Strep, again

Meggie Meg has a case of strep. I prefer it to some of the other options, like an evil cold that can't be treated, stomach flu or an ear infection but I'd rather be watching a new episode of Glee about now instead.

She had sort of a low grade blah yesterday and by last night, she was warm with fever, snoring like her father and generally feeling unhappy. That was all not great enough, but then she threw up a couple of times. Throughout the day, her fever came and went but she never quite seemed on the upswing. Tonight, naturally, was Andy's open house/math night at school starting at 5 so I never got her in to see a doctor. I decided that I'd take her to minute clinic for a strep test, only to get there too late to get on the wait list to see the nurse practitioner. I know, right? So we ended up at an Urgent Care down the street where we got the diagnosis.

That was all well and good. The doctor was nice, facility clean and the exam room had a TV (they all seem to here, it's nice). We were on our way back to CVS to fill the prescription when she started throwing up in the car. Then she threw up a couple more times in the parking lot. I must say, things to love about Texas. A lady in the parking lot came over to help me. She gave me a bunch of napkins and found a bag for me to put her clothes in. I didn't really need it, but how nice. Also nice? Bjorn met us as the door and promptly got to work cleaning the car and car seat. It really does take a village and I love it.

Damn you, NPR

I listen to a lot of NPR these days. Part of this is because the local radio stations in Texas seem to want to lynch all the Democrats and Obama himself. It's not like there is a legitimate debate here, but people screaming at me through the radio about how evil Obamacare is, how he's not a citizen, etc. etc. So I listen to NPR.

A few weeks ago, I heard a review of a book, "As Meat Loves Salt."

I remember when I first idly opened this book over my morning coffee. I had other plans for that day, yet after about 10 pages, I put those plans aside. Indulging myself, I curled into the living room armchair and galloped on as the sun rose high. I don't, alas, often say this of any novel as an adult, but I could not put it down.

High praise, right? So I checked it out of the library. I went so far as to ask for an inter library loan (which is friggin awesome. Seriously. Any book in the country except new bestsellers is available for this inter library loan. If I work this right, I may never have to buy a book again).

So I read it and it's terrible. Well, I'm sure it's got artistic merit, maybe even be a classic, like Faulkner. But by golly, it was dark, sad, depressing, violent and, unbelievably, erotic, if you consider gay rape erotic, that is.

In a change of subject, my sister survived her knee surgery and is recovering slowly and painfully, but recovering. My mother returned to Dallas with my Uncle Bobby who is also recovering from his stroke slowly, but at least he's here where we (well, my mom) can look after him and his care properly.

Also on the health front, Andy and I are recovering from the stomach flu. Fingers crossed we are better by tomorrow as the party circuit starts tomorrow night and goes through Christmas. I. Can't. Wait. I hope to start feeling better so we can properly enjoy the merriment of the holidays in our new hometown.

The barfs

So, what's the protocol when your daughter vomits all over the bathroom at Wal-Mart?

Poor Meg. We went Friday night to the super Wal-Mart so I could get a few groceries and some stocking stuffers (I also need to enjoy that she's still young enough I can slip those past her; Andy is starting to ask some serious questions about Santa). We hadn't made it past the produce section.

"My tummy full. I need to pee."
"Really? Because I just asked you before we left. But okay..."

So we abandon our cart and go into the bathroom. For some reason, I picked the handicapped stall. The toilet's too tall, but there's room for me to stand with her.

"I can't go!" She whines. And I start to get annoyed because she's doing this a lot lately when she wants a change of scenery. Not this time.
"Meg!"
"My tummy...." And then she proceeds to throw up forward all over the floor. Fortunately, she spares my clothes, but I'm looking around wondering how in the world I'm going to handle this. She then throws up another time. The first was all red, compliments of the "red" party at her school on Friday where everyone brought in something colored red. I know, good times.

