urgent care

For the past week, Ethan has been sick, really sick. What started off as him not feeling good and spending the day with his grandma turned into an entire week, with a spiking fever of 104. I got him back on Friday and he seemed well enough but still a bit off. We spent the weekend pretty low key, had soccer, had lunch with nana and papa and later on, went to a friend's BBQ. All was going well, until our friend's daughter started screaming "Ethan's mom, Ethan's puking!" And there he was in the kitchen with some strawberry spit up on the ground. The kid next to him kindly explained that Ethan was yelling for so long that he threw up. Awesome. We soon departed and headed home. It did not occur to me at this point that maybe Ethan was not 100%.

The next day, we decided to take Ethan to the "elephant zoo" (Brookfield Zoo) because he had missed the field trip there on Friday, and he really wanted to see the bear exhibit. We arrived and what started as "two adults and one child" turned into "I would like to purchase the annual family membership," which in my mind pretty much inexplicably insures that we will never return. The zoo was hot and all of the animals were hot. We were all moving pretty slow, especially Ethan, who usually bounds from animal and animal. He even refused popcorn and ice cream, which made us start to think that something was definitely off.

Later that same day, Ethan started to complain that his stomach hurt, this went on for a few hours. We took him into urgent care, which was a rather interesting experience. The doctor was wearing a three piece suit with a red tie and had a rather large bald head and spoke with an incredibly thick accent, calling Ethan, "BABY!" We both felt a little dubious. But his diagnosis ended up being spot on, he told us that it was not appendicitis, and then wrote us out a prescription, explaining that it was an anti-nauseous drug. I informed him that Ethan wasn't really throwing up, and then he smiled and assured me that he will most definitely throw up. And as if on cue, Ethan starts vomiting, all over the place. It was horrifying and slightly hilarious at the same time.

Unfortunately, the hilarity did not stop there. The next day, Ethan continued to complain that his stomach hurt and I thought it may have been because he hadn't pooped in two days. So I fed him a bunch of prunes and then B tells me that water helps with constipation, so he drank a bunch of water. And then we laid down to read books, and then he says that he has to go to the bathroom. Success, I thought. But really just the opposite. Ethan started puking all over the place, again. But this time we were not in a doctor's office that we could leave, we were in his bathroom encouraging him to focus his energies on the toilet. We were completely unsuccessful, he was like a loose fire hose, prunes and water everywhere.

All of this may be a bit too much information. But I did take away from this an important lesson, that sometimes you have to go through some bad to remember the good. Ethan reminded me that what I love about him is his endless amounts of energy and the sound of his sweet voice asking endless amounts of questions. Seeing him feel so bad and barely eating for the past few days was rough, on both of us. But I am happy to report that the monster awoke bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning, and is back to his normal self.

twin cities

Because my blogging has been so sporadic as of late. I forgot to post about our trip to Minneapolis over the 4th of July holiday. We had decided a few months back that we would make a return trip to Minneapolis. The night before our trip, Mandy and Frank came with their boys to spend the night. It was kind of a frantic but once we got everyone down we did what we do best, have some drinks, talk and hang out.

The next day, after I went to work for a few hours, we headed up for a very long 6.5 hours of driving up to the twin cities. Ethan was great, he is now the proud owner of a gently used Apple 3g phone that is now essentially his video player. We finally arrived, and settled in for the night. We chatted and hung for a bit but everyone was pretty exhausted.

The next day, we woke bright and early. The boys watched cartoons and Mandy and I did something we have NEVER done together before, after almost 20 years of friendship...we went for a run. I was very happy to have the company and impressed that she had agreed to go.

After this, we went out into the blazing hot heat for a trip to the zoo/carnival. Frank and I took the boys on a ride that successfully made all of us ridiculously dizzy and slightly nauseous. The boys went on some other fun rides and then they had their first corn dog, followed by a gigantic popsicle, not the best nutritional choices, but we were on vacation. We perused the zoo portion and I will sum it up by saying, that Owen did a fine job grilling the zoo staff about the fake banana and Ryan went home really wanting a pet monkey. After finding our way home, the boys napped and we relaxed. B made ribs for everyone for dinner, it was delicious and we enjoyed the entertainment of small children playing in a pool. Later on that evening, Andi and Marc flew in. And now the group was complete. Needless to say this completion was followed by lively conversation, good beer and my new favorite cocktail of sour mash and ginger ale (courtesy of Frank).

Saturday, Aimee and Ryan threw a 4th of July BBQ. It was a great day and even better evening of grilled meat, cocktails and catching up. Sunday and Monday were a blur, Mandy and Frank hit the open road back to Michigan and we went the park, the Mall of America, took a long walk, ate good food, and spent quality time together. It was great. The whole weekend was great. Ethan and Owen had a ball together, Everett is catching up quick and little Asher will be part of the gang soon enough.

We thank Aimee and Ryan for their bravery in letting three of their friends stay in their home with their respective families. There wasn't a night or more then an hour that went by without someone crying about something. We thank you both for hosting all of us, we surely did not make things easy but in the end it was worth the many miles traveled for a few days that we could all be together.

On your left

A few weeks ago, B somehow talked me into signing up for the L.A.T.E ride. Which stands for "Long After Twilight Ends," which is an annual after midnight bike ride throughout Chicago. He was all excited to do it again and tried talking me into it, with the added pressure of a Groupon. So I eventually acquiesced to the badgering, knowing that I had a bike that had recently been purchased and still needed to be fixed. To which he promised he would take care of and he kept his word, taking it into the bike store and picking it up for me.

So the day of reckoning arrived and I was oddly nervous. In my head, it was going to be not unlike the Tour de France. We waited along with 10,000 other bikers to start the ride. This was my favorite part of the race, standing there surrounded by so many people with the same mission in mind, it was kind of surreal. Then the ride started and the numbers dwindled as heats of riders were released. I thought the starting out part was going to be a mad dash, but it was anything but, we slowly headed north on Halstead where we hit a lot of traffic and lights. It improved but not by a lot, I felt like the bike ride was analogous to Chicago vehicular traffic. It was stop and go and there were a lot of a-holes out there, making things worse for everyone. But I did have pleasant chats with everyone in our group, B, B's dad and the lovely Allison. And I will admit that riding at a nice clip around the lakefront path is not something that you do every day. It reminded me that it is nice being with someone who takes me out of my comfort zone and we go on fun adventures together.