1.  I hope they were clean

2.  I hope they are more comfortable to wear on your FACE.

Idiots.

Thong Bandits: Thongs don't hide much. This photo from a surveillance video shows Joaquin Rico and Joseph Espinoza robbing a Denver convenience store with the barely-there women's undergarments over their faces.

His little face was so cute - such a big smile, so happy!  After the last two weeks, seeing them play in the bath was the best part of my month.  Parker was soo happy.  He was laughing and splashing and giggling with Stewart.

The poor little guy has had such a rough two weeks.  He's been sick off and on. Ear infections, fever, really high fever, throwing up, exploding poops, projectile vomit, rash . . .

I took him to the doctor, AGAIN, yesterday morning for a rash.  He had little red bumps all over his back and his tummy.  The day care center was worried it was Fifths Disease or a rash form of strep (both going around).  Surprisingly, it wasn't either.  Parker is allergic to penicillin.  So this obviously explains his rash and probably his upset tummy and explosive poops and his throwing up.

Poor little Parkerman. 

Look - a whole new species of fish for us to overharvest!  Part fish part frog.  I bet he still tastes like chicken!

*********************************

Psychedelic Fish Named a New Species

The thing about babies is that they are babies.  They can’t talk; they can’t tell you what is wrong or what is hurting them or where their little baby body hurts.  They can’t even tell you what is making them happy, what they like to eat, or why they think it is so funny when big brother barks.  Babies can only communicate through cries and facial expressions.  It makes it really hard to know what is wrong with a baby when he gets sick.   

I don’t know about other mothers, but I trust my own intuition.  I can tell when something is not right with my kids.  Call it psychic boogers, mother’s intuition, whatever.  A mom knows her kids. 

But most mommies aren’t doctors.  When your baby is sick you take him in to see the doctor because you trust that the doctor will evaluate your baby and make him better.  The problem is doctors are too quick to categorize you as an over-worried mom, and assume they know what’s wrong with the baby.  They make you wait for a long time; they breeze in, listen to the heart and lungs, look in the ears, diagnose, prescribe, and leave.  And if your family practice is anything like the one we go to, you never see the same dr.  I have to call weeks in advance to get an appt with our preferred doctor – which is fine, but what about the times babies and kids get sick and I have to get a same day appt?   

Last week, Parker was sick.  He was running a high fever and had lots of gross green yuckiness streaming out of his nose.  I took him into the sunrise sick clinic at our practice (means from 8-9am you can be seen without an appt.)  The dr and I both agreed that he had an ear infection and he prescribed 8ml twice a day of amoxicillin 200mg.  The first time I filled up the syringe I thought 8ml was a lot – a lot more than we ever gave Stewart and he had ear infections all the time during the first 18 months.  It was traumatic to get Parker to take his medicine and it involved Bill restraining his hands and head while I injected 8ml of orange flavored antibiotics into his mouth.  Inevitably, he spit up most of the medicine in the car on the way to day care.  I started cutting it back to 4ml and I gave it to him 3 times a day.  It was too hard to give him a single dose of 8ml and something told me it was too much.  His fever subsided and he got less fussy for about a day and then he got an upset stomach, explosive poops, and the fever came back.  I stopped giving him the antibiotic Friday – I called in yesterday to see if we could get a different antibiotic that was easier on his stomach.  And then his daycare called and said he was fine until he ate breakfast and then he got sick and feverish.   

Parker and I go back to the doctor, a dreaded 6:50pm appointment.  I didn’t even get there early because I knew the practice had ALL DAY to get behind.  We saw a new doctor and she was nice.  She introduced herself as Dr. Yan, First Year Resident.  There is a good and a bad to seeing young residents.  The good is that they are new and hopefully haven’t had enough time to get jaded – and all of their book knowledge is still fresh on their mind.  They know the newest and the greatest.  The bad is that they don’t have experience.   She listened to me list off all of my worries about baby Parker.  She checked him out and then I commented that I wanted to get a different antibiotic because it seemed really hard on his stomach.  She asked what he was prescribed and I told her 8ml twice a day of 200mg amoxicillin.  She wrinkled up her forehead and did some math out loud, whatever she was doing the answer was 64.  She asked again how much he was told to take (it is written in his chart.)  She left the room to go look something up and when she came back, she gently and ever so politely said, “That prescription is a little more than I would have written.  He should be taking 4-5 ml twice a day.”  I wasn’t really mad – I make mistakes at my job, so the last dr we saw just made a mistake.  But where was the pharmacy – the dose is almost double what he should be taking.  Isn’t there supposed to be a system of checks and balances between the doctor and the pharmacy?   

I still walk around with a lot of guilt.  If I would have just went to the hospital Saturday morning instead of waiting until the night he wouldn’t have had to stay for 2 weeks getting 90 doses of antibiotics that stripped his gut sterile and made him colicky.  Lately, I have been feeling a lot of guilt about his size.  His weight puts him in the 8^th percentile – 92% of kids his age are bigger than him.  Is his small size because of the rough start he had or because my stupid Asian genes are going to make him short?  I have this nightmarish feeling that he is going to grow up and hate me because it’s my fault he’s short.  My Infant-Toddler Development class is doing nothing that feed more guilt into my brain.   And now I have this guilt of forcing him to take his medicine when it was the medicine that made him sick.   

All of the guilt aside, hopefully this much lower dose of antibiotics will make him feel better.  He just wants to be held, and he sleeps in your arms all afternoon.  He refuses to eat anything.  How is he going to get better if he doesn't eat?  How is he going to grow if he doesn't eat?  What is he pooping out because he doesn't eat.   It makes me very worried. 

These things should come adult sized.  Seems like that might be fun as an adult, frightening as a baby!

** if you get the Lord of the Rings references, you are an uber nerd just like me!!!! **

Combi iPod Bouncer is Going to Get Up and Walk Off With Your Baby