By now, she's crying and I'm trying to comfort her without covering myself or stepping in the mess all over the floor while wondering if the barfs are done. After a brief assessment of the situation, I hang up my coat and purse, take off all her clothes and start cleaning her up in the sink. Naturally the other lady in the bathroom at Wal-Mart is as nice as she can be and is talking to Meg helping calm her down, too. I take off my sweater after I wipe her down and put it on her. I sneak out to get a plastic bag and put all her stuff in it -- clothes, jacket and shoes - and we make our exit. I do tell the manager at the check out that my daughter threw up in there. "It's okay," she says cheerfully. Clearly she's not going to be the one cleaning it up.

After we get home, she throws up a couple more times, mostly dry heaves. By the next morning, she's back to normal. Go figure.

Lots going on this week. My sister is having her ACL fixed tomorrow and my uncle with lung cancer is leaving his occupational rehab on Tuesday and my mom flying out to Odessa, Texas, and driving him him back to Dallas so she can better look after him. Please keep them in your thoughts. Oh, if that wasn't enough and then we have Christmas. I am mostly prepared. Mostly.

Edited to add that since I wrote this at 8:33 p.m., she went and threw up again. This time, all over Bjorn and the bathroom off the kitchen. I am hoping it's just that she drank some old milk she found (don't ask) but it could be an extension of Friday, strep or just one of those things. She doesn't have a fever, for now anyway.

Happy holidays

I'm totally biased, of course, but this is pretty darn adorable. Here's what he said when he handed it to me when I picked him up this week, "Here, Mommy. This is for you. It's a Christmas ornament. It's breakable so don't let me touch it. Okay, Mommy?" That kid is sadly as subtle as his parents.

To cap the holiday festivities, Andy has strep. I got a call from the school nurse that his was complaining of being really tired and presented with a 101.5 temperature. By the time I arrived 15 minutes later, it had spiked to 102.1 even with him lying on an ice pack. The adorable nurse who is at least 10 years younger than me insisted I take him to the doctor where a quick strep test was positive for strep. Some omnicef and Motrin later, he's bouncing off the walls again. Modern medicine simply rocks sometimes.

Fifth's Disease

So Andy has Fifths Disease. It sounds a lot more awful than it is, it's basically just a viral infection that causes his cheeks to get all red with a little spread on his arms and legs. What is notable about it, it's also called "Slapped Cheek" disease. I find that somewhat hilarious as it apparently hearkens back to a time when people would slap the cheeks of five year olds. The other notable thing is that Fifths Disease is harmful to unborn babies, but only when it's contagious which was before he broke out. So all last week he was contagious, which makes me feel terrible since there are several pregnant teachers in the kindergarten wing. Hopefully they've had it before and have immunity (most likely as all these random illnesses are a work hazard, but still). There is no treatment for it, it doesn't hurt and it doesn't itch -- it's just red and icky. It gets better when cool (like in the pool) and worse when hot (like when he's running around outside). Bizarre.

Naturally, the peak of his face AIDS, as Mark would call it, happened yesterday which was picture day. He will be thrilled to see those popping up on Facebook the rest of his life wondering why he had bad acne at five.

Oh, and the other picture? Today is silly mismatched dress day so he's wearing a striped shirt, too small, plaid shorts and green socks. Adorable!

Personal Record

I hit a new personal record this week -- we had four trips to the pediatrician. Of course, tomorrow is Saturday so we still have one more day to make it a full week. They know my name when I call in now. I'm kind of impressed with our rock star power.

Sunday -- visit for croup and strep test
Monday -- visit for day three of croup and stridor, lead to steroid shot and nebulizer treatment
Tuesday -- still coughing, turns out I was really there for her "steroid psychosis." That's right, her 'roid rage. She was going from laughing to crying in one breath. He cut her dose down to half for Wednesday.
Wednesday -- no visit!
Thursday -- no visit!
Friday -- she went to bed early, like 7:30, and woke up at 10:30 a.m.! I know, who ever heard of a toddler to sleep that late? When she did wake up, she was feverish again and lethargic. I called to talk to the doctor and was able to get an immediate appointment. Diagnosis - sinus infection. Unrelated to the croup, just that her weak immune system couldn't fight both.
Saturday -- fingers crossed!

It's been a long week of ups and downs. And actually there has been a lot of vomit, too. I would like to say for the record that I am over cleaning up vomit (and off myself especially). Sure, sure, that comes with parenting, but there have been at least four separate vomiting incidents in the last two weeks, probably half of which were on me. I think I could go, say, a month or so without it next time. 'Kay?

