Well Child Check

Peeper had her check up today, and as usual, she was a model patient.

Well, except for clamming up a bit on the vision test, but they said she was okay on that. They wrote her down as 20/50, but the doctor said that's normal for her age and it will improve over time. They tested her hearing for the first time, and she did fine on it, too.

She's 41" tall (18th percentile) and weighs 41.4 lb (59th percentile). The doctor says that at age five, they "expect" them to be one pound per inch, so she's pretty much right on target there. Her BMI is a bit on the high side, but it's gone down since a year ago (or since her last visit?) so the doctor wasn't concerned about that.

He was impressed that she's grown 4 inches in the past year and her height percentile is the highest that it's ever been. (All whopping 18 of it!)

We discussed her issues with potty accidents, both day and night. He's more concerned about the daytime accidents than the bed wetting, because bed wetting is more of a sleep issue than a pee issue.

He suggested that we get an ultrasound of her kidneys and bladder, just to rule out anything anatomical that might be going on (Does she have a super tiny bladder?) and then go from there.

He seemed to think that it's mostly about being distracted and not noticing that she has to go until it's too late, but "yeah, she's five years old, so she shouldn't be have this many accidents by now," so it's worth checking out.

That's schedule for December 16, but I need to call and change it because she'll be at school and I'll be at work at the time of the appointment.

Dental Day

On Friday, Peeper noticed that the cap had broken off one of her teeth. The sharp edge was bothering her, and it didn't look so great, so we made an appointment to have it put back this afternoon.

When Dr. C. took a look around, though, she found a couple of small cavities in neighboring molars that she wanted to go ahead and take care of. I'd actually noticed one spot while "helping" her brush, and been a bit suspicious of it, but in denial.

That's not a good thing to do, I know, but I'm really glad now that I did not rush her in to the dentist to have them filled when I first noticed it, only to have her turn around an break off a cap a few weeks later.

Because she would actually be drilling into the molars, not just taking a bit off the surface as she's done before, Dr. C. said that she'd definitely need to numb her up. But never fear, because she used a topical anesthetic before doing the injection, and more importantly, she was grooving on nitrous oxide the whole time.

It definitely lived up to its reputation - and its nickname - as she started giggling after about a minute, and didn't really care much at all about what was going on in her mouth. I was sitting by her feet, so I actually got to see what was going on this time. (In the past she's been in my lap, so I've gotten the same view of the procedures that she has.)

She was peeking at me between her sunglasses and the nose mask, playing "got your nose" with the hygienist (Peeper was the getter), giggling off and on, and when Dr. C. started with the real-deal drill, she squirmed a bit and said, "It tickles!"

As soon as she started the giggling, Shrike looked at me and said, "No video," so you'll have to take my word for all that.

Believe it or not, this was actually taken before the laughing gas, but we can pretend it was during.

The whole time she was working on her, Dr. C. kept going on about what a great job she was doing, and how cooperative she always is. Of course, the gas helped today, but she's always quite agreeable for exams and procedures, not just at the dentist, but for all doctors.

We figure, as much time as she spent in and out of doctor's offices in her first few months, it could've gone one of two ways - either she'd be completely traumatized and phobic about them, or they'd just seem like home. We are so glad she decided to go with the latter.

She was hoping to go to the kid's gym down the road after her appointment, but by the time we were finished, they were about to close. We made alternate plans to hit the inflatable place in Shrike's work town on the way home, but got slowed down with a stop for Tylenol, another stop for a chocolate shake, and rush hour traffic, so that's been postponed until tomorrow.

She may have done a great job while the work was being done, but she was pretty whiny on the way home, between the weirdness of being numb and the disappointment about not being able to "go to a special place after the dentist" as she kept referring to it.

Shrike finally appeased her by suggesting that we bake cookies when we got home.

Since they're just for funsies, we let her pretty much do whatever she wanted with them. I used a muffin tin to divide a can of icing into a dozen small plops, and she went to town with the food coloring. After seeing a couple of pools of food coloring with a bit of icing in them, I decided to take over the actual squirting, so it would be done in a more controlled fashion, but I followed her instructions about what to put where. Evidently, she was in a bit of a green mood today.

She did most of the decorating all my herself. (I did ice few, and touched up several because she has trouble with the part about actually getting a good plop of icing on the cookie.)

Not a bad consolation prize.

(Yes. Yes, we do see the irony of sugar cookies and icing as a prize for doing a great job while getting her teeth filled.)

Well, That Escalated Quickly

After getting Peeper started on antibiotics last week, I got jealous and went to see my own doctor the next day, in hopes of scoring some for myself, because I have also been fighting a respiratory thing for weeks, and was starting up with the sinus headaches again.

Since I've probably been on antibiotics for sinus infections at least three or four times within the past eighteen months, my doctor decided that it's time to figure out exactly what's going on. 

"Let's image your sinuses," she said, and I imagined smiling pretty for the x-ray machine. Then she continued, "We'll take a look at the CAT scan . . . . "

CAT Scan?!?

". . . and if your sinuses are a mess and it looks like something that antibiotics will help, we'll give you three weeks of a good, strong antibiotic and look again. If that didn't clear it up, then we'll send you to an ENT to discuss whether you're looking at a surgical solution."

Surgical Solution?!?

How did this go from "I got boogies" to "Let's operate inside your face?"

Let's hope that it doesn't come to that!

