Kerpow!

Limelet now likes scenes in videos that feature "consplosions."  He also insists that one of his favorite ducka beeps is a "compact hammer" instead of an "impact hammer."  I don't know if this pattern means anything, but it's funny. He's using first-person sentence construction a lot more lately, especially when he really wants something.

Limelet also had his first skinned knee recently after falling at the playground.  Not a bad one, but he got to experience picking a scab, which he seemed to find really fun.  [rolling eyes]

Crazy Bus

crazy bus
Originally uploaded by swissmiss

Oh yeah...here's the other ride he loved! It's surprisingly high up, too. I didn't know if he'd be terrified, but he laughed like ... well, crazy, the entire time.

Bear Affair ride

Bear Affair ride
Originally uploaded by A.M. Kuchling

Limelet loved this ride especially. I wonder if there's a pic of the Crazy Bus (his other favorite) somewhere too?

Sick!

Last Friday got Limelet in to the doc as  he had been having "cold" symptoms for three weeks solid, and they were only getting worse.  He was ending up being awake from 1-5 am each night because of the congestion.  And it was turning green.  (Ewwww.)  I wondered if he was getting an ear infection because of the non-sleeping thing. I used guafenesin a couple nights, which  helped, but it's so nasty that it was hard to administer.  By the day we got in, though, he was already getting a lot better.  The doc said his eardrums looked a little bulgy, but no sign of infection.  So that was good.  He had a really good night's sleep that night (and so did we.)

However, over the weekend, his sleep deteriorated again, where whenever he would stir in the night, he would start crying or almost crying and stiffen his body up.  Sunday night he started telling us his throat and his mouth hurt, and his appetite dropped.  I had to relent on the no-night-nursie because he was obviously sick and miserable.  Monday I saw a little sore on the tip of his tongue, like a canker sore.  Day care told us he couldn't come back in without a doctor's note, because there were several cases of hand-foot-and-mouth-disease, which I'd never heard of.  All I could think of was hoof-and-mouth disease.  However, the flyer at the day care suggested it wasn't something so terrible (which Google later confirmed.)  He was okay eating ice cream and maybe a little pancakes and donut sugar, but that's about it.  

I had to take Limelet to work with me yesterday, as there were a few important things I couldn't put off doing that day, and he couldn't go to daycare.  (And he was not lying-around sick, but happily-running-around sick.) There was a lot of running back and forth to use the snack machine in the hall, but not really because he wanted snacks.  He just loved the dispensing process, especially putting money in.  I was able to make some important phone calls while Limelet watched kid videos on YouTube at my desk computer.

I took him home at lunch time (a few frozen peas, donut sugar, and milk) and put him down to nap.  Then I had a phone conference.  Luckily, Limelet stayed asleep for exactly the length of the call.  Literally he began stirring and crying out for me just as I was hanging up the phone, so I was able to get him back to sleep for the rest of his nap okay.  Then when he awoke, I struggled to get him reluctantly ready for his doctor appointment and ran out to the car with kid and bags--only to find that the baby seat was out and the car seats still down from the move.  We so seldom use the car these days.  I had to call them and say we'd be late, but it still worked out okay.

At the doctor's office, Limelet played with everything he wasn't supposed to--the ear light covers, the stirrups on the exam table, the supply drawers, the exam light--instead of the books and calculator I brought for him.  The doctor finally arrived and needed only a tiny glance at the tongue sore to confirm HFMD.  He wondered why they would send him home for that, and then checked Limelet's ears.  Holy moley, they were very inflamed, and the doctor said most kids would be screaming in pain with that much inflammation.  So, surprise!  Only takes a night to develop that great stuff.  The doctor wrote a prescription for a different antibiotic than the last two times.  

I'm not ready yet to try the no-antibiotics route--I need to see more data on the recent studies, and I need to have this job contract be over so I can deal with some (more) sleepless nights more readily.

We went to "the medicine store" and got the new antibiotic as well as a couple ice lollies, which Limelet selected and ganwed on in the store.  (They're in the freezer now.)  Thank heavens, this new antibiotic is not horrible tasting!  It's made it much less of a trauma to medicate him than the last two times.  The pharmacist gruffly recommended that I give Limelet "Milkshakes.  Milkshakes with a raw egg in it.  He'll never know it's there!"  He was pretty funny.  Like a caricature of a small-town old-tyme guy of some sort (pharmacist, I guess.)

We got home in time for Daddy to return home, too--now with sore throat and feeling cruddy generally. Daddy also brought home some ice cream and a really cool toy set: two battery powered bubble gun sort of things, which the two of them played with while I made dinner.  I made dinner but TheLimey could barely eat it, and Limelet was also uninterested, preferring the salty blandness of a huge pile of corn chips.  I kind of get that.  I want salty bland stuff when I'm sick, too.  