I am hopeful that we're getting our full of illnesses out now. We've got a couple trips coming up. A beach trip over Memorial Day, not to mention our two weeks in Australia next month. Her being sick is no fun for anyone, especially her, but doing it in a hotel in Tasmania would be suboptimal.

Croup

Doesn't that look like fun? We had our first real bout of croup this weekend that turned into steroids and nebulizer treatments today, poor baby. What's amazing is how a few hours after her throwing up due to her inability to breathe, how fast medicine can turn it all around.

It started Saturday. I heard it in the morning, a slight bark, but dismissed it. Then she woke up from a nap coughing and crying. She had a fine evening and then a terrible, awful, very bad night. We took turns with her in our bed and the other sleeping in Andy's room (note to self -- Andy needs a new mattress that doesn't feel like I was in a sleeping bag outside it was so hard). I had talked to the doctor's the day before who said to give her half a teaspoon of Benadryl (generic of course thanks to the McNeil recall) and to come in the next day for a strep test.

Indeed on Mother's Day, I dragged my exhausted self and her to the doctor where we waited for nearly two hours for a quick strep test and a diagnosis of "Yep. It's croup." He also checked that it wasn't in her lungs and that it should improve. And you know, it really did improve. She took a long, four hour nap and then slept well, just waking up twice. In the morning, she seemed better even -- no fever either. But I got the call from my babysitter only an hour after drop off saying the cough made her nervous and she had a little fever. I picked her up and we went home for a nap. And she did nap except about an hour in she woke up, coughed, cried and promptly threw up all over me. It was awful, because she was scared, she was breathing faster, and because she was breathing faster, it was that much harder. It was just like watching an asthma attack. I called the doctor's immediately and was seen 20 minutes later and probably 20 minutes after that she was getting a nebulizer treatment followed by a steroid shot to reduce the inflammation in her trachea. We left with a prescription for prednisone to give her twice a day for two days and to come back Wednesday for another appointment.

You know, I really like our pediatrician, but sometimes his people skills. Well, yeah, not so much. "Don't worry. We won't let her slip away." Um? Slipping away? That didnt' even occur to me! "At least her trachea won't collapse like it does on some nine-month-olds." Yeah, that didn't occur to me either. At least his clinical skills are excellent. My baby went from blue lips to running around the living room saying, "Chasing, chasing, chasing!" as she follows her brother around. I can live with some sub par people skills if he can give that back to me.

Regression

So both kids are in the middle of some weird regressions. Meg has discovered waking up at night is fun! I suspect she's 1) teething 2) having dreams/nightmares 3) she thinks me straggling in to give her a sip of water, hold her for a minute and set her back down is comforing and 4) she thinks Mama looks best with bags under my eyes.

To make it more interesting, Andy has been wetting the bed a lot lately. It's weird how it happens. Since around Christmas, he will be fine for two or three weeks in a row with maybe one accident, then he goes like three or four nights in a row having accidents. Naturally him having an accident means he comes to my room and tells one of us (hopefully Bjorn) that he's had an accident. Sometimes he will have changed into new clothes and crawls into bed with us to then kick me the rest of the morning. Other times like today he came in at 2 a.m. needing help with new clothes and sheets. Poor guy was so exhausted he could barely sit up straight. I made him wear a pull-up after this. I explained to the extent I could that his body is growing right now and it's so busy growing overnight that it doesn't have the energy at the moment to tell him to wake up. We'll see how well that goes over tonight.

Adding to the fun is that Meg has had the barfs twice in a week. First instance was Wednesday afternoon so she was home Thursday (after waking up at 3 a.m. to throw up and then rally into such a good mood she was up until 5 a.m. just being happy. Crazy kid). Then yesterday out of nowhere she woke up from her nap and threw up on me. I gave her some Pedilyte and she threw that up later, too.

Needless to say, I'm sleepy today.

You know, I've been debating changing the title of this blog beacuse until recently, they were pretty good sleepers a lot of the time. It just didn't seem right. But now? Now I am in desperate need of a good night's rest.

