Nightmares

The nightmares are mine, not (I hope), little E's. I will long be haunted by the sound of my little boy screaming "NO THANK YOU! NO THANK YOU!" as the nurses at the doctor's office flushed the impacted wax from his ears. The kid was thrashing and kicking and crying but still polite.

We were at the doctor because E had a rash. Well, really the trouble all started on Sunday with the onset of a fever, followed by E's avoidance of most food and drink. It crossed our minds that a sore throat might be involved but about the only E would eat is potato chips. Who eats potato chips (and rejects popsicles) when they have a sore throat? Also, anytime I asked my obviously ailing little boy "what hurts?" or "how do you feel?", he replied "I fee-ing much bedder".

The rash tipped the scales from "watch and wait" to "get this kid to a doctor" and so we went. The throat swab came back positive for strep in 10 minutes. The ears, however, were infection free so that torture was for naught. E's very traumatic first trip to his new doctor's office was rounded out with a nice shot of antibiotics in the leg.

3.5 hours after we left home, we returned with 1 diagnosis, 1 shot, significantly less ear wax, two boxes of ice cream, and a new race car. E was feeling better enough(or at least hungry enough) to eat a bowl of noodles and then a bowl of ice cream. While watching Pete's Dragon. (Mommy guilt from the extent of the infection and the ear thing ... I would have bought him Disney World if he'd asked).

He's doing much better today; eating, drinking, playing. The rash is hanging around still but it's lighter and confined to his tummy now. Back to school tomorrow if I can manage to go without his hugs, kisses, and giggles for 8+ hours. I'll miss listening to Pete's Dragon too.

Run ragged

In just a few minutes, I'll need to go wake E up from his nap. He'll likely tell me "I had a good night sleep" or "I had a good nap" depending on how groggy he is. He has slept well, after a Very Good Morning ™.

What is a Very Good Morning ™?

Well, it begins with a late start because the little boy slept in. A dry pull-up after a long night's sleep. Stories and milk in the yellow rocking chair. A very nice video chat with Nana and Granddah. More stories, this time on the couch.

Then, the Mav finally woke up, made some bacon (mmmmmmmmmmmm, bacon!) and got dressed. Having put in a full week's work in just 4 days, he too was off today.

[update ... E woke up after I wrote the last sentence, saying "my bunny, my bunny, my bunny?" Apparently bunny fell off the bed. So, the rest of this was written later]

Back to the story. Our plan was to play outside on this sunny, warm day and E chose to go to a park over playing in our yard. We headed out through the garage and E walked past the cars to the garage door. "Up" he said. "Put it up!" Sorry E, no more walking to the park. Get in the car.

So away we went, 6 miles to the closest park. Happily, it was awesome! The people were friendly. There were lots of kids. There was a playground, a swing set, a sandbox, geese, and a log cabin/play house.

We played and ate sandwiches and then took E for a treat. He burned off the effects of the frozen yogurt by running around a fountain. We then headed home.

As I read the Mav snippets from the local city paper, E perused his new book in the back seat. Then, "hush, Mommy! I trying to read. Be quiet".

Back home, more milk and stories, long nap, bike riding in the driveway, and out for pizza for dinner.

As we head down the highway off ramp on our way to dinner, E complains, pointing back to the highway, "I want go back up dare!". Then, on the way home, (singing, in a deep voice) "I yuv da highway, I yuv da highway". By the time we reached the garage, he'd transitioned to singing "head, dolders, nees, dos".

Bath, jammies, still more milk and stories, and off to bed.

Happy, happy little boy. Tired, tired parents.

 

 

 

From the vault

two years ago

one year ago

So, I can't find the cord to download pictures from the camera right now. I thought these pictures were pretty cute though. They were both taken at our former neighborhood park. Man, I miss that place. It's also a bit disappointing that it has been colder and cloudier here over the past few weeks than back in old Champaign.

But ... weather is supposed to beautiful on Friday, my day off with the kiddo. I hope we can find a nice park or explore our own yard for the first time. They don't have parks on every corner here like they did in Champaign. Actually, they don't really even have corners out here. The streets sort of meander around with no real plan. I'm sure downtown is different, but we haven't gotten that far yet. I miss being able to walk to places; E's school, our Sunday morning bagel and coffee shop, our favorite bar with sidewalk seating, free concerts ...

On the bright side, every time I drive away I don't feel the need to plead with the house to still be standing when I return. It is nice to unload groceries from a garage. Nicer still to do laundry without the help of 1 million spiders (and the laundry is actually getting clean here!). The scenery is quite pretty, green, rolling mountains all around. It's quiet. Very quiet. No police sirens, no yelling students at wee hours of the morning.

E loves it here. He loves the house, his school, the stability. He actually just loves. Everything. He runs around the house singing, "I yuv you, I yuv you, I yuv you" over and over. "I yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuv dis" and "I yike dat" are two of his favorite phrases.

So, with little E as my example, I will learn to yuv it here too.

The last of its kind

 

This may be the last picture of E in jeans for awhile. He doesn't want to wear them anymore. He prefers sweatpants and he wants to pick them out himself. He is less picky about his tops but he was quite happy to find that he and his best buddy at school had on the same Thomas the Tank Engine t-shirt today. So, for anyone taking record of such things ... at 2.5 E became aware of what he's wearing. Until now he didn't care what he had on as long as he could just keep it on and not have to spend time changing clothes.

Also, if anyone ever gets cookies or something in the tin E is using for a hat in the picture -- I promise, I washed it.

Pizza night

We've let E coast on his good looks for the past 2.5 years but it's high time he earn his keep around here. I asked E to contribute to the menu for the week and he requested pizza. Pizza night came and E made us dinner. He spread the sauce, applied the toppings and even sprinkled on his special mix of herbs and spices. Delicious.

Of course, unless we want pizza for dinner every night, he's off the hook for a while.