A crazy start to the vacation...

Regardless the anticipation one has for a vacation, no one ever says "I am so excited. I get to have a 5 hour plane trip with a 4 and 18 month old. Woo Hoo!!". It is an understood fact that travel days are hard on all involved. Dragging car seats and two suitcases into the airport between two adults. Throwing the luggage onto the moving sidewalk and then running back to get the 4 year old who, although having walked on to a thousand moving sidewalks without assistance before has developed a debilitating phobia, and then running back up to get the luggage. It is only now as I am typing this that I wonder why we just didn't walk down the hallway. It is just innate to take the moving sidewalks. They are sidewalks...that move.

On the ridiculously small plane, Joshy was becoming increasingly feverish. He had a slight temp that morning that was reduced with Tylenol's cherry flavored helping hand but this go round, the fever was giving Tylenol the smack down. We were covering him with blankets and trying to get him to sleep. His temp was consistently between 104.6 and 105.7 no matter how much medicine I gave. I pumped him full figuring an OD on Tylenol was safer than if the fever rose much more. I just kept rubbing his back, trying to lull him to sleep, with not much else that could be done at 30,000 feet. It was when we landed and he began to look at me in the face and ask me to get his mom for him, that he didn't know where his mom was that I lost my cool. Up till then, I was just on task. Land and then find an Urgent Care clinic that would be open on Sunday. At that moment, the calm in my voice cracked and left just enough room for the tears to break through. We hurried down to Hertz to pick up the car and stood third in line for the single open station. First in line were the two "super cool" college age guys who couldn't get any of their credit cards to be approved for the amount of their car rental which was well over 1k. They were either renting a Yacht for a week or a Rio for three months. Either way, the attendant kept calling their credit card companies for them, since they couldn't figure out why they weren't working while there I am, at the back of the line holding Joshy, crying. Once we were in the car, we tried to follow a locals directions only to end up at a gas station, where a kind taxi driver offered to lead us to the hospital. When we checked in, Joshy's temperature had fallen back down to 104.7 and while a good thing, the poor guy just looked so miserable. While we were there, they basically tested to rule out anything that could be causing the fever, including Swine Flu. I laughed afterward because seriously, I could not imagine the conversation where I call back home to say that we were stuck in a hospital in Norfolk with the Swine Flu. When the doctor did come in, she struck up a conversation with Joshy, as I am sure she does all kids, but clearly was not expecting my son who proceeded to grill her. "Is being a doctor your job?" "Why are you a doctor?" "How many sick people do you help?" Each question's answer being followed by "oh". I love how curious he is. She sent us for x-rays which Joshy has never had. As they wrapped us in lead, he was crying and scared and out of sorts from feeling awful. He didn't know what they were going to do. After those were said and done, we ended up having to go back for a second set where this time he told them that he wouldn't be scared and gallantly hopped right up on the table. The radiologist agreed to let him see the x-ray picture and he was thrilled to see his bones. By this time the massive overdose of Tylenol and Motrin had begun to kick in and had brought the fever down to 102 and I was starting to see Joshy break through again. Ultimately, we spent four hours in the emergency room to figure out through process of elimination that it was a virus. By the time we left the hospital for the 2 1/2 hour drive to my Grandparent's house, we were all pretty wiped. Plane ride included, it had been a very long day. Throw in the mental energy trying to remember how high a fever could be before it was really bad, watching the thermometer LCD creep closer and closer to 106, and it was a very very long day. I would do it all the same, though, for that peace of mind while driving 4 sleeping passengers on Virginia back roads that he was okay.

There was a book at the hospital that we were reading while we were waiting to check out. It was about Doozers and a certain lazy Doozer who eventually turned into a Fraggle. In the middle of the story, the Doozer was just laying around and you saw him become fatter and fatter. At the picture of him at his largest I, without much thought, said "Woah. That is one big Doozer." Joshy just busted out in this huge belly laugh and that then became the quote of the week. Say it to him the next time you see him and I bet you will get a laugh.

I am so proud of that boy and how brave he was the entire time we were in the ER, everything so new. As I told him, it is okay to be scared. Being brave is being scared but doing it anyway because it is what has to be done. He just looked at me and understood. He always asks me, "Mom, do I make your heart melt?". Yes my brave, sweet boy...you make your mom's heart melt.