Sick ward

We've had illnesses this week, and boy has it been fun! Meggie Meg spiked a fever Saturday afternoon. We'd had a nice day, a birthday party (Meg's first as a guest!) and then went with some neighbors to see George Mason women's volleyball play William and Mary. Not my normal outing, but they invited us and it was fun and different. Meg was lethargic and warm, but I somehow had my eyes on the game and totally ignored all the warning signs. Serves me right because she threw up all over the car and on me as soon as we got home. Poor chicken.

She slept well that night and was perky and a bit warm the next day. I deduced a sore throat as she wasn't eating or drinking much. Then she had a hideous night where she was up every 45 minutes practically whether she was in our bed, hers or what. I thought it must have been strep, instead it was the virus hand, foot and mouth. It basically put a bunch of mouth sores over her tongue and back of her throat. She was one pissed off and tired kid all Monday who also refused to take a nap. Mommy was also quite exhausted. Monday night, I drugged her up with Motrin and antihistamine, took and Ambien and went to bed.

Naturally, she slept fine, but Andy came to our bed twice. The second time we noticed he was warm. Then in the morning he started screaming, "Why is there no air conditioning in my room!" Turns out the kid was burning up with 102 fever, but no symptoms. Miss Ayesha watched him for a bit and Bjorn stayed home with him the rest of yesterday. This morning he woke up saying his mouth and ear hurt. I schlepped back to the doctor today.

Fortunately no strep, HFM (not to be confused with High School Musical, HSM) or an ear infection, but Dr. Murphy looked in his right ear and pulled out a hunk of ear wax the size of my pinky fingernail. He thought that the sinus pressure of a cold and slight sore throat put pressure on the wax that was making his ear hurt. He was in a better mood the rest of the day with a low fever.

I took the opportunity to ask about the H1N1. I'm fascinated because all the health agencies are saying it's safe, but all the doctors I talk to at work and personally are not recommending it for themselves or their patients. Dr. Murphy said in the late 1970s when he was in medical school, they had a vaccine that wasn't tested enough that sent lots of people to the hospital with Guillane-Barre. I asked about the mercury, which is what I'm hearing is a problem from other mommies, but he said that's not it. He's totally advocating the seasonal flu and with folks (fingers crossed!) on the mend, we'll get that this weekend.

Baby!

Meg is fascinated with babies. She will shout, "Baby!" with keen eyes focusing on the stroller, baby seat or kid in a baby Bjorn from 50 yards away. She'll call out to babies of all ages, ranging from one day to 15. Okay, not 15. She probably stops at five. I find it somewhat hilarious that she'll scream out at the baby in the supermarker who is clearly on his way to kindergarten and old enough to not want to smack her for such slander.

Meg, our baby, has had a slight fever since Friday. Nothing major, just like 99-100ish mostly in the evenings when temps are highest. I would give her a little Motrin at bedtime and she'd be fine. She has a slightly stuffy nose and some diarrhea, but nothing too interesting thankfully. She had a weird night last night refusing to go down and then waking up a few times between 7:30 and 12:30. She seemed fine this morning and I reported the weekend to Ayesha. Around noon, I got a call that Meg had a fever of 101 and was tired, not hungry and lethargic. I gave her permission to administer Tylenol and then called the doctor. After our urinary tract infection adventure of the summer, the doctors warned me that I needed to come back if she ever had any fever for more than a day or so to check for UTIs. If she were to get another one, we'd probably have to get her a somewhat invasive ultrasound to see if she has kidney reflux.

They finagled me in at 2:30. The doctor's was booked, but I said I really wanted her to get the pee test since it can take overnight to get the results and they acquiesced. Then I waited for nearly three hours for her to pee. Meg contaminated the first bag by pooping on it. The second she wiggled so much she peed everywhere BUT the bag. The third time was the charm. Good news -- no UTI (they'll call tomorrow with the overnight test), no white blood cells in the urine, no ear infection, no sore throat -- just some basic upper respiratory infection.

Fortunately, Meg seemed to be a great mood despite it all (although it's always a little embarrassing to beg for an appointment for a sick kid for her to not act sick AT ALL). I'm glad we got the baseline. I would hate for her to be sicker tomorrow or have a painful UTI tonight.

