Can there be a snowball effect without snow?

At my last post I was talking about what a nightmare the first dose of Periactin was.  Well... heh, heh, heh...  Yeah, that was just the tip of the iceberg.

So the next day, Thursday, the boys ate considerably more food that usual and they were slightly better behaved but very tired.  Then that night immediately after bathtime Evan threw up twice on an empty stomach with no warning and not caused by any gag trigger and spiked a fever of 102.  He threw up all night long and then was lethargic all Friday.  By Saturday we went into the pediatrician because we found white sores on the inside of his bottom lip.  Turns out they were on the back of his throat too and that it was a virus likely similar to that of Hand Food and Mouth.  The pediatrician said that if Cameron was not exhibiting signs then he should be okay to continue his normal activities which was great.  Cameron, meanwhile, had been eating more and more and more food.  He wasn't able to go more than an hour or two without asking for food and telling me he was hungry or thirsty.  Sunday night Cameron ate almost a half of a hot dog, 12 goldfish crackers, and 3oz of a lumpy stage 3 puree, but he spiked a fever at dinner and we knew that he'd had it too.  Vomit everywhere, all night long, and obviously we had to discontinue giving the Periactin because the sores in their mouths hurt so badly they wouldn't even drink more than a sip of water.  And then by Monday my husband had it too.  Everyone seems to have recovered for the most part by this weekend but we're all still quite tired. 

We started back up on the Periactin and the toddler tantrum that came with our first dose the week before happened again, but now I was prepared for it.  The volume and desire to eat is not what it could be because they are still getting back in the grove but by tonight they are eating better, just not fantastic.  Oh, and Evan stopped vomiting on Tuesday, Cameron stopped vomiting on Wednesday, but our five day streak of no vomit ended tonight with a puke at dinner and then again during the evening bolus from Evan.  *sigh*  It was soooo very nice while it lasted.

To try and shake the blues we had from this illness we decided to visit Homestead Gardens for their fall festival.  It was great because it's so beautiful there and there's lots to see and do, and we got there early enough that there was almost no customers yet.  The trip was cut very abruptly when Evan tripped stepping up onto a platform to play with one of those coin operated toddler amusement rides, you know, the kind just like outside the grocery store that they sit in and you put in a quarter and the thing rocks and makes car or choo-choo noises.  He tripped forward and smacked his forehead right on a corner of the base of one of the rides.  His head started gushing lots of blood from the half inch slice.  We left and took him to urgent care because it was clear that the gushing vertical slit was not going to stay closed enough to heal on its own without sutures.  My poor brave boy ended up with two stitches (actually the nurse put in three but had to take one out) and some surgical glue to keep it shut tight. He was very brave and was acting just fine while we waited for the trauma nurses to get around to treating his cut, but was obviously hysterically upset when they did the sutures.  Now everyone will be able to tell the boys apart for the rest of their lives.

 Evan ran through the maze one more time before making a bee line back to the yellow race car ride, which is where he tripped on the platform and got this nasty gash.

 Believe it or not, he was actually in a pretty okay mood in the urgent care center and slept 20minutes in my arms while waiting for his stitches and then was up until 7pm!  The next day was business as usual...

We love wearing our sunglasses now.  All the cool kids do it!

I think the stitches coordinate with the hockey shirt, don't you??