I got him bathed, medicated, lotioned, powdered, pajamaed, nursed, and asleep by 8:45, which is really good timing for us.  (Especially after I let him stay asleep until 2:40 at naptime.)  He sure slept a lot better last night, partly due to being allowed nursie when he stirred, and partly because of baby Motrin.  His appetite was back this morning.  He selected a yogurt for himself and ate half of it, and then ate a whole soy sausage, as well as some animal crackers and milk.  Thank goodness!

Miraculous!

Limelet had a "cold" for nearly three weeks, right as we were moving (coincidence?).  Last week he was so stuffed up that he ended up being awake from 1-5 am for 5 nights out of 7.  It was pretty much destroying our family, as that meant that not only was he miserable, sick, and awake, but all three of us were miserable, crabby, and awake.  It finally occurred to me that we have some guafenesin syrup and that it has dosages for small children, so I gave him that.  It's nasty, so it wasn't so easy getting it down him.  That seemed to help considerably, and I think even helped the infection (probably viral) clear up, since it allowed his passages to clear out.  At any rate he slept mostly through both those nights, so that was a huge relief to all of us.  Daytimes are a million times better when we're getting more than 4 hours of sleep apiece.

Last night he seemed better, but still somewhat congested, so I tried giving him one more dose.  However, he spit it out--twice--so I decided to risk the night without it.  He was better enough to sleep without it.  In fact, last night was probably about the best sleep he's had in his whole little life.  He went to sleep at 9:30, only stirred once around one and went right back to sleep, and awoke on his own around 7.  Amazing!  This also means that Mama had the best sleep she's had in three years (since before he was born.)

Really, I can't described how much better I feel, how much more like a human being and myself again.  Three nights of decent sleep topped off by a great night's sleep for ONCE.  I'm happy as a cricket, as Mrs. Banks says.  The past couple nights Limelet has been snuggling up against Daddy in his sleep instead of me.  Last night he just about crowded Daddy off the bed, as I heard.  I awoke to find TheLimey trying to gently squeeze Limelet more into the middle of the bed, muttering that he only had a foot of space at the edge of the bed in which to sleep.  Welcome to my world, I thought, and went back to sleep.

Tonight is the night that there are extremely noisy fireworks after the nearby baseball game, so I am making sure we install our air conditioner this evening so that Limelet at least has a small chance of staying asleep.  I hate to break this great sleeping streak.  Last week was a nightmare--he went to sleep at 8:30, the fireworks went off at 10:30 (?) and lasted maybe 15-20 minutes.  He twitched and stirred and generally came out of his deep sleep.  Woke up after they were over, and then was awake for four hours.  The following night (Saturday) we were unfortunately somewhat late to bed and the fireworks were fortunately somewhat earlier than before (9:30), so he actually got to sit with Daddy and watch them out the window.  He loved that and was really upset that they aren't out there all the time on his demand.

I'm still giving him melatonin before bed (down to .45 mg or 450 mcg).  It's been about 4 weeks.  I just want to get his sleep somewhat stabilized and then titrate it down, hoping we've gotten his circadian cycle in order for once in his life.  The initial .65 mg dose worked to put him to sleep but seemed to give him disturbed sleep (twitching, talking, crying, and waking), but .45 seems to work well.  Also I make sure to turn off all lights, even the night light.  The studies I saw indicated that "even a very dimly lit room" can give melatonin users disturbed sleep and nightmares.

In other news, the fair has come to town, and it's on the campus of the college.  I saw that it was going when I left work Wednesday, so I picked up Limelet from daycare and went straight back there (having stopped at home to grab some soy chicken for him to eat, and change into my jeans).  I didn't know if he'd be scared or love it. He loved it.  The lights, the big machines, the people everywhere. The first ride we went on he was a little uncertain ("Guy turn it off, guy turn it off!')  But after that he warmed up to it and wanted to try every ride, even the ones he's too small to be allowed to go on ("Ring of Fire").

Daddy arrived after we'd been on a couple rides and took over being the accompanying parent for a while, until he needed a hot dog break.  Limelet loved the ride with big bears that you get inside and they spin around; he loved the motorcycles on a circular track; and he really loved the Crazy Bus, which goes way up in the air and then back down again in a circular motion.  We got some fries or chips and had planned to put vinegar on them, but Limelet would not part with the entire hot and greasy $6 container, so we just let him have it.  He ate tons of them, as well as about half of Mama's 1/4 lb hot dog.  We had to sneak chips when he wasn't looking.

Limelet was really upset to not be able to go on the ferris wheel, and asked for it again at bedtime. Poor thing.  Not until he's 48" tall!

That afternoon was really living out my fantasies.  It was great. We were all happy, Limelet was having fun, the air was cool and smelled of fried food, and the trees and lilacs were coming into full bloom.  It was like living a Bradbury story.

We plan to go again Saturday, less spontaneously, but it'll still be great.