Mother of the Year...

I just wanted to recap the last 7 days by way of sickness and injury, just for posterity.
Last week Gage was really, really crabby. Now consider that is a hard quality to qualify, since he's known to be crabby even on his best day. But it was unusually more than normal, so I called to set a Dr.'s appointment. Even as I'm explaining to the receptionist his symptoms, which only include crabbiness, I felt like this was just a dumb idea. She appeases me by putting down "possible ear infection" but notes no fever, no runny nose, no diahrea, and pretty much gives me the impression to suck it up and not to waste the dr.'s time.

Now in the same day, Livi who always has a complaint of some kind starts squealing as I try to put on her tennis shoes. I pull her shoe off to discover a very swollen, somewhat purple pinky toe. I remembered about 10 days before my mom telling me that she had slid on their new kitchen floor into the edge where the carpet meets the laminate. At the time she thought it was here ankle, but said she was up running around on it in no time so I didn't give it much thought. Livi has been in crocks and flip flops everyday since, so I'm sure there was no real pain until I tried to wedge her tennis shoes on. So off to the dr.'s office we go. Seventy dollars in copay later, we have a verdict of double ear infections and broken pinky toe! A round of antibiotics and Tylenol for everyone.

This leads us into the beginning of this week. Livi complains of a stomach ache several times while we're at the Oregon Coast. Dax finds a RiteAid and buys her some Pepto for kids. We give her a few tablets, and that seems to do the trick for a few hours. Now remember Livi is the queen of medicine - loves to take it and comes up with all sorts of ailments that might require "medi" on any given day, so when she asks for medi and then sort of forgets that her tummy aches, we're a little suspicious. We dole it out sparingly, but manage to hold her off without any major fits. Well, Thursday after we get home, Liv complains all afternoon of a tummy ache and starts crying and laying on the floor. We now take her seriously and send her to the dr. - again. Sure enought, blatter infection. Who knew? A second trip to the pharmacy for more antibiotics. I also make the connection between her complaints that her hip hurts, that actually her kidneys hurt from the infection. Did I mention how many times I tried to adjust her seatbelt thinking it was too tight? Yes, I'm not very good at this game. I think someone needs to write a book on what kids say and what they mean for me to identify illnesses. So far I'm 0 for 3 on diagnosing my kids!

That leads us to today. Gage cried all night and woke this morning with a fever and pulling on his left ear. I call the dr. and they prescribe him a stonger antibiotic - did I mention I'm on a first name basis at the pharmacy, well and at the dr.'s office too.

So that is my week in a nutshell. Oh - and did I mention Gage rode his walker chair down the stairs off the deck and gave himself a fat lip too. This has definately been a week for the books. I hope next week is better - the way I see it how can it be worse?