Follow up appointment or how long does it take for a toddler to pee in a bag?

We had a follow up appointment for Meg this morning. Our doctor's office has Saturday walk-in hours for sick only (i.e. no appointments), but he wanted her to come in to check her urine to see if the infection was gone. Despite improvements since Wednesday, she still hasn't been herself the last few days. Thursday she was still pretty fussy throughout the day and very tired with a fever. Even on Friday she slept until 10:15 (unheard of!) and was only up for about two hours before she needed a nap. I did call the doctor to ask if that was okay. Granted, she was better -- lower fever, no vomiting, eating and normal bowel movements, but she still wasn't herself. He said that sick as she'd been, it was going to take a while to improve and so long as she was making eye contact and walking normally, she was progressing okay. I must say I appreciated Dr. Murphys' calm reassurances. He has not normally been my favorite, what with calling me "mom" all the time (which everyone at the ER did, too -- must be an industry standard), but he's been great through this.

Anyway, we went in today. Meg was perkier and generally happier, especially after a breakfast that included chocolate chip cupcakes that I baked to bring to the doctor's office (I am nothing but a suck-up). She was playing nicely in the waiting room until we went back and Dr. Murphy laid her down to attach the plastic pee bag. Poor thing, her legs were shaking as she clearly remembered how it went the last time a doctor laid her out. She was also shaking when the nurse came to draw blood from her toe (and she cried and was MAD about it). Now I just needed to wait for her to pee in the bag. Which took two hours, despite my plying her with nine ounces of Pedialyte in a baby bottle.

The good news, her white blood cell count is down to 30,000 from 40,000 on Wednesday. That means the antibiotics are working and the infection is working its way out. Now we wait until tomorrow to see if bacteria grows in the urine sample.

The theory is that last week when she had diarrhea, that a little bit of the poop made its way where it shouldn't causing the bladder/urinary tract infection (despite being different pieces of anatomy, the diagnoses are interchangeable). The cold she has is just a secondary infection. We will go back in about two weeks to check her urine when she's allegedly healthy to see if there is an infection. If she's clear, that's all fine, but if she's got an infection, it may be a sign that she's got an anatomical problem that would warrant more testing.

In all of this, Bjorn says, "Hey, have you seen the big cat? I haven't seen her since last night. The little cat came in the morning, but I haven't seen Coltrane." So with all this, we're casing the streets looking for a cat. Andy doesn't care since he's already decided he wants a black kitten. Fortunately, as my hope is waning she comes trotting up the driveway, seemingly healthy and covered in grass like she's been hiding in some one's yard. Phew. I wasn't sure how much more drama I needed this week.

Neurotic mess

Can someone explain to me why I am more neurotic with the second kid than the first? Doesn't that defy normal logic? Both are (relatively) healthy, beautiful kids. Both so far are following all the normal milestone progression. So why is it when she gets something I totally freak out?

Case in point, Meg has a fever. A high one, clocking in at 104 today. It started with her diarrhea/barfing adventure on Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday she was a little warm and by Friday (when I left to go out of town), she went up to 102 and tracked off and on like that all weekend. I got home last night and she was seeming better, but she didn't eat much and had a rough night, waking up 2-3 times and still had a fever in the morning. I took her to the doctor this morning. Fortunately, no strep and no ear infection, but she does have a sore throat and a fever. Apparently a virus is going around that lasts about three to five days and the recommendation was to keep her hydrated and medicate the fever as necessary.

Ayesha kindly offered to watch her for a few hours while I "took rest" as she calls it since I worked all weekend and didn't sleep much while I was away only to be up a lot of last night. I rested and then went to pick her up about four after a few hours. As Andy and I arrived, Meg had just thrown up her snack and was incredibly listless. It was freaking me out to see her so limp and hot, alternating with chills, not to mention clingy and just sort of out it. I tried to give her some Tylenol, and after about five minutes, she threw that up, too. Ayesha asked if we should go to the emergency room with her fever so high, which sort of freaked me out, too. I called the doctor and left a detailed message. After about 30 minutes, I called back (now armed with the 104 temperature news) and she seemed somewhat annoyed to be forced by her receptionist to take my call.

