splotchy boy = rotavirus

JoyBoy's been feeling off-and-on punky since last Thursday. Sometime low energy; lots of sleep; little appetite, followed by bursts of his usual playful energetic self. We've been keeping our eye on him, noticing but not overly concerned. The general consensus: growth spurt. Yesterday though, he threw up at Grandma's and last night, Daddy noticed JoyBoy's feet looked splotchy. This morning, his hands were splotchy (his feet were not); then his face became splotchy. A quick search on the Internet pointed to an infection. I had an appointment to see a meeting room at a local forest, so I took Kaemon Ze with me, as it was too early to make an appointment with the doctor.

After seeing the room, we sauntered into the forest while I called the doctor's office and made an appointment for 11:15am. The forest was spectacular! A gorgeous play of the morning's sunlight filtering in through the leaves and trees. So pretty. Kaemon Ze found a slug and was pretty happy about that. He insisted on trying to pick it up. After several slimy failures, he implored me to pick it up. "Ugh...no son." This is your mission. He finally got the slug in his hand and deposited it away from the path in near plants for grazing.

I was near my office and needed to handle a few things, so JoyBoy hung out with me for a little while. He loves the little staple-removers. He calls them, "lion heads." Today he got two of them and they battled; one winning, the other dying, then trading off. After doing what I needed to do, we still had a good chunk of time before the doctor appointment, so I took him to a local barber for a much-needed trim.

When I walked in, the barber told me in a booming voice, that caught me off-guard, "If you want your son's hair cut, you'll have to go here," and he handed me a card for an address going in the opposite direction I was headed. "You don't cut childrens' hair?" I inquired. "I can't contend with their movements" he said that boisterous voice. I wondered if he was speaking loudly to make up for his short stature (he was a good foot shorter than me). At any rate, who can argue with someone with 1) sharp scissors, and 2) whom you want to do a good job on your son's head. With sharp scissors. I did admire his frankness to admit what he wasn't good at.

So, off to another barber, the one Daddy takes him to. He was the PERFECT client. Sat still the whole time (I didn't say anything to him; he just knew to be still). Take that, silly barber-man! :)

Pre-cut.

So, finally...off to the doctor's office. The prognosis was pretty quick: rotavirus. And, since it's a virus, it's got to run its course. Later, Daddy said JoyBoy had gotten a vaccination for this...maybe that's why it was so mild... Hopefully he'll feel better very very soon!