A Little Mouse With Clogs On

Well, Monday wasn't my favorite day ever. The picture above was taken at about 8pm after spending the entire afternoon in the emergency room.

It all started innocently enough. We were having a lovely zoo date with our friends Holly and Connor. The little guys were quite taken with a small playground area that had tunnels you could crawl through while pretending to be naked mole rats (by the way, Holly's expression at seeing the actual naked mole rats was the highlight of my whole day - thanks for that, Holly!) Then Andrew fell and bumped his head. It looked like it really hurt, but it wasn't a big fall - most likely just from one of the tunnels to the landing ... maybe a foot high. I gave him a juice box to help ease the pain, and within a minute he was asking "try again?" and got right back in the tunnels. No problem!

A few minutes later, while gazing lovingly as some gigantic snake, Precious threw up his juice and breakfast apple all over me. Concern. Otherwise, he seemed OK, so I didn't totally freak out, but I did call Gwen, our friend and PA, who said, "One throw up - fine. If he throws up again, go to the ER." OK. I put Andrew in his stroller and we sit down to have lunch. Not only does he have zero interest in his grapes (!), he starts acting like he's going to fall asleep. In the middle of the zoo. At 11:30 am. Not normal. I started feeling uneasy and decided to head on home, calling the doctor on my way out. They were closing for lunch, but wanted to see him at 1:30.

Then he throws up again. A lot more than the first time. Panic! I think it would be pretty funny to have some video of me running (as well as I could) across the zoo parking lot with Andrew draped over one shoulder and me dragging his stroller with the other arm. I am not coordinated, so it must have been a sight. Anyway, I think my most frightening moment was driving with considerable speed down I-285 while desperately trying to keep Andrew awake (patting his legs behind me and begging him to sing the "ghetto" song from the Elvis CD that he loves) while also talking with the ER nurse on my cell phone. Pay attention when you're driving, people! You never know when some nut like me might be driving next to you.

So I risk life and limb to get us to the ER (across town from the zoo) so that we can sit there and wait. And wait. For hours. They did tell me it was alright for him to sleep, so that was a relief. He sat for hours, listless in my arms or sleeping. When we finally did get seen, our doctor was super nice. Everything he was able to check on the outside looked fine as far as head injury was concerned, he just wanted to see if he'd perk up and eat something and play. No dice. He took a couple little sips of juice and nibbled pitifully on the corner of a graham cracker, then put his head down and fell asleep again.

Time for a CT scan. Fortunately, they didn't have to sedate him. Unfortunately, this did perk him up and he screamed and begged to be "all done." :-(

But no head trauma!! We are so grateful that the Lord spared us that pain. As completely bizarre as this is, it appears our Precious hit his head, it hurt, then moments later he began presenting symptoms of a virus. This diagnosis was confirmed as Andrew spiked a fever while we were waiting for his results.

Yesterday we recovered while trying out our new finger paints.

Today, his appetite is much improved and he hasn't felt feverish at all. We even went on a thrilling outing to the post office and Kroger.

Just for fun, let me give you a couple examples of recent conversations with my boy:

Mommy: Hey, let's go to the zoo today!

Andrew: Go pa?

Mommy: Yes, we can go potty while we're there.

Andrew: Fush?

Mommy: Yes, you can flush.

Andrew: Wass han?

Mommy: Yes, you can also wash you hands.
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Mommy: Would you like to go to the grocery store with me?

Andrew: Walk?

Mommy: Yes, you can walk this time.

Andrew: Go pa?

Mommy: Yes, you can go potty while we're there.

Andrew: Fush?

Mommy: Yes, you can flush.

Andrew: Wass han?

Mommy: Yes, you can also wash you hands.
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Mommy: Would you like any more toast?

Andrew: No.

Mommy: OK (moves to throw it away)

Andrew: Ahhhhhhhhh!

Mommy: Do you want to eat it?

Andrew: No.

Mommy: Well, then I'm going to throw it away.

Andrew: Ahhhhhhhhhhh!

Mommy: Are you sure you don't want your toast?

Andrew: No.

Mommy: If you're all done with it, I'm going to put it away.

Andrew: Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Mommy: Hey, look at this toast. Do you want to eat it?

Andrew: signs "please"

Mommy: Alrighty, then I'll put it right back here on the table.

Andrew, pleased with this, ignores the toast and runs to play with Shiloh.