Still Alive and No one is Screaming
So we had this idea to take the kids on a (relatively) last minute secret trip to Disneyland. I took the afternoon off, we picked up Simon from school, and we drove... Two hours into the trip Simon finally asked where we were going. When we revealed the destination he said "I LOVE THIS!"
Here is the moment captured on video (unfortunately, I cut off right between "I" and "love this!").
And so you will understand that, when Adlai came down with a seriously high fever after more than seven hours in the car and Simon was thrilled at his mini-vacation prospects, we didn't turn around and go home. No, we decided to medicate and comfort and hope. Unfortunately, after a morning in the park with temperatures reaching near ninety outside, neither boy was feeling festive. We took them back to the hotel. Simon wanted nothing more than to swim. Neither would nap. We turned on Sesame Street. Adlai played with the doornob and it fell off in his hands. We were trapped in the hotel room across the street from the happiest place on earth with two sick kids.
Once the sun started to go down (and the temperature dropped) Simon recovered completely. Matthew took him on the flume ride at California Adventure and they went over and over and over again. I wrapped Adlai in all the warm things I could find, put the stroller in recline, and walked around and around the park looking for a dark and quiet place. Adlai drifted in and out of sleep and discomfort until morning when we were awakened early by a car alarm outside our hotel room. Fun! After more Tylenol, we took the boys back to the park. Having not eaten since lunch the day before, Adlai was famished by lunch on Sunday. And every person within one hundred feet from 10 am to 11 am knew something was wrong. You'll have to trust me on that. Luckily, the words "hot dog" brought him back to his senses. "Hot dog?" he asked, cheerily. We filled him with food and he perked up enough to enjoy It's a Small World. Soon after, he passed out in the stroller despite the light and noise and snoozed for an hour while Simon and Matthew finished up their day.
We left the park at 3 pm on Sunday and Adlai, still feverish, wasn't happy until the sun went down and he was able to fall asleep. Monday thru Thursday Adlai did very little but sleep and scream. We took him to the doctor and it turned out he had something related to Hand, Foot, and Mouth - a common toddler virus (which is why none of us caught it). He was apparently in a good deal of pain (hence the screaming) - probably from a headache in addition to a stomach ache.
By Friday Adlai's rash, fever, and screams were (mostly) gone. Over the weekend we got the fun and loving Adlai back. Wow, did we ever miss him.
I'm uploading some photos to Flickr now. We were a little stressed out about the whole situation so not many were taken.