one in Miami, two in NJ

Sunday morning we dropped Mr. Doodlebug off at the airport for a business trip to Miami, then baby Doodle and I drove to my in-laws in New Jersey. Today I put baby Doodle down for a nap in his big boy bed at Grammy and Grandad's house, ate lunch, went to the grocery store, filled the tank with gas (almost $50 to fill a 15 gallon tank), loaded the car, got BD dressed (he was in his diaper and Phillies t-shirt because he spilled -- I mean poured -- yogurt all over his clothes) and drove to a discount wine store on our way to the airport to pick up Mr. D.

You used to be able to pull up to the airline's designated arrival/baggage area and wait for your loved one to come out. I pulled up and called Mr. D's cell phone. He was on his way down to baggage claim, with no actual bags to pick up. During the one minute phone conversation one of about 15 police officers who were hanging around said, "Get movin. You have to circle around." Why are the airport police, or city police, whichever the case may be, wasting their time making people waste gas and add pollutants to the air because their husband will be out in thirty seconds? A great use of gas and police resources! So we made a big circle and Mr. D was waiting for us. If he had been later we would have been forced to pay some outrageous fee to park the car for an hour until he came out.

Our four days with my in-laws were great. Baby Doodle went on the amusement rides at the Point Pleasant boardwalk, played on the beach, went to the Monmouth County library's story hour, which sucked compared to Bala Cynwyd and Roxborough's, played with trains, read books and watched two episodes of Between the Lions.

He is fully recovered from his virus and doing well. It's great to see him back to normal, conversally, it was absolutely horrible to see his spirit so dashed and his personality so weak.

home at last

We arrived at the ER yesterday around 10:00am, we left the hospital at 1:50pm today. They admitted baby Doodle and pumped him full of fluid. His eyes were down right puffy by this morning. He was dehydrated and his sugar levels were low. His bicarbonate level was 4 when we arrived and 21 when we left (it is supposed to be in the twenties normally). His sugar level was 42 yesterday morning and 68 this afternoon. He was given three bolases of fluid in the ER and a maintenance amount consistently throughout the rest of the day and all through the night.

Speaking of night, it is extremely difficult to sleep in a hospital. Our room was right next to the bathroom and people kept letting the door slam behind them whether it was 2:00 pm or am. Then the nurse comes in to check on BD's pulse and IV every few hours. As if those aren't enough disturbances the machine BD was hooked up to started beeping, sounding some kind of alarm, and our nurse couldn't hear it from the nurse station so I had to go out there at 3:00 am to ask him to come shut it off. The noise hadn't awakened BD, but the nurse coming in to straighten out the machine did. I had to climb back into his bed with him to help him fall back asleep. As it was he didn't fall asleep until about 10:30 pm. He woke up at 6:00 am when the nurse came in for one last check of things before he went off duty. So we've been up ever since.

As his numbers improved and as he retained what he drank he became more and more like himself. By the time we left this afternoon he had eaten a whole plain bagel, some Cheerios and a few crackers. He refused the scrambled eggs we ordered for him. He's still drinking Gatorade, because, oh yea I forgot to mention this, his virus has moved to his bowels and now he has diarrhea. They diagnosed him with viral gastroenteritis which can be caused by a number of different viruses including rotaviruses, and symptoms usually take 1-2 days after the infection. I do recall one of the receptionists talking about a rotavirus when baby Doodle and I were at his pediatrician for his well visit on Friday. Thanks a lot! The sheer incompetence of the nurse who gave BD his shots and other stuff is material for about three more posts so I won't get into it here.

I am now in the middle of the disinfecting our house process. Wish me luck.

at the ER

I'm sitting next to baby Doodle in an ER room at CHOP (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia). He's asleep, finally. He threw up twice this morning after having 2 teaspoons of watered down Gatorade. He was so weak and lethargic. I called the after hour nurse line (which is CHOP for us) and the nurse told me to make an appointment to see his pediatrician this morning.

The doctor said he was borderline dehydrated and was so drained that he couldn't start recovering. She suggested taking him to the hospital to get an IV of fluid to reboot his poor little body.

I let everyone know at the doctor's office that I'm sure he picked up this bug at their office. He was there on Friday for his two-year well visit. The nurse said, "yea, it usually takes two days to see symptoms." Yup, two days after Friday was Sunday, the first day of BD's illness. He's not in day care and the only kids he came into contact with are not sick.

Mr. Doodlebug took a cab from work and met me at the ER. Our friend who works at Penn met us there to offer her support.

I don't know what it is about having kids that makes people such cry babies, but I've cried three times today. Baby Doodle hated being at the doctor's office. He kept saying, "Mommy carry you out the door." Then he hated being in his hospital room. Then he hated having the IV connected to his little hand. They taped his hand to a firm, small pillow to keep the tubes in place. He hated that too. I lied next to him and rubbed his back until he fell asleep. I stealthily removed myself from the bed and the attending doctor came in to check BD, again (the resident and his pediatrician already had, not that I'm complaining about the thorough care he's getting here). Baby Doodle was awake and crying again. When the attending left I crawled back onto his bed and helped him fall asleep again. And that brings us to the present.