So, tomorrow later this morning, I'll be having the CAT scan, and I have no idea when to expect to hear about the results, and know what the next step will be. 

Meanwhile, she's also referred me to an allergist, and I have an appointment with him in a couple of weeks, presumably for allergy testing, to see if that's what's causing all this. 

The thing is, I don't feel too bad at the moment. You know, since I called and made the appointment. Of course. I'm a bit sniffly, and have a mild sinus headache from time to time, but it could certainly be worse. Of course, it probably will be worse again in a few weeks, if we don't figure out what's causing it and do something, so I suppose this is all called for after all. 

As for Peeper, she's a week into her two-week course of antibiotics without a lot of change. She's still coughing on exertion, especially if she's outside in the cold, and sometimes without any particular exertion. It's often bad enough to gag a bit, and she's thrown up a bit once this week. 

We had hurried into Target from the parking lot, and by the time we got into the bathroom, she was coughing. After we pottied, she kept coughing and even went and leaned over the toilet. I asked her, "Do you need to throw up?" 

Cough-cough-gag-throwup (just a bit). "I guess I did need to." 

Poor baby.

I'm trying to decide if she's getting winded any more quickly than she should be, but it's hard to tell when I have no one else to compare her to. Today, she was jumping on her mini-trampoline and "exercising" and got to breathing pretty hard - and eventually started coughing. I tried putting my ear on her little chest to see if I could hear any wheezing or anything inside, but what the hell do I know. 

Hopefully, it will clear up during the second half of the antibiotics, but the longer it goes the more I worry that we're looking at something like exercise-induced asthma. (That was my doctor's guess, when I told her about Peeper's symptoms, in the context of mine.)

I guess we'll wait a week and if she's still coughing, we'll go back to the doctor and see if he can tell us what's what. 

And maybe by then, we'll know what's inside my head. If anything. 

Sick of Being Sick

After the museum, we took Peeper in to see the doctor, not because she's actually been sick enough to warrant a trip in, but because it just won't go away.

She has (as have I) been fighting some sort of respiratory thing since, well, since before Thanksgiving. At least.

The sniffles and sneezes get better and worse and better and worse, but even when she's on the upswing there, she just can't shake the cough. And she sounds just awful.

Particularly when she exerts herself enough to get breathing heavily (especially outside when it's a cold), she started coughing and gagging and has actually vomited several times.

(Including - with no exertion - tonight. In bed. On me.)

The doctor says it's probably a persistent infection somewhere, most likely in her sinuses, that's periodically flaring back up. So, we've started a fourteen day course of antibiotics and if she's not all better, then we consider whether asthma is a possibility.

Yeah, not thrilled to hear that.

A note to doctors - Some words that aren't as reassuring to a parent as you might think they'd be:

"So, it's probably not asthma."
"So, I don't think she has pneumonia."

Which means that, based on the story I just told you, right up until you listened to her breathe, you thought it might be one of those things?!?

Bless her little heart, though. She may be freakishly cooperative and compliant with exams, but she's not the most patient of patients. Both on the way to the car from the appointment, and again just seconds after swallowing her first dose of antibiotics, she said, "But I don't feel all better yet!"

We went straight from the doctor's office to the pharmacy to pick  up her medicine. While we waited, she checked out everything in their associated store. She really wanted these bracelets.

When I told her that they're for grown-up ladies, and they aren't "kid tough" she wanted to get them for Mommy. When I told her that "Mommy and Mama aren't bracelet kinda gals," she said, "But I need a bracelet kinda gal!"

They really were quite pretty. I can see why she was attracted to them.

Oh, and I have an appointment in the morning, in hopes of getting my own prescription for antibiotics. And of finding out that I also probably don't have asthma or pneumonia.

But I Have a Good Excuse

Yep, yet another Peep Asleep photo, because I can't get my shit together enough while she's awake to take one.

But give me a break, I'm siiiick. Officially, and everything.

Peeper and I have been dealing with cold symptoms for a couple of weeks now, but almost all better. Then Sunday, my throat started hurting. It didn't develop into a cold the next day, as usual. Instead, it hurt worse, and yesterday, it started feeling swollen back there, so I took a look with a flashlight and mirror.

Now, I don't spend a lot of time looking at healthy throats, so I'm not certain what it's supposed to look like, but I'm pretty sure that ain't it. If I had to give a description, I'd go with red, swollen and white patches.

So, into the doctor I went, where the nurse swabbed me for the Rapid Strep test, and the doctor walked in a few minutes later and said, "Guess what?" and I said, "I have strep!" and she prescribed antibiotics, after some discussion of drug allergies and breastfeeding.

Before she left the room, I said, "Oh, can I show you something else?" and told her about the top of my foot (and maybe into my ankle?) that's been hurting since I twisted it in, oh, June.

Usually, if I'm just sitting around, I don't feel a thing, but there are ways I can move it that alway hurts, and if I do much walking at all (like around the grocery store, not like a 5K) it hurts enough to want to limp a bit.

I've wondered if it's a bit swollen, compared to the other foot, and Shrike agrees that it probably is. The doctor took one look at it and said, "You know it's not normal to have a bump there, right?" and then "Yeah, I'm going to send you over to get this X-rayed," and on her way out she said, again, "That's quite an impressive bump."

As luck would have it, the pharmacy and the lab are in the same building, just up the road from the doctor's office, so I was able to go take care of both those things and still have time to pop home for a few minutes before going to pick Peeper up at school.

