Some Finery, Some Answers and Some Hope

Know what’s always good for a laugh?

Trying to get four kids to look in the same direction, at the same time.

As you can see, we donned our Easter finery on Sunday. Lucy wore hers for all of forty-five minutes before there was a major wardrobe malfunction (in her case, a massive leakage issue). That explains the pink sleeper while everyone else wore crisp shirts and a dress (OK, full disclosure: Harry paired his dress shirt with jogging pants).


Last week was a doozy. Poor little Ellie came down with a nasty case of bronchitis and had to stay home from school for two days (of course she did, right as I returned to work because isn’t that just how life is?). Poor thing was sicker than I’ve seen her for a long time, maybe ever. On the first day the illness really hit, she came home from school, made herself a little bed on the couch and passed out. No dinner. At one point she even told me she was Too tired to watch TV. Can you imagine?

Everyone keeps asking me how it it's going being back at work. Work is fine, great, the same. I'm slowly acclimating to the luxury of having a moment to complete a task or thought (or both!). I think I spent the first week in a bit of a shock. I ate lunch by myself without it getting cold. And here's more progress: it wasn't string cheese, Goldfish crackers and cold coffee!

Oh sure I arrive at work most mornings to find snot or spit-up on one of my shoulders but, hey. With the way things are at our house, I really wouldn't expect anything different. The routine is getting more, well, routine. Definitely the hours between 5 p.m. (when I usually leave work) to 10 p.m. (when I can finally sit down after the kids are in bed, dinner dishes are finished and the next day's lunches are made) are more than a little frenetic. Staying home is ridiculous, leaving the house and getting all the kids where they need to be and picking them all up on time is ridiculous. But you know what? We enjoy ourselves much of the time, so that's what counts. Because life isn't going to get any less ridiculous for some time. If ever.

Friday was Leo’s follow-up appointment with the ENT, on the recommendation of both of Leo’s speech therapists. I did feel slightly vindicated when, upon answering the doctor's question as to why we were there ("to address how his chronic congestion might be affecting his speech intelligibility") the doctor took one look at me as if to say, Really?

He said congestion is not usually related to intelligibility. I mean, it could and sometimes does make some letters sound not quite right but not to the extent that Leo's speech is affected. So. The good news is, Leo is fine. No fluid in his ears, his adenoids haven’t grown back and his tonsils are right as rain. The doctor did note that he was very congested so he put him on a nasal spray, nasonex. The congestion may be seasonal allergies and while certainly not helping his intelligibility, it's not affecting it much at all.

But I buried the lead (again). For the first time ever, Leo was a rock star ENT patient. He sat quietly and calmly while the doctor peered into his ears and nose and throat. Oh sure he giggled when the spaghetti shaped tube went up his nose (I think you would have too--actually he took it much better than I think I would have). You may recall that the last time I took Leo to the ENT I was approximately twelve years pregnant with two babies. After a brief, semi-violent (Leo shoved the doctor) attempt to examine Leo, the doctor forbid me from trying to hold Leo down in my condition and announced Leo would need sedation for a proper exam. The only reason I agreed to that was it would allow us to do a proper hearing test.

Taking Leo to the ENT used to practically give me hives it was so stressful. Inevitably someone left in tears and sometimes both of us did. But I’m here to tell you that there is light at the end of the stressful doctor visit tunnel. He was similarly amazing at his last sick visit at the pediatrician's.

Dare I say we've turned a corner?