An uplifting post, I know.

sick boy

Baby Doodle threw up early yesterday morning and has been at it on and off into today. He's completely drained, begs to drink "Aidan's water with the top on," and asks to eat ice cream sandwiches and other delicious foods that he's craving. It is quite difficult to tell a two year old that he can only have one ounce of watered down Gatorade every 5-10 minutes until he's proven he can keep it down. I think this will be day two of zero solid food. My poor guy. We spent yesterday between the family room sofa and the living room sofa. Today, he's so drained we haven't moved from the family room, well, I have. He's watched two episodes of Between the Lions and I've read nearly every book he owns to him. It's the perfect opportunity to read the long books because he just lays there and stares at the pictures perfectly happy listening as long as I'm talking.

If he doesn't throw up again today I might be able to lay him in the stroller (fully reclined) for a walk to the polls tomorrow.

mopping -- what could be more exciting?

I don't know why it's taken me so long to figure out how to properly mop a floor. I have tried numerous types of mops to get my kitchen floor spic and span -- cotton mop head like the janitors use, sponge mop and bucket, Swiffer Wet Jet -- and nothing seemed to clean well enough. They all, especially the Swiffer, left streaks of dirt and grime behind. Whatever head I used would be filthy after mopping only half the floor so the second half seemed dirtier than before I cleaned it. I always sweep first, but our kitchen door is the door we use nearly all the time so people are coming in and out all day tracking dirt. Then there is the issue of having a two-year old who insists on sitting in an adult chair at the kitchen table, and most of the time he wants to walk around while he eats juicy orange slices and watermelon. You can imagine the sticky splotches scattering my floor. I don't mop as often as I should, it's true, but I don't see why it's so hard to come up with a technique that only requires a once over.

Now to the learning part, my mother was here for baby Doodle's birthday party and she suggested mopping first with whatever cleanser I want to use (sometimes vinegar and water, sometimes ammonia and water) and then going back over the floor with a clean swiffer or cloth with just plain water to remove the streaks. Apparently this is how it used to be done, and probably still is by people less naive than me. So, today after sweeping and mopping twice (once with detergent, once with water) I am semi satisfied with the floor's cleanliness. In order to really get it as clean as I'd like I need to be on my hands and knees with one of those green scrubby sponges to get the dirt that has stained the crevices of the tiles. Okay, enough about cleaning!

BD is taking an awesome nap allowing me to get a lot done around the house. Including putting the screens into our basement windows and opening them for the spring. I hope we don't have toxic mold down there. I'm waiting for the petri dish I placed down there to collect enough air particles to produce something in 48 hours.

The Office returns

To celebrate the return of The Office I went to Dairyland to get Mr. Doodlebug and myself Blizzardos (mine was vanilla yogurt with peanut butter cups and Oreo cookies and Mr. D had chocolate ice cream with coconut). They were delicious. I love the spring.

I guess this is what I'm in for

This is how the conversation went with baby Doodle when we arrived home after running errands this morning.

"Baby Doodle do you want to walk up the stairs by yourself?"
"No."
"Do you want me to carry you?"
"No."
"Do you want to carry your crayons up the stairs?"
"No."
"Okay, well, I'm going upstairs and inside to eat some lunch. You can come up if you want."
I walked up the stairs, put his malled banana in the compost, put my bag down and he was standing at the door crying.
"Do you want some lunch?"
"No."
I get out the strawberry yogurt, sweet potatoes and a left over sandwich from his party. He briefly stops crying to say, "strawbewwey yoget."
"I'll get you some strawberry yogurt. Do you want sweet potatoes, too?"
"No. I want to sit on Mommy."
I put him on my lap and he ate about half of the yogurt and a few bites of the vegetable sandwich then said, "I want to play basketball."

You can imagine how my getting his teeth brushed and him into his crib went.

Two!

Baby Doodle turned two yesterday. Mr. Doodlebug took the day off from work, which was the best birthday treat of all. Baby Doodle woke up super early and for the first time since he was an infant fell back asleep in our bed with us. So he woke up for the day next to his parents, which he loved. He opened his presents (an easel from Ikea, two books (Hop on Pop and H is for Homerun), a plastic bat and ball, and a Phillies t-shirt) and played with his balloons right away.

After we got ready for the day we went to story hour in Bala Cynwyd, but they cancelled it because the elementary students from the adjoining school came to the library to sing for the toddlers and babies. We had seen them last year but baby Doodle didn't last five minutes then, this time he sat through the whole thing occasionally pointing things out like, "that girl is wearing a pink shirt," and "woman playing the piano." He had fun clapping after each song, too. We read some books before we went home for lunch. He napped for three hours (today he didn't nap at all) and then we went to the playground and played baseball with his new equipment (see picture below). I made his favorite meal for dinner -- pizza. Then we had carrot cake that looked like a basketball, which he had looked forward to all day and was incredibly patient about when he was going to get to eat it. He blew out his own candles.

We put him to bed at 8:00, but he didn't fall asleep until after 10:00. Then he didn't nap today, as I said. He was deliriously tired for most of the day and repeatedly asked to have cake. He had leftover pizza for dinner tonight at 4:30 and went to bed at 6. He was asleep by 6:30. Maybe tomorrow he'll be back to normal. His party is on Saturday, so I'll expect another hellish day on Sunday. At least Mr. D and my mom will be here to help me entertain our tired boy.

My aunt made this sweater for him. It arrived today. He loves it.