When we got home, I  took some Tylenol and the first dose of antibiotics, then pretty much pointed her at the computer and pointed myself at the couch, where we both stayed for a good while. I felt better when I woke up, but certainly not all better.

She let me sleep for a while, and then after a bit of a melt-down over not being able to find the right Wizard of Oz app on the iPad, she became Ms. Super Helpful Girl.

I was "cooking dinner" (preparing boxed mac and cheese) when she ran into the kitchen saying, "Oh! I want to set the table! I'm Galoot, and I don't have any thumbs!" She did an amazing job for having no thumbs.

She even got drinks for both of us, which is quite a procedure: Get a cup from the low cupboard, open fridge (that's an effort for her), fill them from the Brita dispenser, turn it off turn it off turn it off, clean up the water with a dishtowel, and close the fridge.

She brought me the veggies, and helped me serve them up (salad for me, a la carte for her), and carried her plate to the table.

Then she cleared her dishes - even putting the spilled mac and cheese back onto the plate, and helped me empty the dishwasher and put a couple of pieces of silverware in to be washed.

Of course, I had to ask her to do each of those things, she didn't know they needed to be done, but "Galoot" was perfectly agreeable about it all.

It occurred to me later that if we were doing the Elf on the Shelf in the "traditional" way, where he's a spy reporting back to Santa about the kids' good and bad behavior, Christopher would have gotten all the credit for that, and she would've gotten none.

So, point being, I didn't take any photos of her during the day. So, here she is asleep. Again.

Check-Up Time

Peeper had her well-child exam today. Or, more accurately, her almost-well child exam. She has a bit of a cold.

She was just as cooperative as she was at the dentist yesterday, except for kind of flaking on the eye exam when it came time to actual do it, just like last year.

She even put on a tiny little paper gown.

For about two minutes.

I didn't get any photos of her actually with the doctor, but she was super-cooperative with both him and the nurse, and he says that she's doing great.

Her height is 37" which is the 4th percentile. He said that's really been pretty consistent all along and "you can't fight genetics." Her weight is 35.6 lb which is in the 54th percentile. He was not concerned about it being higher than her height percentile, but when I asked, he said that if those two were to start moving way apart, then we might have reason to be concerned.

For now, though, he said that she's a very healthy little girl, and a "delight" and that we should "keep up the good work!"

Our one concern that we discussed with him is that she's been having some pee-pee accidents lately, and even when she makes it on time, it seems like she's peeing a lot sometimes. Not always; sometimes she'll go hours, but the other times, she'll go four times in an hour, or will pee her pants twice in an hour.

He said the frequency and urgency can be caused by a urinary tract infection, so we're going to test her for that, to be sure. I've collected a tiny bit of pee (I got more on my hand than in the bottle!) and I'll drop that off at the lab tomorrow.

I'm also writing a note to her teachers, to give them a heads up that the doctor thinks there might be a physical cause (she's had four or five accidents at school) and to ask them to send her to the potty at least hourly.

More info on that when we get it.

What. A. Day.

The agenda for today included a trip to the dentist for Peeper, for a quick cleaning and check-up. Her office is an hour and a half from us, but that was the only thing complicated about it.

That should have put us home with about an hour to spare for an appointment with Dr. T, either for both of us if we could get hold of Shrike's parents to watch Peeper, or maybe just for me. With a list of about five different topics to discuss. Nothing major, but things we'd like her input on.

Yeah, that's not exactly how it went.

It would have been a wonderfully simply "Look Moms, no cavities!" checkup, had the hygienist not knocked the cap off one of Peeper's front teeth when she was cleaning them!

(This is the woman who, last time, when she was trying to 'be cool' I guess, said, "My sister was 18 when I was born. That was almost like having two moms." Um yeah, and I had a really good tan once. That was almost like being black.)

She said that she thought she saw "a little bit of stuff" on it, but when she started to scrape it, the whole cap popped off. Evidently, what she saw was the edge of the cap. She tried to say that "Oh, it was just a bit of veneer, just a filling," but I knew damn well that tooth had a cap on it - it was the one we did on the second go-round at the hospital, because the filling on the front of it kept falling off.

Anyway, so that had to be repaired, obviously.

We could have gone back a different day (That was actually Shrike's vote, and given the outcome, perhaps she was right.) but I thought that since it's a 1.5 drive one-way, it made more sense to get it over with. Also, without the cap, it just left this little nubbin of a tooth there.

So, at 11:30 they told us to come back at 3:30 for the repair.

It just went down hill from there.

We asked what we could to do entertain her for 4 hours, and the receptionist told us about a kid's gym (Romp and Roll) right around the corner. We checked it out, and they were having open gym from 1:45 - 4. So, we got lunch and ice cream, and still had an hour or more to kill.

Someone directed us to a cool park, and as soon as we go there, Peeper peed her pants.

(She'd just gone, before we left Baskin Robbins!) Of COURSE our "back-up bag" still hasn't made it into the car after our trip to Texas (a MONTH ago), so I left Shrike and Peeper at the park and went looking for somewhere to buy her new pants!

In retrospect, we should've swallowed our pride (as if they didn't know the kid was running around in pee pants) and ask another parent where to get pants, before I left the park.

