May 2006
Monday the 22nd. I took the boys to my office's annual picnic yesterday afternoon, but our stay was short lived. I feel bad, because it took way too many clues for me to figure out that Ben was feeling bad. The simple fact that he wouldn't eat any of his lunch should have told me I should take him home. If Ben doesn't touch his corn on the cob or Cheetos, then you know something's wrong. When he held his cotton candy for thirty minutes and didn't touch it, I finally caught on. Jackson was having a good time though and I felt bad dragging him away from all the fun. The company I work for hosts a really fun family day at our local fair grounds each May with food, cotton candy, ice cream, etc... games for the kids and music by our friend Mandy's band. This photo from the picnic two years ago has been used, with my permission, for a church bulletin in Florida and for a greeting card.
I checked Ben's temperature when we got home and it was 103.8,
which meant we had to skip our monthly dinner club. Amy had already made
enough banana pudding to feed everyone, so I've had to do my part by trying to
eat it all before it goes to waste. Ben's fever
has been up and down ever since, mostly up, and he threw up twice as a result of
it early this morning. The fever had him awake for parts of the
night and he's already back up tonight crying. He feels good when the fever drops, or as he puts it, "I'm not
sick, I'm happy." But he's miserable when the fever spikes. Before
falling asleep at lunch he told Amy that he just wanted to lay down and cry.
He's gotten tired of taking medicine and Amy had to force him to take this
afternoon's dose. He hadn't taken anything since half a dose of Motrin in
the middle of last night and he was just burning up. He later fell asleep
behind the recliner and dozed until Jackson came home from school. When I
came home he told me that "Mama gave me two medicines and it made me better."
At bedtime he started feeling bad again though and wouldn't sleep in his bed.
He put his blanket and pillow on the floor and went to sleep there. But
now he's back up and just beside himself. Hopefully he'll start feeling
better again soon and get a better night's rest, but it doesn't look good so
far.
In other news, while driving on Renfro Street yesterday afternoon, Amy saw this trying to crawl across four lanes of scorching hot highway. Amy was sure that it wouldn't make it, so she did a U turn and went back to try and rescue it. She found it panting on the side of the road, hot and exhausted. I knew it must have been cute when she told me that our non-pet keeping friends across town decided to let it live with them. And I have to say, it is a pretty cute kitten.
