More Sickness

On Saturday, my parents came to visit us.  I had high hopes for the visit -- time for the boys to spend with their grandparents, time for me and David to go out, time to hang out with my parents after the boys were in bed.  Shortly after their arrival, though, Matthew said, "My ear hurts."  He was grumpy and tired all afternoon, and told us several times his ear hurt.  Finally, we scrapped our plans and my mom and I decided to take Matthew to Urgent Care.  We strapped him in his car seat, crying.  About a block down the street, he stopped crying and said, "Hey!  My ear's okay!"  My mom and I exchanged glances.

"Does your ear hurt Matthew?"

"Nope!"

The whole way to Urgent Care and during our wait he claimed his ear no longer hurt. He was cheerful and pleasant and I sat there thinking, "It just figures!  All this for nothing."

And then we were called back, the doctor glanced in his ears and . . . double ear infection.

Matthew to English translation

Matthew is still pretty congested and it seems to be making his speech more difficult to understand.  He usually speaks pretty clearly but at lunch today he kneeled on his chair, wiggled back and forth, smiled and said, "Disacawdaiscoantsing."

"What?" I asked.

"Disacawdaiscoantsing."  He wiggled again.

I turned to Cameron.  "Do you know what he's saying?"

"This is called the disco dancing," replied Cameron.

"YESSSS!" agreed Matthew.  "Da isco antsing."

Taste Test

Cameron is a picky eater.  I have NO idea where he got this from.  (Ignore any comments from my mother.)  He doesn't like different foods to touch each other.  He doesn't like anything spicy.  He doesn't like any differences in color or texture.  For example, he carefully examined each tiny piece of chicken on his plate the other night and made a pile of the rejects.  "I can't eat these ones," he explained.  "They have brown on them."  David attempted to reason with him, which doesn't work.

"The brown parts are the best," he said.  "That's just where the chicken was touching the pan," he said.  "You haven't even tried it," he said.

Then, David had an idea.  "Let's do a taste test," he suggested.  "We'll blindfold you and see if you can tell which piece has no brown on it, which has a little and which has a lot."  Cameron promptly agreed and proceeded to misidentify every bite.

The Height of Sophistication

Matthew is still very sick and super crabby.  *sigh*

I took Cameron to the pediatrician's today for a vaccination.  Cameron is tough when it comes to shots -- he says "ouch" and then he's fine.  After he was done, the nurse said, "And here's a Scooby Doo band aid for you!"  She stuck it on his arm and, when she wasn't looking, Cameron rolled his eyes at me.

Later, Cameron said, "She was like, 'Oh, here, little boy!  Here's a Scooby Doo band aid!' And I smiled at her but I was thinking, 'Maybe you should give that band aid to Matthew!'  I mean, I'm a big kid!  She should really have given me a Star Wars band aid!"

Verified

Matthew is very, very sick (but should be fine).  He got a nebulizer treatment at the pediatrician's office, had a chest x-ray and was prescribed steroids.  "Any side effects I should expect from the steroids?" I asked.

"Weellll, they might make him a little hyper," said the doctor.

Yes.  Yes, they do indeed make him "a little" hyper.  Off to retrieve my 2-year-old from the chandelier.

Easy Listening

I love podcasts.  As soon as I drop Cameron off at school, I plug in my iPod and listen to This American Life, Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, RadioLab and The Moth.  Typically, Matthew is asleep at this point and I can listen in peace.  I've learned, however, that if he isn't asleep, I should NOT turn on the podcast.

First I found out that when The Moth puts that little "explicit" label next to the pocast, it is NOT appropriate listening for a 2-year-old.  Who knew? So then, I made it my policy to only listen to RadioLab if Matthew was still awake.  Until they were talking about Y-chromosome mutations (which is just the sort of stuff I love to listen to) and they were describing a mutation that they had traced back to Genghis Khan (fascinating!) and then they started describing why this mutation grew to be so common (which was semi-inappropriate for a 2-year-old and involved how Genghis, ummm, passed on his Y-chromosome much more than the average man) and then they described how Genghis Khan died (in the act of passing on his Y-chromosome mutation) and . . . I quickly hit the power button and said "Oooh, Matthew, look at the shiny car!"

So no more podcasts for me until the little guy is asleep.  But that doesn't mean no more podcasts for them!

Cameron recently asked me if he could get "a radio with headphones" so he could listen to "rock music" when he's going to sleep.  Instead, I filled an iPod shuffle with bedtime story podcasts.  I also found that Cameron's favorite TV show, Fetch with Ruff Ruffman, has a podcast.  I put those on there as well and sent Cameron off to his room.  A short while later I heard a giggle.  Then laughter.  Then hysteria.  I went in to find that Matthew had joined Cameron who, amazingly, had shared the headphones with him.  Cameron was laughing uproariously.  Matthew said, "I talking on this!"  He pointed to the earbud and said, "I talking and dis Ruff Ruffman talking to ME!" 

So, I've done it.  I've hooked my boys on podcasts!  Ira Glass, just you wait a few years . . .

It's All in the Helmet

Recently, I blogged about Cameron's love of Legos, his hopes of winning a Lego building contest and how he reconsidered his "need" for Legos once he learned about the devastation in Haiti.  Although Cameron hasn't won that dreamed of Lego gift card to give to Haiti, he has stepped up.  He donated a small fortune (to him) to relief efforts and has shown continuing concern for what's happening in Haiti.  We're proud of him.  My aunt was proud of him, too, and sent Lego a link to my blog post.  And today, Lego made Cameron's day.  (Even more than Lego usually makes Cameron's day!)

Today, Cameron got a package in the mail from Lego.  Inside was a note thanking him for being a kind person who cares about others, a Lego poster and a Lego set.  Cameron nearly collapsed with excitement.  "It's a set with CLONE TROOPERS!!!" he shrieked. 

I was confused.  It was a set that Cameron doesn't have -- I knew that much -- but I couldn't figure out why he was excited about the clone troopers.  "Cameron, you have TONS of clone troopers!" I said.

Cameron looked at me with pity.  "Mommy.  I have tons of STORM troopers.  These are CLONE troopers, not STORM troopers.  See?  They have this ridge on their helmet.  The storm troopers don't."

I stand corrected.

Thanks to Lego and thanks to Aunt Beth.  Cameron certainly didn't NEED any reward but it meant the world to him to be acknowledged by his favorite company.