I finally got directed to a WalMart, and when I finally found it, it had Target next door (yay!) so I got her some black sweatpants (can't go wrong with those) and too-big socks (Where the hell were the toddler socks?!) and by the time I got back to the park and we got her changed, it was 3 pm, and she was crying about wanting to go to the gym.

Oh, and while I was gone, she peed again, so even the back-up bag wouldn't have even helped. So I felt somewhat better about that, in a way..

I called the dentist and pushed them back to 4, and we paid $7 for her to play for about 45 minutes. (It was super cool, and we might plan to stop there after appointments in the future, if the timing works out right.)

Then to the dentist, where Peeper was AMAZING and just lay absolutely still on me for 30 minute, while the dentist (whom we love) fixed her up and replaced the cap, chatting the whole time, about kids and stuff.

These photos are actually from the morning visit - that's the hygienist that you see to our right - but the repair visit in the afternoon looked about the same. Just imagine her mouth wide open the whole time, with the dentist's hands and some instruments in it, and the dentist's pregnant belly up against my shoulder.

Oh yeah, that. Our dentist has two daughters who will be two and four in early December - and she's 26 weeks pregnant with twins - two more girls!

(That was news to us, as of when I checked her Facebook page to get the name of the practice. Her profile pic is an ultrasound of twins, so we were debating "should we her ask about that?" but evidently the ultrasound is several weeks old - there's no need to ask, it's pretty obvious!)

I know that Peeper has (almost) always been a great little patient, but she really went above and beyond this time. She didn't even flinch; at times I almost even wondered if she was awake! I really couldn't believe how cooperative and compliant and patient she was about the whole thing, especially given that she knew that it was only happening because the hygienist had screwed up.

And, in case you're wondering, when they showed me the treatment plan before we left this morning, and it had an estimated $62.50 copay listed, you can damn well bet I told them, very nicely, that we did not expect to be paying that. The girl up front went back and talked to Dr. C about it, and came back and assured me that there would be no charge.

There was a part of me that wanted to present them with a bill for the lunch and ice cream and pants and gym, too, but I thought that might be pushing it a bit. I was just glad we didn't have to make a second trip over there.

When we were finished up at the dentist, we decided that Peeper definitely deserved some sort of a prize for her troubles - and for handling it so wonderfully - so we gave her the nutcracker that we had sneakily bought for her yesterday at the Nutcracker Tea. It was supposed to be a Christmas gift, and was still hiding in the back of the car, but we figured she'd earned it!

We finally got home around 6:30, after a stop at Sheetz to grab some "dinner," because we'd promised her Cheese Curls on the way home, since I wouldn't let her have any when we stopped there for breakfast on our way down this morning.

She'd napped about 45 minutes on the way home, so she was going strong. Me, not so much. I conked out in the bed, while "watching" them play "baby chicken" and Shrike, bless her heart, let me sleep and just brought Peeper in to nurse when she was finally worn out, around 10:30.

I would've just as soon gotten up and nursed her to sleep in her bed, but she was all set to sleep in ours, so there she is. Hopefully not peeing in it.

And, of course, now I'm wide awake.

In Other News from the Doctor's Office

As always, they put Peeper on the scale before her exam, and it agreed with what our bathroom scale said a few days ago - 34 pounds.

That's considerably more than the 31 pounds I remembered from her last official weight, in mid-March, so I asked that they check her height as well.

She's now 37 1/2 inches tall.

I'm not sure when we got that 31-and-a-smidge weight, but at her three year well-child check, which was almost exactly nine months ago, she was 34 1/2" tall and weighed 29.2 lb.

So, in nine months, she's grown about 3 inches and gained almost 5 pounds.

False Alarm

We had a weird morning/afternoon today. Everything is absolutely fine, as it turns out, but Peeper gave us a bit of a scare earlier. Or a freak-out would be a more accurate description.

Last night, she went to bed at her normal time, 9ish, and was up for a while in the night when the dogs woke her and she was wet, so there was all that bed and jammy changing thing, and then took a while to get back to sleep solidly enough for me to get up, but nothing too out of the ordinary.

Dogs woke her AGAIN about 6:45, I took her to pee, and laid down and nursed her back to sleep. Then we both slept til 12:30!!!

Usually, she wakes by 7:30, and if we go back to bed and nurse, maybe she'll sleep til 8:30 or maybe 9 if she was up late. Never noon!

Even then, I had to wake her up, and she was still super sleepy, and asked me to carry her to the potty instead of climbing over me an running in there herself, as usual. I left the room while she was brushing her teeth, and when I came back in, she was just standing there with her head in the sink!

Then she just wanted us to hold her - either of us was fine (usually it's all about me when she's sick). She was barely whispering "yes" or "no" to our questions, and almost falling back asleep.

I've never seen her lethargic like that except when she's been throwing up.

She said she wasn't nauseated, nothing hurt, but when I asked, "Do you feel normal? she said, "No."

She did want to eat (Shrike had made mac and cheese while we were asleep) but was almost dozing off in my lap, while chewing in slow motion.

When she wanted me to carry her, I asked if it hurt when she walked, and she said yes, her legs hurt.

At that point, I'd had enough, and called the doctor's office and left a long message about it all.

They called back a while later and as soon as I hung up from scheduling the appointment, she picked up her head and started talking to us. Non-stop.

By the time we got there, she still said her knees hurt when she walked, but she was super-perky, and had eaten three small bowls of mac and cheese and most of a "squeezy" apple sauce. (That's a lot for her.)

