Celebrating Thanksgiving, Cook Family style

Following two days of non-stop throwing up, Liam spent the past two days complaining of stomach pain. And when I say 'complaining of stomach pain', I mean sometimes he seems perfectly fine - and two minutes later he is writhing around on the floor, clutching his belly and sobbing, and it seems to be getting worse, not better. Finally this morning I took him into the emergency room. It was getting scary just how suddenly and how hard it was hitting him, and the fact that he has barely eaten for the past 5 days was kind of frightening, too.

Anyway - it turns out that he has an infection in the lining of his stomach, brought about by the flu or whatever it was that he started out with on Wednesday. This immediately brings to mind that time when he was 3 and caught the stomach flu which led two weeks later to a secondary infection in his hip. It didn't occur to me to bring this up at the hospital this morning, but I will definitely ask our family doctor whether this is some sort of pattern the next time I see her. There's nothing we can do to treat this infection, just wait for it to clear on its own.

We were supposed to have dinner with the Cooks yesterday and with the Robinsons today, and neither of those happened thanks to Mr. Sickie. My consolation prize was that yesterday I did get to watch the live Ironman championship streaming all day long. Although even that didn't go as well as I'd hoped - the athlete I was most interested to watch pulled out before the race started, and the one I wanted to win wound up in 11th after leading through a large part of the race. Still, the coverage was impressive, given that it wasn't major TV network coverage, and it was exciting to see it unfold live. Yay for technology! It was also a nice trip down memory lane for Chad and I, because we honeymooned in Kona and the grounds of the resort we stayed at are the main staging area for transition and the race finish. So we were all like "remember this" and "remember that" all day long. (And I am busy plotting a return trip, perhaps to coincide with a big wedding anniversary, though it won't be the big one that's coming up next year.)

Today, after going stir-crazy for so many days, being cooped indoors with sick kids, watching DVD after DVD while sprawled on the couch because Liam is in no mood to do anything else (and this is Mallory's idea of nirvana), I slipped away this afternoon and took my bike out for a spin, determined to enjoy at least some of this last hurrah of summer. I wound out the River Road pretending that it was the Queen Kaahumany highway and that I was cycling through lava fields rather than corn fields. And after 30km I was back home, very glad that I didn't have another 150km ahead of me, and then a marathon to run after that!

Chad made a quick trip to the grocery store to pick up some deli turkey for sandwiches and a pumpkin pie, so that is the extent of our holiday celebration. Though of course, Mallory was quick to point out when he came home that she does not like turkey and she does not like pie. Or so she claims.