Sick Again (Still?)

I think we've had at least one sick person in the house since before Christmas. At this point, I'm hoping spring hurries up and gets here soon, because I don't know how much more nose wiping and coughing I can take. Max seems to bring the bugs home from school, spend a few days being moderately sick, and then give his germs to Molly. Molly, in turn, gets REALLY sick and super miserable. Since right before Christmas, they've each been sick THREE times. So, since Max was sick again earlier this week, it's Molly's turn. I still find it totally ironic that the kid who spent a month on a ventilator seems to breeze through chest colds, while the kid who spent less than 24 hours on CPAP gets hit hard.

I think this is the sickest I've ever seen Molly. She's hardly eaten, slept, or moved for the last three days. All she wants to do is lie on the couch and watch TV. She's running a fever, has a lot of congestion, and a nasty cough, but the most worrisome symptom is the fact that she's totally listless and not her normal perky self. So, this evening, I decided to run her over to urgent care to get her checked out.

Thankfully, it was a quick trip. The good news is that her ears and lungs are clear -- the doctor says it's just a nasty upper respiratory bug with an ugly cough. She has some medicine to ease her cough and clear her up a bit so she can (hopefully) get some sleep. The girl is either unwilling or incapable of wiping her own nose -- for the last few days frantic cries of, "Mama! Booger nose!!" have ruled my waking (and sleeping) hours. I hope she's on the mend soon -- I want my happy, smiling, saucy little girl back!

Well Max

Max had his well child visit today. We changed insurance companies at the beginning of the year, so I was finally able to his annual checkup a little closer to his actual birthday! The older he gets, the quicker and easier his appointments get. He weighed in at 39.4 pounds and was 41 3/4 inches tall -- 75th percentile across the board. He's been jumping up the height percentiles at every checkup, which makes me think there is some truth to the revised preemie rule that states that you get to add a catchup year for every month they were preemie (instead of the inane "caught up by 2" rule of thumb).

Max happily chatted up the doctor, checked out the pictures of her new baby, and examined every inch of the doctor's office. The doctor said that he checked out great and that his development was very age appropriate. He didn't pass the eye exam that the nurse gave him (he was interested in something else and wasn't paying much attention) and if we hadn't just gotten his eyes checked and gotten the all clear from his opthamologist, the pedi was going to send us over to the eye doc anyway. The doctor checked his umbilical hernia again and it is now officially closed, so no surgery for Max!

As it turned out, he was due for some shots. I had been thinking he was all clear until he was five, but I guess they do a lot of what used to be 5-year boosters are age four. He was due for his DTaP, his HiB, and his MMR (in addition to the varicella and flu shots, which we aren't doing at this point). I told the doc I preferred to not give the MMR with other shots and that I'd make an appointment for a nurse visit in a month or two. The doctor proceeded to tell me that she'd just been to a seminar about how important it was to stick to the shot schedule, etc., etc., but the MMR shot used to be given at five and it was ok to wait. She then asked me if I wanted to schedule the nurse visit now (???). I told her if it was fine to wait until five, I'd just have Max get it at his checkup next year.

I'm not sure I'll ever understand the whole vaccine and doctor thing. At least in part, I think the vaccine schedules and recommendations were put in place for both the convenience of the doctors and to make sure that kids got as many shots in as few visits as possible, to ensure that parents were more likely to get kids all of their shots. That's fine and I can appreciate that, but it just makes me roll my eyes when they kick about varying from the schedule, when I know they're more concerned about making all their records look neat and tidy than any real health issues. And then they wonder why parents don't trust the medical community's word as absolute law when it comes to vaccinations. Grumble.