The doctor said that everything looks normal, she might just be fighting off a bit of a virus. There's been some diarrhea going around so, so we should watch for that. (Yep, she had some after we got home.)

When I asked about the fact that a week or so ago, she had some "dribble" pee-pee accidents, she said that maybe she's got something going on with a bladder infection or maybe she's just a little irritated, so we should avoid bubble baths for now and maybe put a little Vaseline on her. Eh, I don't know, but it won't hurt.

I don't think irritation would have anything to do with how she's acting today, though!

Everyone at the doctor said that this happens all the time, that the kid is acting fine by the time they get there, and the doctor also said that if she were still acting the way we'd described, she would also be concerned, too, but seeing how she is now she's not.

We both feel pretty silly for rushing her in there, but it was really scary how lethargic she was, and then the hurting knees, for some reason, freaked me out.

I was certain that we'd at least be heading over to the lab for blood work, and when I let my head start making things up while I was getting dressed, I went and made sure that my phone and iPad chargers were where Shrike could find them if I had to send her home from the hospital to get me an overnight bag!

Neurotic much?

Now she's acting pretty normal, watching Sesame Street.

I did decide to blow off the last night of dance class this evening, just to let her take it easy. I'm sure she is thrilled about that, actually because she's cried every day when I've sent her into the room without me, although she comes out with a big smile, and the teacher says she's fine as soon as the door shuts.

Oy. This mama thing is hard.

Mama's Little Snotball

Peeper has a cold.

Friday night, as I was nursing her back down after a potty trip, I heard a sniffle and thought "Oh shit."

Sure enough, on Saturday her nose was a bit runny and she had a lot of trouble sleeping, yesterday was worse and today her little voice is so hoarse she just sounds awful.

The first thing she told me this morning was "I feel yucky."

After a bit of quizzing, she said that it's just her nose and chest that feel yucky, and nothing else hurts.

I was asking her about various parts and whether they hurt, and when I asked "Does your throat hurt? Does it hurt when you swallow your goody milk?" (Because that's what she was doing at the moment.)

She looked up at me, all serious, and asked "Is that why? Because I got too much goody?"

"Oh, no honey, no no no!"

Speaking of which, she's totally thrown that whole "None or one during the day, except maybe a drive-by or two" thing out the window today. I lost count of how many times she's nursed, almost all of which were of significant duration.

There's a clue right there that she's not feeling well.

I hope she's getting the antibodies she needs to knock this thing out pretty quick.

Other than nursing a lot more than she has been recently, she's mostly acting normal, but definitely on the cranky side, with lots of snot and sniffles and sneezes.

As I was getting her jammies on this evening, she was crying "I am tired and sleepy!"

And evidently she was, because this didn't take any time at all.

Look Moms, No Cavities!

Peeper got a great report from the dentist today. Her teeth are "healthy and strong" (as we say around here) with no cavities and she was a model patient. As she has done before, as soon as we were in the chair, she opened wide and sat there, mouth agape, before the hygienist (and later, the dentist) was even ready to begin!

Although we were at a different location (Same dentist, new practice; I stalked her on Facebook and found where she'd moved!) we still found a restaurant for our traditional post-dental-exam Mexican food lunch. As soon as we sat down, Peeper unrolled her silverware (as usual) and gave Mommy her knife (as usual). Then she plopped the napkin on her head and said, "I'm Little Red Riding Hood!"

Egg Salad

Shrike and Peeper dyed some Easter eggs at art class today, and I wasted no time in smashing them up to eat.

I just added some mayo and (almost) a rainbow of veggies: red and yellow bell peppers, carrots and purple onion; I forgot the green.

Shrike declared it "the best egg salad she's ever eaten."

We ate it on Aldi brand not-Ritz crackers, with some teeny carrots and apple.

Peeper ate a bite of each, plus a few crackers, and Shrike and I gobbled it up.

Today We Ate a Rainbow!

As you've probably noticed, we've recently discovered Today I Ate a Rainbow, a website all about encouraging kids (and parents) to eat a "rainbow" of different-colored fruits and vegetables.

Peeper was already familiar with, and very enthusiastic about the concept of "eating a rainbow" from a few different Sesame Street videos, so when I ran across this site, I thought it would be something neat to show her once or twice.

Then she "met" Hannah, the eight year old "original Rainbow kid" who inspired her mom Kia to create the  Today I Ate a Rainbow chart, which grew into this website, and additional products.

And she fell in love.

There are several photos and videos of Hannah on the website, including three "Rainbow Kitchen" videos, in which she and Kia show how to prepare a healthy recipe (eggplant chips, kale chips, tropical smoothie), all of which Peeper has watched over and over and memorized.

Peeper thinks Hannah is The. Coolest. Thing. Ever. and will try just about any food if she's seen Hannah cook or eat it.

As if that wasn't enough, as I started reading and commenting on the Rainbow Blog, I learned that Kia was a very picky eater as a child, but once she became a mom, she wanted to teach her daughter healthier eating habits, set a good example for her, and be healthier herself for Hannah.

That all sounded very familiar.

Beyond the whole "Peeper loves Hannah" thing, I think that's what really drew me in to this blog.

