Our first week of school, our new kindergartener came down with a viral illness, and had to stay home for two days. Luckily, he returned to school without difficulty, and this week, for him, went smoothly.

Not so much for his big brother.

I got a call in the middle of the afternoon from the school nurse. S had tripped over one of his friends in the playground, and then another friend tripped over both of them. S hit his head on the ground, hard enough to raise a bump. No loss of consciousness, but his head hurt, and over the course of the day, he developed some dizziness and nausea. He was intermittently tearful, and generally (and unusually) quiet and subdued.

We had him rest, and waited until the morning, to see if he showed any other symptoms. In the morning, he woke up saying he didn’t feel right, and was still dizzy. So, we called the doctor, and I called my clinic and office, and fortunately, was able to take the day off for him. Our appointment was at 11:30, so we had a little time to run an errand. We needed running shoes for S and baseball shoes for J (at his practice, his Velcro shoes were falling off when he ran the bases).  So, we headed over to the local shoe store, and S picked out these cool neon shoes for himself (it took a coin flip, as there was another pair that were just as cool):

And he chose these cleats for J, because “they’re just like mine, and he’ll like that.”  (what a sweet guy, which, again, was slightly atypical behavior, and reminded me that he wasn’t himself):

We still had a little time, and we went over to the library, where S got very energized by the graphic novels, and got the information desk librarian hot of the trail for Calvin & Hobbs and Charlie Brown (she happened to be a temporary staffer there that day, and admitted she didn’t know the layout well, but was game to search with us).  We ended up finding some editions of TinTin which he hadn’t yet read, and we checked out those, along with some High Holiday holiday picture books to prepare for Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur (one of them is supposed to explain Kol Nidre, the opening prayer that marks the beginning of the Yom Kippur fast, and I’m personally eager to see how this can be explained to a child – I’ve been mulling over it’s meaning for years).

It was time to go to the doctor’s office, and we got there in plenty of time. It’s always interesting to be both parent and physician. When my daughter was small, and we would have our occasional trips to the doctor’s (i’ll never forget her courage with a fractured wrist) I was completely trustful of the expertise of her doctor, but I had no knowledge of his process of diagnosing and treating. Now, if course, I do. It’s fascinating to watch a neurological examination when you know what’s being tested. He did ok, with some minor deficits in memory, and the conclusion was Mild Concussion. We are recommended to keep him quiet over the weekend and avoid excessive physical activity for a week, depending on how he progresses.
Keeping him quiet for the rest of Friday was simple – he really didn’t want to do anything. In fact, I ended up thinking how easy he is when he’s not feeling well.

Saturday morning, he woke up more himself, and we all went to synagogue. It was a hot walk home, but he seemed all right. We spent time in the pool, and a friend of his from school kindly came over to play a bit. It was a lovely day, but then this morning he woke up feeling worse again, and we realized we probably should have put the brakes on more the previous day. He spent the morning bed, and then got up to play with J when we got home from hebrew school (more on that in another post).

At 3, we all packed into the car and drive to J’s first baseball game. It did not begin auspiciously. He threw a tantrum before we left (“I don’t want to play baseball! I hate baseball! “). And when we arrived at the field, he refused to do anything. He spent most of the time hiding under our folding chairs.

But S won big brother of the day award. He coaxed him gently out to hisone time at bat:

And then he stood out in left field with J helping him stay in his “ready” position (and reassuring him that he didn’t need to go after the ball, if he didn’t want to).

And, finally, he played a little catch with J, while the rest of the team played the last inning:

We wrapped up a hectic day at Noodles & Company for the boys’ favorite – Mac & Cheese – and got ice cream at the nearby Baskin & Robbins.  We got home, bathed, and both boys were in bed and sound asleep by 8-8:30.

We shall see how tomorrow morning goes…