So, Max ended up getting his DTaP and HiB boosters. After the doctor left the office to tell the nurses to bring the shots in, I told Max he would have to get a shot and that it would hurt, but it would keep him from getting sick. When the nurses came in, he happily laid down on the table while they got the shots ready and prepped his legs. They did both shots simultaneously -- Max didn't really know what was happening until after it was over, but it broke my heart to see him crinkle up his face, cry, and tell me that it hurt. After a few hugs and sniffles, he was fine and he got to pick out some stickers on the way to the check out desk. His legs seemed pretty sore for the rest of the day and I gave him a dose of Motrin before bed. Hopefully they'll be right as rain tomorrow! I have to say, it's a nice change only having to visit the doctor once a year!

Celebrating "Forty Six"

Ever since we celebrated Max's birthday, he's been really interested in the whole birthday concept. He wanted to know when he was going to have his birthday again (and already figured out that he'd be FIVE on his birthday) and was disappointed to hear that it wouldn't be for a long time. He did muster quite a bit of enthusiasm when he heard that my birthday was next. He wanted to know how old I was going to be on my birthday, so I told him I would be 36. He apparently needs to work on pronouncing his "th" sounds, because every day since he has asked about my birthday and said, "Mama, you going to be forty six??" Sigh.

As always, I took a vacation day on my birthday (we don't get MLK day off at work) -- it's my present to myself! Dad was supposed to work the night before my birthday, but ended up being able to come home early. He gave me the best present of all -- a nice, long nap! As a combination Christmas/birthday present, I'm also going to (finally) get Adobe CS 4. I haven't ordered it yet, but I'm totally looking forward to having some updated software to use.

Max and Molly also gave me some special birthday presents -- not only did they sleep in this morning, but they both took afternoon naps ... at the same time! I was happy to get in some birthday vegging/reading before we had to pack everyone up and head off to Big Brother's basketball game. As if the naps weren't enough, Max and Molly were also very well behaved at the basketball game. We stopped at one of my favorite pizza joints after the game and had a nice birthday dinner. Max and Molly continued their good behavior streak and were little angels all through dinner. Molly was cracking the waitress up with her enthusiasm for her meal -- she kept saying, "I LIKE pizza" and proceeded to stuff her little face.

After dinner, we all went home to have dessert. Dad had made me a tiramisu layer cake and I was looking forward to sampling it. Max was more than happy to help me blow out my candles and everyone enjoyed the cake. In addition to liking pizza, it seems that Molly approved of the cake as well -- she literally licked the plate clean. All in all, I think it was the nicest birthday I've had in a while (even if Max does keep telling me that I'm "46" now).

The League of Extraordinary Snowmen

I managed to have two children whose birthday timing is such that they will NEVER be able to bring in treats to school on their birthdays. But, since Max's birthday at least falls during the school year, I thought it would be fun to bring in belated birthday cupcakes (since it was our week to bring snack). I found the idea for these cupcakes in a magazines years before Max was born. I always thought they would be such a fun treat for little kids and stored the idea away. I thought a December birthday would be the perfect excuse to whip up a batch of these little guys.

It took a little longer to assemble them than I had anticipated, but they weren't difficult. The snowmen are made out of two large marshmallows, with about 1/3 of the top marshmallow cut off and squashed a bit to make it smaller than the body. The eyes are chocolate sprinkles, the nose is a slice of an orange Starburst, and the scarf is two stands of a pull-apart cherry Twizzler. Once they were assembled, the army of snowmen on my counter just made me giggle. Max was also delighted with the cupcakes (as were all of his classmates). We even saved one for Molly, who devoured it in one sitting (and then refused to eat her dinner).

The Best

Max was being especially sweet right before nap time (why is it he is always the sweetest, nicest, and most well behaved when he knows he's due for a nap??). I was working on the computer and he scooted up next to me in the chair, leaned his head on my shoulder, and said, "You the best mama that ever you are." Awww! A few minutes later he put his arm around me and told me I was his best friend. Little moments like that just melt your heart ... and make you wonder what terrifically naughty thing he's trying to make up for!

105mm of Birthday Fun!

Mama got a fantastic early birthday present (from her Mom and Dad) -- a new 105mm Nikkor lens! So, now I have some additional macro and portrait capability. The new lens almost makes up for the fact that my nice zoom lens is in the shop. Brace yourselves for some more portrait shots and extreme close ups!