"I imagine with a fever that high she would be miserable and achey. You should get some Tylenol suppositories, which sell under the name Feverall. They might be behind the counter. For her weight, give her 160 mg. Give her comfort foods, Pedialyte and white grape juice in small quantities. The fever may get worse overnight and be better in the morning for a couple more days." She earlier to come back Wednesday if it's not better.

Fortunately, the last dose of Tylenol I gave her before I got the Feverall stayed down as did the Motrin I gave her about an hour later bringing her temp down to 99.8. She even was hungry for what Andy was having for dinner and drank some Pedialyte. I am hopeful I can consistently work to keep her temperature down until this works its way through.

So why does this freak me out so? Was I just too naive the first time around? Do I just know now that I can bug the doctor when I have a question rather than be a martyr and wait? Am I just more impatient now and I want an answer/treatment now? Is it that two pregnancies have made my pregnancy brain permanent?

In other news, Andy keeps singing, "Who let the dogs in? Who, who, who?"

She walks!

Well, not walk exactly, but she took two or three steps in a row! Over and over again! She was so excited for the cheering and it was great because Bjorn was here as was his mom to witness it. A nice cap to a nice, but chilly, Easter.

In preparation for the holiday, Meg came down with her XVXI cold of the season last week. She had the typical runny nose and cough, but this time she had a strange new symptom -- red cheeks that she wanted to scratch along with watery eyes. No fever, which pointed to allergies, but with a holiday weekend, it made sense to get into the ped just in case.

I was surprised to hear she had a beginning right ear infection. I was also surprised to hear that the mucus under her cheeks can occasionally cause her face to burn/itch, which is why she was scratching. I know, strange. She's on antibiotics for the ear infections and antihistamine for the itching.

I saw Dr. Murphy, the other doctor in the practice, instead this time and was asking about ear tubes as if it was a fait accompli. He said not to rush into it, as the season is just about over and hopefully by the fall her immune system is that much better. I explained that Andy didn't get tubes until he was nearly three.

"Does he have allergies?"
"Um, I don't know."
Looking at him. "Actually, it looks like he might. Look at his nose. And the bags under his eyes. Does he always look like that?"
"Well, the black eye is from falling off a chair."

He explained that the "shiner" is a classic look among kids with allergies, who often have ear problems because their ears are "sticky." He recommended an allergy work-up, which we're doing next Friday. Supposedly it doesn't involve needles, just a skin reaction test that takes about 20 minutes. I already have to take Meg back to get her ear follow-up. The nice thing about my Fridays off is I almost always get to spend them at a pediatrician.

Classic

Andy was playing with one of his old toys, a dog that when you touch it, talks back and sings song.

"Ding-a-ling. I see you," says the bear."
"No you don't," says Andy.

Where did this kid get his sarcasm?

Both kids are (fingers crossed) doing better on the new antibiotic. Meg's sinus infection (i.e. goopy eyes) appears better as does her super thick and chunky runny nose. What's left now is a dry cough. It's unclear if that's part of the sinus infection working its way through or something else new and fun.

Andy was a total pill yesterday morning. We met the famous Lizzie G. at the Gap Outlet in Old Town where he proceeded to whine and complain for the entire 1 1/2 hours we were together, even with mint chocolate chip ice cream. He then came home and took a four hour nap so I suppose the kid wasn't quite right after all.

We had a dinner to celebrate Mark being in town where Bjorn made his local favorite sausage risotto for everyone. It was nice to all be together. What's funny is Jennifer is now hinting that her month stay with us may turn into a longer stay and Mark is saying he might be home for the summer. It would be sort of fun having everyone all together although I might have to invest in bunk beds or something for the big kids to share a room. I don't think I could stand one of them sleeping on the couch in the basement as it would make that room off limits until noon most mornings and a mess if we had guests over. The logistics are easy enough though.

I'm in the middle of the fourth Twilight book. Sure, it's crap, but at this point, it's familiar crap. I just wish Bella wasn't such a victim. I haven't quite figured out why everyone in the book loves her so much as it's not like she's out sewing scarves for the homeless or anything. And Jacob -- dang, he seems a whole lot more fun than Edward. Am I alone here?

