Too Much Hot

So I don't know if any of you follow the weather here, but if you do, you've seen some high temperatures.  My strategy is to look at weather forecasts in celsius so that I don't actually know what they mean.  I have figured out that anything higher than 40 is hot but otherwise I just don't really want to know.  People here are too lethargic to complain about the heat in a grammatically accurate and acceptable manner, so it is common to hear people say simply, "too much hot."  (Yes, these people are grown-ups.)

So last Wednesday, the nurse at school called me to tell me that Tommy had vomited and that I should go get him.  (This was after Lulu was out of school for two days -- remember the hives? -- so I was less than thrilled, for both our sakes.)  By the time I got there, he was in fine form and returned home to play Lego for a solid three hours.  He never even asked to watch television, that's how fine he felt.  His teacher emailed me to ask how he was doing, and I replied that I suspected that he had become overheated.  She said that she thought that's what had happened as well.

Imagine my surprise and frustration, then, when about one minute after I sat down with my friend Leigh and a glass of wine (it's Friday here!), I received a call from the school nurse this afternoon at 4:30.  (Tommy does "Book and Cook" club on Thursdays, so he takes the activity bus home from school later than normal.)  She explained that he had a headache and felt like he was going to vomit and could I come pick him up?  I said I thought he was just too hot and could he please just take the bus?  But then she put him on the phone and he had to leave to vomit.  So I put my glass of wine in the fridge and drove to school.  I should note here that I had only had - literally - two sips of wine OTHERWISE I WOULD NOT HAVE DRIVEN and my poor kid would've just barfed on the bus the whole way home.  When I arrived, he was obviously feeling quite badly.  He was pale and sleeping (so I took some time to interrogate the poor nurse about his symptoms and what she suspected was wrong with him), and when I woke him up he vomited again.  Then he vomited some more in the car but I have been around the block my friends and I brought a bowl with me (none of this leaky plastic bag business in my car, thankyouverymuch) and I had the AC on high which mostly covered the smell and we made it home.  He vomited for, say, another hour and then at 6:30 a switch in his little body flipped and he started begging for food.  I let him have a piece of buttered toast and then we started the bedtime routine and he is now sleeping.

But you know what? I am pissed off, and that school is going to hear about it.  Whoever heard of little kids playing outdoors in 45 degree heat, even if the playgrounds are covered? Why can't they go in one of the gyms?  There MUST be a better way and I am dedicating myself to figuring out what it is.  I don't think my kid (or any kid, for that matter!) should have to suffer from heatstroke once a week.