First came school, then came quarantine

Thomas was supposed to have "school"/camp last week on MWF half days. I was anxious about it a bit since ever since his last time there last month every time we talk about school Thomas says, "Thomas cry school." And this would be because Thomas does, in fact, cry at school. In June he went two weeks in a row, just on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. The second week he pretty much cried the whole time he was there. They even asked me to leave his paci and children aren't supposed to have pacis there. Ugh.

So anyway, last Monday I took him back and as soon as we started getting out the car, the sadness started setting in. His bottom lip started quivering and he started saying, "Mommy come back?" over and over again. I tried to ease him into the room, but he was wise to me. The teacher had another crying child that day and I could tell she was a bit anxious about having two criers that day. But as they tell me to do, I told him goodbye and left. As I was going out the door Thomas started crying pretty hard. He was gagging himself a little bit, but I left. Well, I didn't even make it to the car before a teacher came out and said "Ma'am!?! He just threw up." Lovely. After assuring them that he was not sick, that he just gagged himself until he threw up, they were okay with him staying and they encouraged me to hang around for a bit longer. So I did. Eventually I left and when I came back at the appointed time they said he ended up having a pretty good day. Whew. He actually participated with the art project (more than he had been doing) and when I asked Thomas if he had fun at school he said, "Thomas cry school a little bit." Progress, no? :)

Unfortunately later that day I realized that what I thought were ant bites on the palms of his hands had multiplied (I had first noticed them the previous Thursday). After some Googling, I realized he must have picked up Hand, Foot, Mouth Disease when he went to the doctor for a vaccination the previous week (Monday nearly two weeks ago). I felt terrible that he had been at school while possibly contagious and I felt bad that we paid for the week and he wasn't able to return! He never ran a fever, that I noticed though, and from what everyone tells me, this must have been a very, very mild case. I tried to take a picture, but my jitterbug wouldn't stay still enough!




This doesn't look like the face of a sick boy, does it?


Those pictures were a week ago. I think the spots are finally clearing up and I hope we can be out of self-imposed quarantine this week! And next week he heads back to school for the last camp session before he starts for real on August 26.

Oh, and Parker, as you can see, thinks it is all a bit funny. I just hope he doesn't get it!