You Down With ROP?

When Max was in the NICU, he was diagnosed with Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) when he was a few weeks old (around what would have been 30 weeks gestation, if he'd stayed put). ROP is a preemie condition that causes the blood vessels in the eye to go haywire, which can cause the retina to detach. It can cause vision loss and blindness -- Stevie Wonder was a preemie and his blindness was caused by ROP. Researchers think that the extra oxygen that preemies need may contribute to the condition, and since extreme preemies usually require breathing support for quite a while, it's is something that a lot of early preemies have.

Max had a moderately severe case, but thankfully his ROP regressed on its own, without the need for laser surgery to zap out the rogue blood vessels (which usually saves the vision, but often leaves scar tissue and causes some vision loss/issues of its own). He was followed by the pediatric opthamologists while he was in the NICU and he went back for several follow-up appointments after he came home. His last "big baby" eye exam was when he was about eight months old. At that point, the doctor said his vision was normal for his age and he was discharged from any additional appointments.

Since Max is now in school and old enough for routine eye exams, I wanted to take him back to see his opthamologist for a checkup, just to make sure everything really was fine. I made an appointment six months ago and, in spite of an unexpected change from PPO health insurance to HMO insurance (necessitating a frantic, last-minute referral from our pediatrician), we made the trek in to the eye center today.

Given that Max's opthamologist is notorious for running late and appointments can take a VERY long time, I took the morning off of work so I could take Max to his appointment. We also tried to get an early appointment, hopefully to cut down on wait time. We made it to the office in good time, in spite of the fact that I initially drove right past it, because they've entirely remodeled the building since the last time we were there. Max was totally thrilled to be going to the eye doctor -- you'd think he'd have had enough of doctors, but he gets excited about going just about anywhere!

We checked in and Max happily looked at the fish and checked out the cool indoor playhouse/slide that they had in the office. We were called back into the exam room pretty quickly and one of the "little dog" doctors did his first exam. Max had to look at and identify a bunch of different pictures and the doctor examined his eyes. To Max's great delight, they cued up Toy Story 2 for him to watch while they did part of the exam -- and they even had it set up to start at his VERY FAVORITE part. Then the doctor put in the eye drops to dilate his eyes (which he wasn't too happy about) and sent us back out in the waiting room while we waited for the drops to take effect.

It didn't take long for them to call us back and another doctor completed the exam. Max was a total trooper for the whole appointment -- he cooperated, was polite and friendly, listed to what the doctor told him, and minded his Mama. He was fascinated with all the exam equipment and lenses and buttons and grilled the doctor on what everything was. As it turned out, we never even needed to see our "big dog" doctor -- Max's eyes are very healthy and his vision is fine. Unless we have any problems, we don't need to go back. And, as the icing on the cake, we made it in and out of the doctor's office in under an hour -- that's definitely an all-time record for us!

Since Max was such a good boy, we stopped at Mama's favorite bagel place on the way home and got some bagels and fragels (deep-friend raisin bagels covered with cinnamon and sugar) to take home to Dad and Molly. Given the reaction to the goodies when we got home, I think we've created another generation of fragel lovers.

Can We Fix It?

Yes we can! Max's great aunt stopped by with some belated birthday presents for him today. Although the musical birthday card Max received impressed him mightily, Max enjoyed the presents even more. This time, we had the appropriate dress-up hat on hand -- Max and Molly took turns wearing the "builder hat" and fixing things. Molly was especially intrigued by the toy nuts and bolts. After explaining to Molly what they were, she kept saying to me, "Mama? Please help me with my nuts and bolts!" I think Max has officially been spoiled rotten!

Happy New Year!

Our little New Year's baby sees great things ahead in 2009! We wish everyone a very happy New Year and hope the upcoming year brings happiness and health and prosperity to all. Max and Molly slept through the New Year's festivities, but Dad and Mama enjoyed a quiet evening at home with some good food, a movie, and each other's company.