obliging, but it was still slightly embarrassing when he would decline my offer to go get him a movie and would instead place an order with "room service". If there is ever another stay in a hospital, we'll have to do a better job of clarifying the proper use of hospital resources.

Pictures and a Translation

It's high time for some new pictures, so here are a couple of albums to share.

• Nathan Being Silly
• Nathan and Liam

The first album could easily become an oeuvre of infinite dimension, given Nathan's propensity for silliness, so stay tuned for updates.

I'm also pleased to say that, thanks to some clever linguistic insight by Nana and Papa, we may have derived a translation for the mysterious "ropaster". The tentative translation for this term is "roller coaster". Considering that Nathan was pointing at a steel-framed construction crane at the time that he scolded us for failing to understand him, that meaning is plausible. It also makes sense when you consider that he had seen a roller coaster for the first time a few weeks earlier while visiting Hershey Park. We pointed out the crane to him a few days ago while driving through downtown Rockville, but he didn't take the bait and repeat the mystery word. Perhaps the "ropaster" term has already become archaic. We may never know for sure, but I think Nana and Papa hit upon a fairly solid hypothesis.