Cutting out, Cutting off, and Coughing it up this weekend at our house

1. Friday night we had dinner at my in-laws. As I was helping the kids put the toys away, or rather putting the toys in spite of the kids, I got a sliver from the bookshelf. It was immediately decided that my father-in-law, who is a physician, would remove it for me. None of this let's just rip it out with an old pair of tweezers when we get home stuff for me! The next thing I know he and I and Lucy are standing in the half bath and he is using a hypodermic needle to poke under the first layer of skin to dislodge the tiny piece of wood while Lucy says, "Mommy touch wood! I watch, I watch!" After the third try he got the thing out, and Lucy cheered "Yay Grandpa" then I needed to sit down and put my head between my knees, while he said to my mother-in-law, "Eh, take her, leh, I think she is going to faint." Fortunately I recovered my level headedness. I was going to need it.

2. Saturday night we had dinner at my parents house because my brother was home for the weekend. Henry scarfed down three or four hot dogs for dinner. At the time I thought this was fine because he had a swimming lesson that day and he is usually starving all day long afterwards. In hindsight, I should have cut him off at two.

Sunday morning he came into my room and woke me up to tell me that he threw up. "Mmm. OK," and rolled over to go back to sleep. He seemed fine and I wasn't too worried. I thought he coughed up mucus and neglected to get a tissue. I could not have been more wrong. Actually, he woke up. Grabbed the blanket that Lumpyhead's mom crocheted for him when he was a baby. Vomited into it. Dropped it onto the floor. Vomited onto his comforter. Dropped that onto the floor. And went back to sleep. His room was vile. He has now received a lecture on the importance of chewing his food before swallowing it. Before I had even washed my face that morning I gathered up the soiled laundry, and tried to remove as much of the nastiness as I could before I washed it. Amazingly, everything came out of the laundry looking completely devoid of what it had just been through. But I may never eat another hot dog again.

3. I am taking Lucy to the doctor this morning for the following undiagnosed conditions: low-grade fever, extended crying, food refusal, croup-like cough, wheezy breathing, repeated nocturnal bowel movements, diaper rash, perpetual indigestion, and vegetable phobia.

UPDATE: Lucy has walking pneumonia, poor thing. According the the Physician's Assistant we saw at the Pediatrician's office today, the diagnosis explains all of her symptoms, except of course the vegetable phobia. So he prescribed an antibiotic, and a probiotic (lactobacillus powder). We will see how this ying-yang regimen works on Lucy's long-suffering system.