I am not a natural veggie-eating person, and when I read most "healthy eating" information, I feel like I should feel guilty for not loving most vegetables, or like I'm just being stubborn or childish in refusing to eat them, when there are many of them that just plain taste yucky to me. (Especially in the whole broccoli / cauliflower / cabbage family. I think I am one of those people who is genetically disposed to taste the bitterness in those vegetables.)

But when Kia admitted that she is not a veggie lover, and that there are still many that she has to force herself to eat, or even still doesn't eat, I really felt like I'd found someone I could relate to, and whose advice I might actually be able to hear as realistic for me.

We're trying our best to be pretty tight with our money right now, so I didn't rush right over and click on the "buy" button to get Peeper a Today I Ate a Rainbow chart, but I did rush over to Photoshop and whip up her own little bootleg version, which we've been sort of keeping track on for a couple of weeks.

In the meantime, when I saw my doctor recently to get some allergy medication (Flonase, a nasal steroid. Don't freak out Anonymama, it's not an antihistamine.) we were discussing such things and I was talking about how much Shrike and I don't like veggies, but maybe there are some that we would like if we actually tried them, and she had a great suggestion.

She said that we should sit down and make a list of all the fruits and veggies that we decided as kids that we "don't like" and challenge ourselves to try one each month, or even each week.

So we combined that with the advice from the Rainbow blog that it can take ten or even twenty exposures to a new food before you (or a kid) like it, and the concept of striving for a "rainbow" each day, and have been trying to take baby steps in that direction, as evidenced by my recent food posts.

Meanwhile, being me, I made several comments and asked several questions on the Rainbow Blog, including telling Kia how much Peeper adores Hannah. A few days ago, she sent me an email and said how much she appreciates the comments, and that Hannah would like to send Peeper a Rainbow Kit, which includes the chart, a book mark, a rainbow shopping list notepad and a book called The Rainbow Bunch!

I was too dumb to think to get a video of the way that Peeper's little face lit up when I told her that "Hannah wants to send you a Rainbow Chart," but I was smart enough to get one of her opening the package today.

Peeper and I are off to Texas in a few days, but as soon as we get back home, we'll go back to using her chart, and I will continue to blog about our efforts to all make more healthy food choices.

And if you and / or your kids want to add more fruits and veggies to your day, I highly recommend checking out Today I Ate a Rainbow and getting your hands on a Today I Ate a Rainbow chart.

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Disclaimer: I received a free Today I Ate a Rainbow chart for making lots of blog comments that somehow managed to stay just this side of stalkery, having a cute kid who worships the owners' kid, and being an all around great person. It was totally my idea to blog about it and to tell everyone else in the world to buy one. I received no other compensation for this review.

On Our Meds

Peeper and I have been not-well for several weeks now. Mostly, we've felt more or less okay, but have had a lingering cough and congestion that just won't go away. It's gotten better, worse, better several times. Over the past couple of days, mine has revved back up and I've been feeling pretty crappy.

So, off to the doctors with us!

I saw mine yesterday, and Peeper went today. We're now both taking antibiotics and hoping that it they will help.

I'm a little worried that my current yuckiness is something new and viral on top of the old, low-grade bacterial (we hope) sinusitis, but maybe it's something that the antibiotics will fix.

Peeper's doctor said that his rule of thumb is to assume that something like this is viral at first, but if it's not better within a couple of weeks, go with antibiotics. According to my doc (actually, it was a PA who saw me), when you have a viral infection or allergic reaction or whatever, and your nasal passages are swollen and inflamed, you're more susceptible to infection from every bacteria that comes flying up your nose, so that's why a cold can "turn into" a bacterial infection.

Peeper's doc said that his concern after a couple of weeks would be "another infection settling in" like bronchitis, pneumonia or sinusitis.

Peeper's lungs are clear (her coughing is from post-nasal drip), so it's just sinusitis, in her case. Whew, because when he said "that's when I worry about pneumonia . . .  " I was like "What the fuck?!"

Peeper was, of course, a model patient for the entire exam. In fact, if my camera phone had been a little faster, I would have caught her smiling up at him adoringly while he listened to her lungs, and if it had turned out as cute as it was in real life, I seriously would have offered to let them use the photo for their advertising.

Alas, I just got this one, of her looking rather forlornly at me while he listened. Not at all what was actually going on.

How It's Gone

Peeper has done very well with all the funeral-related activities. Yesterday, she spent most of the family visitation playing with the two-and-a-half year old granddaughter of the funeral home director. Her mom also works there, and brings her along every day, so there's a nice stash of age-appropriate toys on hand.

When we first met them, they made reference to being "some kind of cousins," so I thought it was a long-distance, can't quite trace it, but everyone with that last name is related thing, but during the slide show, when Shrike's paternal grandparents popped up in a photo, the younger woman said, "Oh look, there's Uncle P and Aunt D!" so she obviously knew them.

It turns out that the grandma (director of the funeral home - evidently inherited from her dad, or farther back, as the name of the business is her maiden name) is (was?) married to Shrike's dad's first cousin - their fathers were brothers. (Her married name is the same as Shrike's maiden name.) So, her daughter is Shrike's second cousin, and the granddaughter is Peeper's third cousin.

It's a very small town.

There was a visitation for extended family and friends yesterday evening, and we'd intended for Shrike to go, while Peeper and I stayed home, so as to not mess her up bedtime. As it turned out though, she fell asleep on the way home from the morning one (after stopping for lunch) and we decided that we'd blow off bedtime and have a family nap.

