Would You Rather?

Have a 4 year old with an ear infection or a one year old with apparent general malaise?

That one's easy!  For the first time EVER, I was able to easily and correctly identify what was wrong with my child. On Friday night at 10 pm (is there any other time to get sick?  IS THERE?) M woke up miserable and crying.  We thought it was a night terror because he's had those before, but after a few minutes, we asked him if anything hurt on him - he's been having growing pains, too - and he said, no, just my ear.

Excuse me?  WHAT did you just say?  YOUR EAR?!

EGADS! We cried (inside, not aloud) EGADS! He can communicate!

Okay, M can carry on an intelligent conversation about mighty machines with anyone, but this was the first time in 4 1/2 years of parenting one of our children identified WHAT THE HECK WAS WRONG WITH HIM!!!

I mean, really, this is groundbreaking.

It was simple. 

We gave him a dose of ibuprofen and put him back to bed.

In the morning, we asked, does anything hurt on you?

He said, no, just my ear.

Which one, we asked.

He pointed to his right one, the same one as last night (which is also pretty genius of us to think of, huh?).

And M and I had a little morning adventure at Redi-Med and Meijer pharmacy, where they fill antibiotic prescriptions for free.

Of course, we spent a lot of money on groceries, but M was up for it.  Sick or not, grocery shopping with mommy (sans brothers) is a special thing to do.

24 hours later, he was as good as new, except with a little cough.

Speaking of little and coughs....I have two other kids.

N seems to have the general cold version of whatever this is.  As well as I small cut on his toe which might as well be gangrenous the way he's acting, but I digress...

C has the miserable 1 year old I'm becoming a toddler and probably am growing teeth or bones and have a strong opinion about everything and why the heck do I feel miserable and generally yucky version of whatever this is.

But does he fever, pull his ear, vomit, emit diarreah, or wake multiple times during the night, making it easier to identify a cause?  No.

His symptoms are crabby, clingy, and runny nose.

Hardly worth rushing to the doctor for.

But far more wearing on Mommy and longer lasting than M's ear infection night.

Oh, well, it's a job hazard right?

I'd rather have all this than a thousand other alternatives. So I count my blessings- amoxicillin, ibuprofen, and the privilege of staying at home to care for them.