A Wonderful Day

Max got ear tubes on May 17th. On May 27th he got another ear infection. Oh my sweet poor baby. We were on our way to Gulf Shores and happy baby wasn't so happy. He was super sad. And there was gook pouring out of his ear. This happens with ear tubes. The real hope is that ear tubes will keep all their secretions moving and there won't be a build up of fluid in the ear canal causing it to sit there and fester and become infection. That's the best case scenario. The less best case is that, if an infection forms, the tubes allow the festered infectious grossness to drain out of the ear instead of building up and causing the baby to want his head to explode, or, more scary, for the ear drum to rupture. That's where Max's ears are right now. So, we've been combatting this $%^% infection ever since. I put antibiotic drops in his ears every day of vacation. The drainage stopped, but not the sometimes sad Max. Then grossness started coming out his eyes and nose. Our first day home, I went to the doc and there was still an infection, so he gave Max oral antibiotics. The grossness out the eyes and nose (clogged tear ducts from infection) stopped, but some wheezing started. Oh. My. Poor. Baby. Now he is getting albuterol 4 times a day and he is on steroids for his lungs.

The good news is that the steroids are working. The better news is that the steroids have not caused him to grow a beard or start beating women. The bad news is that the steroids have him wired for sound at approximately 3am. He still gets up some nights, but usually he's super sad about it, eats a little bit and promplty passes back out for 4 more hours. Not so much right now. He's up and ready to party. Laughing, scooting around, pulling hair, and trying to eat my chin.

ANYWAY, where I was going with all this, is that we have been HERMITS the past two weeks (minus a jaunt up to KC for a wedding). No playdates, no dinners out, no frolicking at the library. We've been hanging at the house, playing with the toy cast of Kung Fu Panda, reading Good Night Moon, and caring for sick Max. Rylan's terrible twoness has gotten a bunch better and the kid is talking more than ever. Max's cough is much better and no more gook is coming out of any orifices. So, it was for the better that we've been shut-ins.

So, we decided to go out amongst the people. We ate lunch with Rob at Larry's Pizza with the intention of letting Rylan play on the arcade machines. Then 2 groups of daycares showed up and school age kids poured into the arcade and my face started twitching and my head started spinning, because, I might like kids, I might be a mother AND a pediatric nurse, but I do not do well with large groups of kids. God bless every teacher on earth, even the bad ones.

I decided to whip out my Wonder Place punch card and use it for some good ole air conditioned, inside play place, fun. We usually go with our playgroup on free adult day. Its nice that I get in free, but so does every other stay at home mom in the central Arkansas area. This random Friday, there were only about 5 kids total and it was just what we needed to ease our little hermit selves back into the world.

Playing dressup

Um, Rylan, don't mind that door next to you.

What's better than one Max? A million tiny Maxes.

"You like my peaches?"

And then, Max got smooched on by two little red head cuties. He's probably going to get , like 5 new illnesses, but these girls were the sweetest kids in the world and they thought Max hung the moon.

These are the two girls from the previous pic of the make out session. The little on kept putting on that witches hat, jumping up and down and shouting "I'm a cowboy, I'm a cowboy." It was so cute. SEEEEE I do love kids.