Hallie and Travis

Ok, so I did get the precious father-son time I’d missed on Friday, only it wasn’t spent the way I had planned. Travis gave us a shout at 5:30 this morning. I found him hunkered over the trash can we’d given him and what came up was a dark and watery mess. I knew what that meant, so I roused Kelly and together we prepared to take T to the hospital. Since Kelly’s always been the one to take the kids to the hospital (and since Hallie’s expressed the need for more Mommy time while T has been sick), I volunteered to be today’s ambulance driver. We had Travis loaded in the car by around 7:20 and I had him at the hospital about 8 minutes later.
Read the rest of this entry »

Mid-day yesterday it looked like Travis had turned a corner. But then he made a big U-turn and continued downhill through the night. He’d kept down water and a little food for about 12 hours but started throwing up again yesterday afternoon. From then on he kept almost nothing down. Though he was still peeing, he started throwing up bile and then brown liquid (i.e. the lining of his stomach). It was an exact repeat of the illness that sent him to the ER last fall and canceled his 3rd birthday party. Read the rest of this entry »

T’s still having a rough time of it. Several dry heaves. Looks like its going to be a long night.

Kelly was going to take Hallie to a kid’s Bingo tonight and Travis and I were going to be on our own. He got quite upset when Kelly was walking out the door, becoming very clingy. Once they left he didn’t cheer up much and refused all offers of dinner. Even peanut butter and jelly.

Rather than go out exploring we spent the evening here, with Travis hugging a trash can in the bathroom. Every so often I would ask how he was feeling and oddly enough he would shoot me a big grin! I didn’t take his being sick seriously until he crawled himself into his bed at 6:15 and conked out. It wasn’t much longer that Kelly checked on him and saw he had thrown up.

I feel sad that we didn’t get some fun father-son time tonight and I feel sad that I didn’t take him seriously. To the detriment of our sleep it looks like we’ll have plenty of father-son time tonight after all.

The kids have been healthy all summer. In fact, other than a sniffly nose or two, we haven’t had a sick kid since before we moved into this house. We even made it through summer camps unscathed. But four days of preschool has done Travis in. Read the rest of this entry »

Travis has been loving his school this year. He seems to have a really great class. He’s been getting in the car talking a mile-a-minute about his day. And he’ll announce out of the blue “School is great!” So I was dismayed when his teacher, Ms. Terrie, approached me today and said there’d been a “situation.” Read the rest of this entry »

On Friday morning Travis and I went to his preschool orientation. I knew his teachers already, but I was much more excited about his class after seeing them in action with some of the kids. There are several “older” kids in the class — at least 4 or 5 turning 4 this year. This is the opposite of T’s class last year and I think it will make a big difference. Read the rest of this entry »

Hallie now has one week of first grade under her belt. So far, so good, as far as I can tell. Her teacher is very sweet. I’m sure she’s still working on getting to know the kids. I’m eager to get in and start volunteering so I have a better sense of the classroom. But I’ll give Mrs. Felton a little more time to figure out what she needs people to do. Read the rest of this entry »

People always comment on how tall Hallie and Travis are. But I’ve never had so many comments as I’m getting these days about Travis. With the return to school we’re meeting new people and seeing folks we haven’t seen since last summer. Most people, when they see Travis, ask if he just started school. When I say he’s in preschool, they are surprised. And if I tell them his age, they barely believe me. Read the rest of this entry »

Travis’s buddy Stefan turned an old shoe box into a “computer” and showed it off to Travis last week. Travis loved the idea and, when he discovered my stash of boxes, quickly made his own. He entertained himself with it for quite a while before I paid much attention to what he was doing. When I stopped to listen outside his open door, I realized he was having video chats with friends and cousins. I suppose it’s possible my peers could have played the same way, but we’d have been creating science fiction. What a lot’s changed since I was almost 4!

We had a fun visit from Gum and Gup last weekend. It was too short, as usual, but it was great fun to watch them and the kids enjoy each other. The weather was beautiful. We spent a lot of time in the backyard (despite the mosquitoes). And we all trudged up to Person Street (quite a walk) to watch some historic homes being moved. We didn’t see any actual movement, but the tire blowing under one of the trailers made quite an impression! Read the rest of this entry »