Return to the Pediatrician's Office

For what seems the hundredth time this summer we went to the pediatrician today. Henry had complained of his ears hurting a couple times recently. Last time he had an ear infection he had only complained once to Grandma and so we didn't realize he had one. Fortunately he doesn't have an ear infection right now. There is fluid behind his ear drums but no infection.

Miss R has had an increasingly severe cough and had a fever yesterday. Today there has been no fever. Last night her cough was so bad I ended up holding her on the couch until 1am because being upright seemed to help. When the doctor listened to her lungs he said she was "wheezing". She was given Albuterol via a nebulizer which helped tremendously. We now have a nebulizer at home with a prescription for Albuterol to administer every 4 hours. Fun. On the plus side, she is very well behaved when receiving the treatment. It takes about 10 minutes during which time she needs to sit fairly still with a mask over her mouth and nose. If it was Henry we'd be lucky to get in 2 minutes.

Thankfully Grandma was able to meet me at the doctor's office and take the kids from there. I had a conference call at 7:30 am and 11am and managed to fit the doctor visit in between. Grandma had a meeting that she had to leave for at 12:15 so Grandpa stepped in and took over. I was thrilled to hear he was able to get them both down for a nap, despite Miss R trying to get Henry to wake up when he went to sleep first. Then they both had poopy diapers in the afternoon and he changed them. That might be the first time he has changed them on his own.

I picked them up around 7pm. I wanted to do it sooner but I was feeling very ill myself in the afternoon and spent my time alternating between work, cleaning dog messes, and deliberating on whether to induce vomiting on myself. Glamorous.

The kids were still pretty wound up when we got home. Miss R had something to eat while Henry gave us more food for thought on the "can he read?" question. He pulled a dvd off the shelf near the back door and said "Yoga". It was indeed a yoga dvd. How he knew it was a yoga dvd we don't know. He certainly has never seen us doing yoga or any exercise more vigorous than walking the dogs or playing with the kids. Then he grabbed a puzzle that we had bought over the weekend. It was still in the box, he had never seen it before and he immediately recognized it as a puzzle, repeating "puzzle" and "pieces" as he walked around with the still unopened box. How he knew it was a puzzle we don't know. Kate tried to get him to point to the word puzzle on the box but he would not or could not. How he manages to identify those two items if he can't read, I don't know.

Henry had managed to cover himself in ketchup at Grandma's house so we gave them a bath before bed. So far Miss R is doing well, no coughing fits. Hope that lasts the night.

Unrelated to the kids, here is a cool lightning picture I took last night. It was the best storm we've had all summer, which isn't saying much, it's been a lousy summer for storms.