Right after Shrike left, Peeper decided that she wanted to go, so I called her to come back and get us, and we got dressed fast-fast-fast and went with her.

This morning, Peeper and I ended up stepping out about half way through the service, mostly because when I'd taken her to potty before it started, we'd had to pass through the crying room, and she saw all the toys, so as soon as we were seated, she started saying "I want to go play with toys."

I held her off through most of the eulogy, but finally took her out. Then, when I heard the preacher say, "In conclusion," we cleaned up really, really fast and went potty again, and she decided that we were going back out.

I should have realized that "in conclusion" is a twenty-minute warning.

We ended up leaving as the final prayer started, and going out to the car for some goody and then I let her "drive to the North Pole to visit Frosty the Snowman and Santa Claus" until Shrike got out to the car.

At the cemetery, she did okay, but insisted on sitting - and rolling - on the ground right at the minister's feet, and way too close to the open grave. I hoped that I was just being paranoid (and a little creeped out), but afterward, when I apologized to the minister, he said, "Oh, she was fine. I was just worried she was going to fall in."

Then we went back to the church for lunch and finally back home.

We were hoping for another family nap, but Peeper had other plans. I was feeling icky by the time we got home - shaky and achey, like with a fever, but not hot - but Shrike had a migraine, so she went to bed and I stayed "up" with Peeper, but conked out on the couch while she played. That was probably around five or six.

I heard Shrike get up and take over, and the next thing I knew, she was waking me at nine, to tell me Peeper was done with her bath and ready for bed.

And that's when I figured out what was wrong with me. Tummy bug of some sort. No throwing up, but plenty of the other.

I thought I was never going to get poor Peeper to sleep, because I had to keep jumping up and running to the bathroom.

And then I put my cellphone in the washer, along with an emergency load of pants. (Yes, it was that bad.)

No, of course, we're nowhere near the free upgrade date, and of course I didn't get the insurance.

So, wish me luck on that one.

Sicky Girl

This morning started out great (for me), when Shrike got up with Peeper and let me sleep in, until around 10 am.

By that point, Peeper had been in and out of bed with me a couple of times to nurse, and we were awake and nursing for a while when she said she was ready to get up.

As she crawled over me, she stopped and looked kind of funny. I asked if she was okay, and she kept going, off the bed. When she got down, she said, "I have a feeling like I need to go pee-pee," but instead of taking off to the potty, she just stood there.

I jumped up and said, "Are you pee-peeing?!" and realized that, no, she was throwing up.

That would be the first of four times she threw up by two o'clock.

She and I napped for a couple of hours in the afternoon (why yes, she did just go to bed at 11:30 pm) and she had some diarrhea while asleep (not as bad as you'd think) and again later, but she felt it coming and got to the potty in time.

And she was very, very sad and pathetic and snuggly.

By supper time, though, she was pretty perky, and drank a couple of bottles of yogurt smoothy. (I was nervous for her tummy, but knew it would be good for the other end, if it stayed down. Which it has.)

She'd had some Cheerios earlier, which didn't go so well, but we'll try those tomorrow.

And, of course, she's nursed a whole lot. She's always willing to do that when she's feeling yucky.

We're hoping it was a really short-term thing and she'll stay perky tomorrow and be back up to full speed in time to start Mother's Day Out on Wednesday.

Poor Baby

Saturday night, shortly after Shrike got home from work, Peeper woke and whined around a bit, while I waited to see if she'd go back to sleep on her own.  (She often does, so I tend to give her a minute or wait until I hear something that sound really awake-awake.)

Then called out with the most pathetic, hoarse, kind of creepy "Maaaamaaaa" you've ever heard.  When we went to check on her, she was sound asleep already (for the moment). It kind of freaked Shrike out, but I've seen her do it several times, so it didn't bother me.

But her voice, when she'd called for me did. As did the gurgling in her nose as I nursed her back to sleep.

Dammit.

I turned on the humidifier on my way out of the room, and hoped for the best.

After not one but two sheet changes overnight, we awoke to a very coughy, very hoarse and kind of congested kiddo. But sometimes that's as far as it gets and then she's fine, so we proceeded with our plans, shopping and cleaning up the house for a MOMS Club Mardi Gras party scheduled for this morning.

By bedtime, though, it wasn't looking too good. I thought she'd never get to sleep for more than ten minutes without coughing or snorting herself awake, and around 11:30, I just gave up and went on to sleep in her bed with her.

When she woke up this morning, not surprisingly, she was hot-hot-hot (about 101' according to the magic forehead thermometer) and obviously felt awful.

We immediately cancelled the party and dosed her up with some Tylenol.

An hour later, she was bouncing around, pretending to be Santa Claus. It's amazing what a differences just a couple of degrees of body temperature can make.

(Yes, yes, I know we're supposed to let her just have a mild fever to "burn out" the infection, but it makes her feel so awful. I can't just sit by and watch that, knowing that I can make her feel better so easily.)

In the night, we'd discovered that the saline spray and snot sucker were no longer usable (don't ask) so we planned a trip to the pharmacy to replace them.

One thing led to another, and there was a sale and coupons and $5 gift cards if you buy two packages . . . and Peeper and I ended up at Target with a list of about ten things we needed.

We usually do Target pretty well, as you know, but this trip was absolutely hellish.