Diagnosis

I stayed home yesterday and got both kids to the doctor yesterday. Meg's vomitus interuptus from the evening before had subsided, but she woke up with a goopy eyes. Andy woke up Wednesday morning with a fever of 103. I forget that Wednesdays only one doctor is working so we couldn't get in until noon. Fortunately, after sleeping from 6:00 p.m. to 5:45 a.m., Meg was tired and took a good morning nap.

Anyhoo, the diagnosis -- ear infection for him and sinus infection for her. Prescription -- omnicef for both. Dr. Murphy said that the vomiting was due to the congestion dripping into her tummy and irritating her stomach. He recommended staying away from dairy for a few days since it can lead to increased mucus and also irritate the stomach. It's strange to stay away from milk products. I forget how much dairy she eats, from cheese to yogurt to milk.

With the kids being sick and thus turning my world upside down, I haven't had a chance to talk about how great it was having my mom here last week. A running joke with my sister has been that she taught Megan (as a joke) to say:

"Megan, what does grandmother like?"
"Grandmother loves malt liquor!"

It worked so great that we taught Andy to do that as well with phenomenal results. Jennifer loves asking Andy in front of friends what grandmother likes. When Mom was visiting, we braved going out to dinner with two little kids. Andy wanted hummus, which wasn't on the menu so he asked Mom to read him the menu to see if it was on there. She was kindly complying when he turned to her out of nowhere:

"Grandmother, is malt liquor your favorite?"

We nearly fell out of our chairs. Then we called Elizabeth.

In need of a shaman to kill the demon germs in the hosue

So now both kids are sick and with seemingly different things. Both had a fever Sunday. Andy had one yesterday, but Meg didn't. Andy took a nap, which was unusual and unusually long yesterday only to be up and down in the night and bouncing off the walls this morning. I sent him to school this morning and got a somewhat expected call in the afternoon that his fever returned so I went to get him. I took him home, medicated with Tylenol to restore his spirit somewhat (it worked) and gave him a bath.

As I'm giving him a bath, Ayesha calls to say Meg threw up after her nap. No big deal, she was sort of coughing some mucus from sleeping (normal for her). I explained what I was doing and would be there shortly. In that half hour, she called back to say Meg threw up two more times and had two diarrhea diapers. My poor baby.

I got her home and she gave some good dry heaves with bile on me and cried. I got her a bath and into her pajamas. I had every intention of spooning some Pedialyte into her slowly, but she was so thirsty and sad when I refused that I gave in and gave her about five ounces. Bjorn was able to get her to fall asleep on his shoulder about 6 p.m. and now we're working to get Andy off to bed early. I think I might turn in early myself.

If you have any home remedies or suggestions, please post. I can't find some of my baby health books. I seem to be losing books. Or my mind. Hard to say.

Meanwhile, I still don't have my camera hooked up to this computer. BUT I did get the scanner/printer installed and have been amusing myself by scanning in some old pictures and posting on Facebook, including this gem from Galveston circa 1991. Aren't we hot!

Wacky

Is it spring yet? Seriously. It was warmish last week only to get cold on Friday as my mother arrived, rain and then snow a little Saturday. Then Sunday into Monday, it snowed a lot, like seven inches here in Fairfax. Fortunately, Mom leaves tomorrow and not today or travel might have bee a little messy. Plus, she got to see all the snow which we don't have in Dallas. So with the sub-freezing temps, we're expected to be in the sixties this weekend. I already have some buds on my daffodils. It's just been sort of wacky.

It's been great fun having Mom here. We have been doing a lot of shopping, eating, drinking, playing and entertaining. Oh, and more shopping. She even babysat for a bit last night before the storm hit so Bjorn and I could get out alone.

We've been trying to get Meg to take a few steps and she's this close and just don't doing it. She does smile big when you engage her. Andy, meanwhile, is in this weird stage right now where he cries about random things, like how the toilet paper is going to go away forever and how sad he is that the water goes down the drain. It is sort of like he's grappling with the concepts of life and death and just doesn't know how to process it so he fixates (and cries) over seemingly benign stuff.

