My Sick One

One is having a rough week. Monday he came home from camp with heat exhaustion - a horrible headache and throwing up all over the place. I put him in a tepid bath, made him drink water (until he started throwing up, that is) and finally resorted to anti-nausea meds. He passed out after that, wet-haired and exhausted. Just like a little kid, he wouldn't sleep until I curled up on the edge of his bed to watch him, "just in case I feel worse, mom." Fortunately he woke up after 2 hours a new boy, ate dinner and bounced around until bedtime. He slept 11+ hours and we gave camp a pass on Tuesday.

I thought everything was well, but Tuesday dinnertime he announced that the ear that had been bothering him since Sunday (and that I'd been ignoring, because he can make a paper cut sound like it needs 30 stitches) was HORRIBLE, and he needed to go to the doctor RIGHT NOW! The nurse at after-hours care told us to get there in 5 minutes, which we practically did, and yup, there was a lovely middle ear infection. So once more we did the crying in bed, taking the Tylenol, "please stay in here for another minute, mom" - and again the little imp passed out cold in minutes.

Now I'm waiting for them to wake up, to see if we're camp-bound or spending another day as homebodies. I hate hate hate it when they're sick, but on some level - this is one of the only times at this point where One will act like a little guy again. He's so ... eight ... and that can be really big most of the time. It's not that I want him sick, but when he's sick he reminds me of the little one he was. I guess I'm just feeling a little bit nostalgic, that's all.