...whose skin is STILL a nightmare.

That Boy.  Snot nosed and sensitive skinned.  Sensitive feelings too.  We were up at Mom and Dad's house this past weekend, and he went over that line from little kid with a cold to miserable little kid with a headache, snotty nose, peeling-flaking-disaster-area under the nose, and super dry hands.  Saturday was a horrid roller coaster of Boy emotions - happy, sad, pitiful, angry...you name it it was there.  The least little thing would set him off into a (mini) tower of rage or the most pathetically sobbing kid you've ever seen.

His color was horrible, grey faced with big purple bags under his eyes, red flaky nose, and chapped lips.  He finally told us that his sinuses hurt - which is HUGE for him.  We were constantly telling him to blow his nose, and at one point he wandered over to the cart in the kitchen to go find something, probably a tissue and he got over there and just dropped his head forward into the napkin basket.  It was SO funny, mom and I busted up laughing - which set him off into a fit of embarrassed pique and Matt took him into the living room to talk and calm him down.  Then later I tried to rinse his sinuses.  WORLD WAR 3, apparently no one who heard the screaming felt they needed to check and see if I needed help, and I ended up with a VERY sore shoulder.

Doctor yesterday says she *thinks* it's an allergic/cold up in his head, and while she gave me the prescription for antibiotics, wants me to wait until at least Thursday, since she's unsure of the source (viral or bacterial) of the infection up there.  So we're waiting.  :)  She told him that he REALLY needs to get over  putting stuff up his nose because he needs to use a nasal spray and that he needed to rinse his nose like mommy said.  AND that he needs to sleep more.   *YES!*

Meanwhile, his skin is a disaster.  His hands are red and patchy on the back, raw to the point that lotion causes pain.  So last night we snuck into his room, slathered his hands up with overnight FOOT lotion, and stuck gloves on him.  Trying to get lotioned-up, slack little hands into knit gloves was entertaining to say the least.

This morning everything worked though.  He rinsed his own nose, no problems (he does find rinsing out large amounts of snot to be entertaining), did his exfoliating pads, even around his nose, and let me put lotion on him.  He even let me spray his nose with neosporin after everything.  And then he said, "THANK YOU."

It'll probably take another two to three days of intensive attention to get his skin back to where it needs to be, but as long as he's cooperating, it's not so bad.