The Small Family     

First of all, Happy Father’s Day to any dads out there! I think most of our readers are female, but I didn’t want to neglect any dads out there. :-)

We were set to have an eventful week here in the Small household, and it did end up being eventful, but not so much in the way we had planned! Theo and I had plans all week--swimming Monday and Wednesday, lunch with Auntie Jeanette Wednesday, Little Gym Tuesday, meeting up with an old friend and her daughter at a park on Thursday. Whew, what a whirlwind it would’ve been! Instead, we spent a lot of time at Kaiser….

We made it to swimming Monday morning, and Theo seemed fine. He was pretty happy and active--seemed like a normal Monday morning. We stopped at Whole Foods on the way home, and he played for a bit in their little kiddie grocery store. Again, all seemed well. Then we went home for lunch, and he suddenly started limping. And not wanting to walk. And crying. I put my hand on his head, and he was burning hot. WHAT?! When did this come on? His temperature was 102.9, and I was rather surprised, given that he had been totally fine just two hours earlier. So, I gave him some Motrin, put him down for a nap, and called the doctor. The quick fever wouldn’t really have worried me--young kids get them all the time. But I was concerned about the sudden limping. Upon doing a bit of research online, I discovered that there was a fairly simple answer for this--and then some downright scary possibilities. And indeed, when I called Kaiser and told them the symptoms, they said he needed to be seen that afternoon.

Now, all is well--it turned out to be the simple answer. I had never heard of this before, but it’s apparently not uncommon: toxic synovitis. Evidently it’s when an infection of some sort (usually a respiratory infection) settles in the hip joint. It causes inflammation in the joint, pain, limping, and sometimes fever. Theo had been coughing for several weeks, but it was a very mild cough, and I’ve had the same one. Neither of us have had any other symptoms except this dry cough, so I assumed it was allergies, as Sacramento is rather notorious for having gnarly springtime allergies.

So, the treatment for toxic synovitis is just Motrin for the pain and fever…and you wait it out. Fair enough. We were back at Kaiser Tuesday for some bloodwork for me. Theo seemed about the same early in the day, but in the afternoon he really went downhill. His fever didn’t seem to respond to the Motrin, and he fussed for about five hours straight, saying his “neck pinched,” which translates to “my throat hurts.” I called Kaiser again to see if we ought to try something else for him, and they told me to bring him back in Wednesday morning. So there we go--third day in a row at Kaiser. Turns out that in addition to toxic synovitis, the poor guy developed herpangina--which is a virus that causes painful blisters in the throat and mouth and even sometimes on the skin. Apparently this is a common virus in young children--the doctor told me most adults had it as kids themselves. (It’s in the same general family as chicken pox, though it’s much shorter-lived.) Again, I had never heard of this, but after talking to a few other moms, they all said the same thing: Their kids were miserable with it, and they drooled like crazy because of the blisters. True, true--I was covered in drool for a couple of days, and Theo hasn’t drooled since he was a teething baby!

You’d think that would end my Kaiser trips for the week, but no--I had to go back on Thursday for more bloodwork for me. (No worries--I am fine. This bloodwork had to do with our fertility treatment. I just had to get two rounds in 48 hours. I’m getting to be a pro with needles. And Theo is getting to be a pro at sitting patiently while Mama gets her blood drawn.)

So, the good news is that Theo was pretty much all better by Friday. He had a rough several days, but he seems to be good as new now. And we’ve had just about enough of Kaiser for a while. ;-)

Our week took a more fun turn on Friday--Chris’s and my fourth wedding anniversary! My Mom came over and babysat Theo while we went to dinner at the Chef’s Table--a really yummy restaurant we can walk to from our house. (Theo was supposed to go to Little Gym for a Parents’ Survival Night, but they had to cancel because not enough kids signed up. Thank goodness for Grandma Diane stepping in!) We split a lettuce wraps appetizer, and Chris had fried catfish and mashed potatoes with bacon gravy for dinner. I had Moroccan-spiced lamb with sweet potato salad. Delicious! We walked over to get some cupcakes for dessert, which we took home to share with Theo and Grandma Diane.

Because Theo and I missed Little Gym on Tuesday, when he was sick, we went to a makeup class on Saturday. This was cool because it meant Chris got to come watch. Chris thoroughly enjoyed seeing his nutty son in action. Just like last week, Theo tried hard to be a good listener to the teacher, but sometimes it was just too much for him, and he got up and ran around, always with an enormous grin on his face. It was a small class--just two girls and Theo--and one of the other moms (who I actually quite like--not the rude one from last week) commented, “You can sure see a difference between boys and girls at this age!” Indeed. The two girls were sitting as directed, listening and being patient, and Theo was busily exploring and trying to convince the teacher that they didn’t need to do the activity at Station 1; they really ought to move on to Station 2 instead! All we can say is, “Good luck, preschool teachers!” We do our best at home to work on listening, but it’s a long process. That kid just has so much crazy energy that trying to focus it on one prescribed activity is like trying to catch lightning in a bottle! And frankly, I’d hate to see all that energy and independence forced out of him at this age, because it’s filled with such pure joy--not malicious misbehavior. He is, quite simply, having a ball! Luckily, he seems to entertain all around him. I think we may have a Class Clown on our hands….

We spent the rest of Saturday on the exciting task of…drum roll, please…cleaning the garage! We should’ve taken before-and-after pictures, as the transformation is quite impressive. We figured if we relocate for Chris’s job, this is one less thing to take care of when we’re packing. And if we stay here, we really needed to clean out the overflowing garage anyway. It’s so nice and neat in there now--I just want to go stand and look at it for a while!

For Father’s Day, we took advantage of the sunny, somewhat cool day and went to Napa. We took Theo to a nice, big park where he could run around and play, and then we went to lunch at our favorite Peruvian place and had cupcakes for dessert. This time we split two: a Key lime cupcake (Chris’s favorite) and a PB&J cupcake with chocolate frosting (my favorite). Very tasty, and a nice day!

For those of you wondering about Chris’s job situation, we’re still waiting to hear. He talked to the recruiter on Wednesday, when she called to tell him that he needed to notify his boss (Larry) about the position because they needed to speak to Larry about “transition scheduling,” and that speaking to him would probably happen “in the next few days.” So Chris did, but we haven’t yet gotten a definite word from them. It sounds pretty promising to us, but who knows. And of course, there is the issue of salary to be hammered out and the details of where the position will be located. So, maybe next week we’ll know more….

Until then, happy Father’s Day and happy week! Sorry we don’t have many pictures this week--there’s not much picture-worthy about a sick boy. :-(