Merry Christmas Eve

There's something nostalgic about trains at Christmas time. Whether it's the somewhat more recent Polar Express or the idea of a train around the Christmas tree, trains simply go with Santa. This year one of our gifts for Teddy was to head to the Mid-Continent Railroad in North Freedom, WI for the Santa Train. We did this in early December, and it was the perfect family adventure.

Teddy was so excited about this trip. Though he can't talk, he told everyone who came to our house about the train ride by showing them the brochure and pointing specifically to the Santa picture. This was for a couple months leading up to the adventure as we had the brochure on the fridge. 

The trip didn't disappoint for him, as he was so excited when we pulled into the train station. The only disappointment for him was that the museum had hardly any train cars you could climb on to explore, unlike the one we visited in Duluth earlier this summer. He thought he should be able to explore every car, even trying to sneak onto a few because that cord across the stairs is clearly not meant for him. 

The train ride itself was pretty darn perfect for us - about 1.5 hours with enough going on to keep Teddy mostly in his seat. As a parent, I appreciated that all that was advertised was a quick visit by Santa, so everything beyond that was a pleasant surprise. Santa started in our train car and made his way with Mrs. Claus to take pictures with every family and have a quick chat. Of course, Teddy invited them to sit down by him. 

All smiles for Santa and Mrs. Claus.

After Santa moved along, we heard a reading of T'was the Night Before Christmas and got little stockings with a few treats for the boys. Oh, we also got a rubber duck dressed as a conductor that Teddy thought was pretty cool. 

Showing off his rubber ducky.

The train only went a short distance down the line before it turns around, so we didn't cover a lot of ground, but it was very scenic. On the way back, just as Teddy was getting a bit squirrely, we had a group of high school students come into our train car to sing carols. Teddy thought that was the best to have a group of pretty girls (with a few guys, too) standing right by him, smiling and singing to him. His absolute favorite was Jingle Bells because he got bells to play through the song.

It was a truly wonderful experience, something we all could enjoy. Afterward we checked out a candy store on the way to our second main destination, Buffalo Phil's, a restaurant in Wisconsin Dells. We had wanted to check this place out for a few years due to two features: food delivered by trains and all the Lego displays. Let's just say neither disappointed for AJ, especially the entire Star Wars Lego room with nearly all the Lego Star Wars in existence. However, Teddy was freaked out.

Now, to be fair, eating in a restaurant with Teddy is usually a quick affair as he has no willingness to sit still for any amount of time, wants to socialize with others, etc. Sometimes he's just in a mood, slithering out of the booth and seeming to intentionally create chaos. This time, though, was different. Something he saw or experienced in the restaurant freaked him out, whether it was all the life-size characters or who knows what exactly. But after our drinks came and he went for a walk because he was a bit antsy and there was a lot to see, we could barely get him back in the booth. In fact, he and I stood by the booth just waiting to have our food come to put it in to-go boxes for him and Dave because all he wanted was to go back to the car. 

This type of thing is happening a bit more, where he gets genuinely freaked out and needs to leave someplace because it's simply too much for him. While it's frustrating to not be able to enjoy a restaurant we thought was about as close to a sure thing for our family as would exist (with the trains), it's understandable when it's truly fear versus just being sassy, so to speak. I wish we could figure out, though, what triggers these moments of freaking out to better navigate them.

Regardless, it was a fantastic family day and definitely something to repeat! We'll just skip that restaurant next time. 

All the Sicknesses

As usual, it's been much longer than intended between posts. To be fair, though, I feel like our household has been ill since mid-November. 

It started with a phone call that Teddy was suspected of pink eye and needed to be picked up from school the Friday before Thanksgiving. That required a visit to the walk-in clinic, of course, to get medication and clearance to go back to school. As an added bonus, we learned he actually had strep throat on top of the pink eye at that visit, so he got prescribed 2 different antibiotics. 

You'd think that would be enough to keep him healthy, but nope. We finalized our Thanksgiving plans at 6 p.m. Wednesday night before Thanksgiving, only to have Teddy start vomiting at 8 p.m. After 3 to 4 projectile vomiting sessions, with him completely miserable, Dave took him to the emergency room at 9 p.m. They celebrated (umm, probably wrong word choice) the start of Thanksgiving in the ER, getting home after 1 a.m. after getting fluids, IV anti-nausea meds after throwing up the oral ones and IV keppra. 

AJ and I managed to still visit my folks for Thanksgiving, while Dave and Teddy stayed home recovering. Seriously, who gets a 3rd illness while he's being treated for 2 other ones?!?!

That recovery didn't last long, though. We had perhaps a week where Teddy was feeling better before the respiratory illness started. After watching him lay on the floor just staring at us putting up the Christmas tree without causing any trouble or "helping" at all, we knew he was definitely not well. After seeing a temp over 100, along with the lethargy, we headed back to the walk-in clinic for visit #2 within 2 weeks or so. 

That visit prompted visit #2 to the ER because we got sent there instead due to his high fever, low oxygen, high pulse and high blood pressure. His temp was over 102 by the time we were in the ER (even after having Tylenol 30 to 60 minutes earlier), and he was miserable. They checked for all the viral illnesses (flu, RSV and COVID) along with a chest x-ray to look for pneumonia or bronchitis given the persistent string of illnesses. All that came back negative, so it was some other virus kicking his butt.

Walk-in and ER visits #2.

Thankfully he was through the worst of that in just a couple days, though I swear that cough and crud has lasted for more than 2 weeks still (with the rest of us getting some lesser variant). While we're sick of being sick, one of the biggest blessings is that despite all the illnesses, he had no seizures. That's tremendous, considering strep throat has kicked off wicked seizures, as has multiple illnesses at the same time. 

I'm also grateful that the time and effort I've put into therapy this year (particularly EMRD to process his 2 worst seizure episodes) really has made a difference. All these illnesses were the perfect test to see if my anxiety when he's ill improved, and it was a remarkable difference. While it's still no fun with sickness, especially with a non-verbal child who can't tell you how he feels and what hurts, the constant worry about seizures and worst-case scenarios wasn't there. 

So here's to hoping to finish the end of the year healthy and that the worst of our winter illnesses are behind us!