Infamous "Day of Firsts"

HL had a first this morning- his very first bloody lip. First of many, I'm sure. The fact that he just now had his first bloody lip shows you what a very cautious kid we have. The "firsts" topic reminds of me of HL's infamous day of firsts... It all started when we (our family) went bowling to celebrate some friend's birthdays. It was HL's first time bowling- and he really had a good time. On our way home from the big city that day, we stopped at a McDonalds where HL got his first bloody nose. HL was in the play area when I heard screaming and ran to the exit slide just in time to see HL come flying out with a bloody nose. A good one. The guy in the next table even gave us his hanky to stop the bleeding. It was then that the fun started- HL vomited profusely in the van while we were getting ready to leave. Another first. HL had never vomited before- he used to spit up frequently but never vomit. This was the day Hubby and I were dreading. Neither of us could handle bodily fluids- vomit especially. We used to wonder "how will we act?" Well, Hubby handled it well, I was proud. Says it "didn't even phaze" him. Anyway, with a bloody nose followed by vomiting, the first thought to pop into our heads was: severe head injury. We spent two hours driving home, having to make another "sickness stop". The first time, HL got his pjs dirty so we put his clothes back on. The second time, his clothes had to go. Poor guy was now down to a spare pair of pants and a baby blanket covering his chest. While Hubby was driving, I was making frantic calls to get information and finally paged HL's doctor. Dr. P said that "diagnosing a head injury in a two year old is very difficult. With what's happened, he needs to be checked." Which leads us to yet another first for HL: a trip to the ER. That makes four now, all in one day. Just as we pulled in to the hospital lot, HL got sick all over the van again. I had to wrap him in my coat to run into the lobby. We sat in the ER for at least an hour and HL was so accepting of the situation; he was not complaining at all and even managed to be excited that he was in an ER, "where the ambulances take the sick people," he told us. My parents came to sit with us and, bless her, my mom knew an employee there who got us in sooner. The doctor examined HL and diagnosed him with a rather freakily-timed bout of the stomach flu. Seemed like a cruel joke, nature scaring us like that. Having been so scared for my son's health, I decided to sleep next to his bed- I needed to know he was okay. The rest of the night was filled with hourly bouts of dry heaving, and the poor kid continued to be sick for another two days, but did heal completely. Oh, and he got to be spoiled and sleep in the living room for the duration of his illness. So I guess it wasn't all bad for him.