Summer is the time for roller coasters

June 28, 2010

The closest thing to a vacation Annette and I have had together has been a couple annual trips to Cedar Point. Both of us are true roller coaster fans, and Annette insists on sitting in the front seat of the Millennium Force. I have to say that I enjoy the ride and it is one of the smoothest coasters I’ve ridden. The thrill is phenomenal, there’s plenty of ups and downs, around and around, and before you know it, it’s over. Ninety minutes of waiting for a 3-minute ride, and afterwards your legs are wobbly but usually you’re ready to do it again. After that ride, it makes most anything else seem like a waste of time.

This week had a good deal of ups and downs. Tuesday started with Nathan’s return to school, and to Kylie. Nathan didn’t like the 7 a.m. wake up call, and getting out of bed was a real struggle. He got used to sleeping late and playing there until 9:30 pretty quickly. I tried to reassure him on several occasions that it would be worth it, but as usual, there’s no teaching logic to this 4 year old.

We got to school 5-minutes after it was supposed to start and I feared we would be the last ones there, so I scrapped my thought of seeing if he’d use his walker to get to the door. Once inside, we found that we weren’t the last, but the first. I couldn’t justify taking him all the way outside to see if he would go where I had carried him, he wouldn’t have any of that. Instead I headed to the room passing Kylie along the way. Once passed, there was an excited sound behind me and one very jumpy guy on my shoulder. They’ve been having a good time all week long and know it’s Nathan’s favorite part of the summer.

At PT, Nathan was doing well, even out in the heat, but with less sleep, he ended up having a seizure in the walker. It was minor and we attributed to the heat and fatigue, but unfortunately it wasn’t the last one he’d have. He had a couple Tuesday night and a series more on Thursday (after school, I don’t think he’d let anyone have a reason to send him home early.) It was then we discovered the fever as well. Now we could attribute seizures to irregular sleep and the fever, but we still don’t like them.

By noon Friday (with an increase in medicine) the seizure had stopped, but we were still dealing with the temperature, cough, and sore throat. The problem with a sore throat is that Nathan will stop drinking (the little amount that he does anyhow) because it hurts. We’ll try anything, instead of the usual sippy cup will try a regular glass to get it in, or use a syringe squirting little bits in at a time. The syringe works best, but his tolerance to how long it takes runs out long before we get enough liquid into him.

The weekend brought little sleep for any of us (that’s why this posting is late, I wasn’t able to put coherent sentences together on the 5 hours of sleep I got over the weekend. Gratefully, Sunday brought a solid nap and good rest overnight (only waking up once and getting himself back to sleep on his own) Fever is still hanging around, now for myself the same as Nathan. If it’s any consolation, my temp is higher (and I’m willing to take my liquids, and no Mom, it’s not all Coke and Mountain Dew) so hopefully we’ll all get back to normal soon.

With my trip to Seven Springs two weeks ago, and a Dave Matthews Band concert earlier this week, my vacation time/budget is pretty much spent. Annette has her 18-day trip to Uganda a week away and there’s lots of stress/preparation getting ready for that. I doubt we’ll make it up to Cedar Point this year. If you ask me, I’m okay with that, we have enough wild rides around here to last us through the summer and as long as sickness will stay away. So far no one seems to respect my sign that says you “must be this tall to be sick.” Needless to say no one would ever qualify for that one.

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