Stuck in Lodi Again

As mentioned last week, we had big plans for the July 4th weekend. Eli's unexpected bout with roseola (not to be confused with Rosealia). Apparently Eli had it easy - roseola fevers can spike in excess of 106°! And I thought he was burning up when his registered 100-101°. After his fever broke, he felt better (than ezra?). But for a few days, he had a nasty rash that covered his entire trunk. It didn't seem to bother him, but it mortified Shelby when she took him to swimming. It was almost like waving a banner that said 'parent who doesn't notice that her son is covered in splotchy rash'. The rash is hard to see in photographs, but check out the picture below:



Eli fully recovered by Friday, so we planned a family Saturday chock full of activity. This morning we ran around the Arboretum, stopping to pick up breakfast at the coffee shop about a mile from the house. We walked the rest of the way home, enjoying the scenery and mid-summer sunshine. After cleaning up and running errands, I spent time sitting on the balcony doing work. In a welcome development, Triscuit has decided that he prefers to perch himself on the balcony and watch people walk by instead of going for walks himself. This leads to the admittedly goofy sight of dog and Dave sitting together outside the house. Eli is also captivated by the glass door and the dog that is just beyond his reach:



We decided to spend the afternoon at the Lodi Agricultural Fair. Lodi is about 30 minutes west of Madison, well in the middle of rural Wisconsin. At the Fair, Eli got to pretend he was a farmer: collecting eggs, apples, and potatoes for sale at the market.



After playing farmer, Eli and dad rode a train:



We then got to play with the livestock: cows, pigs, sheep, ducks, chicken, and rabbits!





After seeing the animals, Dave and Shelby won enough tickets playing Skee-bal against one another to win Eli a souvenir pig beanie baby. Before we left the fair, Eli and Dave rode the merry-go-round. The horses went a little fast for Eli's comfort, but he only voiced his displeasure a few times during the ride:




And that was our big day at the fair! A good time was had by all, but Eli was tired from his busy afternoon by the time we got home. Hopefully he will sleep in again - one silver lining to his illness last week is that his sleep schedule recalibrated. He has slept until at least 6:30 each of the last four or five days.