Both kids had a bit of a fever yesterday. She seems better today (well, although she started some loose stools in the afternoon), but he took a three hour nap and still feels warm. We'll see about tomorrow. I took today off with the intention of getting out with my mother (we did manage for a few hours) so I always hate to call in after a vacation day, but you do what you got to do.

Lather, rinse, repeat

After a rough couple of days, I am starting to believe that I won't die. By Friday evening, I was starting to feel better. Saturday I was better with the help of Dayquil and Advil and today I haven't needed anything except the tea with honey Bjorn made me earlier. My voice, however, sounds like I smoke four packs of cigarettes and then ate gravel. I would think it would be sexy like Phoebe Buffet ala Friends, but apparently not as I think my voice makes Bjorn think I'm mad about everything.

In the midst of all this, Andy came to our bed at 7 a.m. yesterday morning, before Meg was even awake, naturally, to tell us that his ear hurt. Our pediatrician's office has walk-in hours Saturday morning so at 8:30 we traipsed ourselves over there to find out he was indeed in the early stages of an ear infection. I must say this thing where he can tell me where it hurts so I can fix it is so remarkable, I can't even believe it. This is almost bigger than him not crapping in his pants any longer. Almost. He's now on Augmentin for 10 days. The strep test, fortunately, came back negative.

Everyone was feeling well enough though that we braved the illnesses to hit the George Mason University basketball game Saturday afternoon. I've been meaning to go, well, for years and had finally psyched myself up for it. Lizzie G was even coming in from Alexandria to go with us. I drove by in the morning to buy tickets around 10:45 for a noon game and fans were already lining up. It was their homecoming, but still, it was pretty exciting to see. They also managed to win. The tickets for three adults and one kid were very reasonable -- $52. Four hot dogs and four drinks were a less reasonable $40, but that just speaks to bad planning on our part. We'll do better next time.

Meg was actually much less wiggly than Andy during the game, despite the fact that she was missing her normal nap at that time. But both kids were generally well behaved. The game was close, but Mason pulled out a win at the end. And we even got to watch a proposal on the court (it was Valentine's Day, right?) It was a combination of "aw" and "ew." The worst part was that sitting in front of us was a woman I play indoor against and her totally annoying husband. I recognize them because he comes to our games and sits on their bench and yells out instructions and criticisms during the game. I find it totally annoying and I don't even have to see him every week. I can only imagine what the other women think.

Colds

So now I have a cold. It was bound to happen, what with all the snotty nose wiping I've been doing lately. Today I did the unthinkable -- I sent both kids to school and stayed home in bed all day. It was necessary and yet felt totally decadent in a weird way, even though I was sucking on expired cough drops all day and alternating between being sweaty and cold.

I had already intended to send Andy to school since today was their Valentine's Day party. This year, I understood why they send home a list with all the kid's names on it. Last year, I thought the list was just a nice thing to have and was then totally surprised when he came home with dozens of valentine's cards. Duh. This year, I remembered. Bjorn bought the cards and I addressed them. Then Jennifer and Andy picked out which color lollipops to attach to each card. It was pretty adorable.

Speaking of Jennifer, she picked Andy up early from school yesterday and took him bowling. He loved it and acted like a totally adorable kid. Then he came home and was his typical whiney self. I love it when they save their most awesome behavior for me!

Meg is getting closer to walking every day. She can now walk holding on to one hand and can stand unassisted for probably 20 seconds at a time.

Colds...again

Both my kids have colds. Again. Meg has had something off and on for a week or so now, but just last night she started coughing at nighttime. Andy developed a cough on Sunday morning and spiked a fever that even. During the day, they generally seem to feel okay, but listening to the coughing at night breaks my heart. And totally stresses me out that I can't do anything to fix it really.

I try not to be all dramatic. It's a cold, it's not typhoid. I have the luxury of not having to worry that it will be smallpox (and having just watched John Adams Part I on DVD, that looks pretty brutal). I also need to realize it's not about ME at all. Sure it's inconvenient. Sure, it's stressful, but eventually it will pass and their immune systems will be better for it.

Anyone have tips on being more zen about this? Obviously, more wine is one good suggestion.