Poked; Plastic; Play

As I mentioned in the previous post, Caitie has had two colds in two months time, and an ear infection as well; she doesn't mess around, she goes all out. She missed three days of school last week due to having a fever on and off every day during that time. At the time, I had no idea she had an ear infection; she hadn't complained of an earache. She did mention that the right side of her mouth hurt, but I didn't connect that with an ear infection; I now think that's what caused the pain. I didn't want her missing school on Thursday since that was the day her class had an egg hunt, so I made sure she was in bed when needed and took it easy, drank lots of fluids, etc. By Wednesday of last week, I decided she could go to school, so she could get back into the swing of things. It had been a few days since she had a shower, due to her not feeling well and needing to rest, so I decided to give her a shower before heading to school... I was in for a shock when scrubbing her down... she was extremely thin, enough so that I decided to make a change in plans. Instead of taking her to school I decided to take her to the doctor's office; I called and got her in the same day. She had lost three pounds in a short period of time, and since she's already thin, that amout of weight loss was quite noticable. We now have her back on Pediasures, which are nutritional supplement shakes, and I'm making sure she's eating meals, no matter if she wants to or not. She's doing much better; she doesn't look quite as thin, and has only a slight cough. She's on Amoxicillin for the ear infection; I'll find out tomorrow if that took care of the infection. Blood was taken and a urine sample given, of which all tests came back fine. I think we can start breathing a bit easier now.

Since Bailey's nine-month appointment was coming up, we went ahead and decided to have Bailey looked at on the same day we took Caitie in. She's still long and lean. No shots were needed this time.

See the blue band on Caitie's arm; I called it the band of courage, um yeah... Caitie wasn't too thrilled about having a needle stuck in her arm to draw blood, she did cry, but she hung in there and got a sucker. I told her if she cooperated while at the doctor's office she could pick out a stuffed animal... like she needs anymore of those, but oh well... and she ended up talking us into two stuffed animals (that's what she's holding); witnessing her getting poked and screaming bloody murder helped convince us to give a little more than expected. In this pic you can see Caitie looking down at Bailey thinking of how easy Bailey had it at the doctor's office while she (caitie) got poked and prodded. Bailey is looking back at Caitie thinking... "better you than me" ... um, yeah.



The above pic was taken on Wednesday, after the doctor's appointment, the pic below was taken on Thursday when I picked Caitie up from school; she was able to participate in the egg hunt. As I try to do for each special occasion at school, I take a pic of Caitie on the school grounds before leaving. She's holding her 'bunny bag' that was made for her to collect the plastic eggs in. The plastic eggs were filled with candy.



This pic of Bailey was taken around the same time as the two pics above, so I decided to include it in this post. I love this remake of an 'old-timey' toy. (Bailey got it for Christmas) This reminds me of a toy I used to play with as a child. Toys were much simpler back then, no flashy lights and sounds, no 'coming alive', for lack of a better term, as toys seem to do these days, you had to use your imagination back when I was a kid. It really benefits a child to use their imagination, to come up with different ways to play with a simple toy so that it's an enjoyable experience. It gets a kid thinkin', which helps them be more creative, smart and clever. Look how I turned out; I'm proof it works. Actually, I could have used the toys they have for kids today... for some people too much thinkin' is just that... too much... um, yeah. Did that make sense? See, I just proved my point. Didn't I? huh?!? Wait a minute... hmmm...