She started whining to go home with about three things left on our list. Then I had to stop (with her parked a few feet away, looking awful but hopefully keeping her germs to herself) and give an impromptu sling tutorial to a very young mom of a four week old little girl, and her friend.

("Okay, first thing: You're wearing it backwards.")

When I came upon them, the one who turned out to be Mom was getting the baby set up with the friend wearing her, but she was way too low, too lose, scrunched up in a cradle position, completely covered in the padded-rail sling, which was being worn backwards, and therefore pretty much non-adjustable.

Just from the safety factors alone, I had to say something. I was very nice about it, "I'm sorry, but could I please help you? I sell slings and other baby carriers, so . . . ."

They seemed to appreciate it. I hope they weren't too freaked out.

Anyway, then we finally got to the checkout aisle, and as I started unloading, I remembered that I'd forgotten one of my "deals" so zipped back over to the feminine hygiene aisle for a couple of packages of pads.

Back to checkout, where everything scanned, and the guy gave me one gift card. I should have had three.

We figured out that I had one of the right paper towels and one wrong, so another guy ran off to switch those. Then I had the wrong size package of pads. Peeper and I took those back, and couldn't find the right size, but found out that we could get a gift card with three of the ones I had, so we grabbed another.

Back to check out, rescan everything, and pay.

Return cup holders (Does your Target have cupholders for Starbucks and the snackbar? Tell them to get them!) and I gave poor Peeper some of the Tylenol that we'd just bought.

Then, we still had to go to the pharmacy because - would you believe - Target doesn't have the good snot sucker.

As I'm looking for it, Peeper tells me that she needs to potty, so we run across the building (The pharmacy is in a doctors' office building - were her pediatrician used to be.) and take care of that.

Back to the pharmacy, and I have to get help finding what I'm looking for. First, she tells me they don't have any such thing, but could order it. Even though I know I bought it there. Then, on another aisle, she picks up a box and says "This isn't what you want, is it?"

YES! That is The Good Snot Sucker!

We have a quick consultation about possibly acceptable cold remedies for a three year old (Answer: Homeopathic stuff. Decided to pass on it.), then she's so pathetic she didn't even want to eat her free lollipop there, she said she'd just take it home.

When we got home, she did make pretty short work of it, and then we busted into the 70% off heart-shaped box full of Hershey's Pot of Gold Chocolate Truffles.

Pathetic, but chocolaty:

This was supposed to be a smile.

Later, as we sat down for dinner, she was looking aaalll around the table, obviously searching for something.

I asked, "What are you looking for?"

She said, "I wookin for da chocwate!"

Feeling Yucky

Oh, I wasn't kidding yesterday. I spent pretty much all night with my belly in knots. The few times that I woke up thinking that the pain had passed, as soon as I moved (as in rolled over), it was back, and I was still hurting pretty bad when Peeper decided that it was time to get up.

On Sunday, when Peeper was so sick, I said something about really hoping that I didn't catch it, too and Anonymama said, "Oh yeah, there's nothing more miserable than a sick Mama with a sick baby."

Yes. Yes, there is. A sick Mama with a healthy three year old, who wants to plaaaay!

So around 10:30, I texted Frappa and pretty much begged her to come pick Peeper up and take her to lunch or anywhere, really, just to get myself some lie-still-and-try-not-to-hurt time without her stomping on my belly, or making me get up and do things.

Peeper liked the idea when I first told her about it, but by the time she was dressed and ready to go, she was telling me, "Noooo! I don' wanna have fuuuun!"

Of course, she was fine within minutes.

They went to Target, where they hit Starbucks and bought Frappa a few shirts, then Peeper played for a while at the Mall play area ("Grandma's Target" is in the mall. How weird is that?)

and went to a deli (also in the mall) for lunch, where Peeper evidently had milk and potato chips.

She brought home most of a roast beef and cheese sub with au jus, which I'm eating right now, so I'm just as glad that I didn't think to suggest that Frappa get her something like grilled cheese.

They were gone almost three hours, and when they got home, Peeper was glad to see me, but also seemed very excited about her little outing. While I had the break, I mostly just sat still, and also talked to the airline, and changed our return flight from tomorrow to Tuesday, because even if we both have full control over our bodily functions, I just couldn't imagine dealing with the whole flying thing and being one-on-one with Peeper for so long, feeling like that.

Of course, within a couple hours of making the change, my belly pain when away, and I'm feeling fine now.

Of course.

Out of the House! (Also, it's my turn.)

Other than another diarrhea incident (this time with warning, whew!) Peeper seemed to be feeling fine today, but I was starting to feel a little iffy, so I took the opportunity to both get her out of the house for a bit, and pick me up some immodium, just in case.

First we went to Starbucks, which of course, we both enjoyed.

Next, I took her to a park that I used to hang out at when I was in high school. I was hoping the ducks would still be around, and I was not disappointed.

Then, we stopped at the grocery store for a few things, then back to the Anonyparents' house. By then, I was starting to feel progressively worse, with abdominal cramping and I'm pretty certain some fever. I'm not thrilled about the prospect of getting on a plane in about 36 hours.

Feeling Better

Peeper woke up pretty much full-strength this morning, and held up all day, including dinner out with some friends of mine.

I won't declare her All Better yet, though, because she had diarrhea this evening, so now I'm nervous about that.

We postponed tomorrow's lunch plans with Frappa, and will just hang around the house, hoping that it was a one-off, and not a sign of things to come.