September 4 letter

September 4, 2006

Labor Day

How weird! It is labor day. Tomorrow Jason goes in for his ‘assessment’, then on Thursday he has his ‘orientation’ – whatever that means!, then on Friday he finally starts school. I am of two minds about the whole ‘bus’ thing. I should dearly love to ride the bus with him, at least at the beginning, but I don’t think that they have things set up for that and besides, if I did ride out there I would need to take Xander and we would need a way to get back. Sigh. But I would really rather he had one ‘new’ experience at a time. Seems like an awful lot of ‘newness’ to be riding the bus and starting school for the first time all on the same day. Maybe I am being over protective as one person is constantly telling me. Sigh. I just don’t know.

On an entirely different note, I do have a few stories to tell. The first one is just plain funny.

The other day, while Jason worked seriously on building Axonn (A bionicle creature from the Legos universe), Xander sat at the dining room table ‘drawing.’ He is my artist child – loves play dough and painting and drawing. He’d been working a bit when he called to me (I was in the kitchen, cleaning as usual!): “Mommy, draw me purple boon!” “You want me to draw a purple balloon?” “Yep!” “Okay” So, like the dutiful mom I am, I walked out and drew him a purple balloon then went back to cleaning. A moment later, “Mommy, draw me new purple boon.” “You want a new purple balloon? Why? I just drew one!” “That one popped.” I think my jaw must’ve dropped. A purple balloon drawing had popped? But I am well trained so out I came and drew the balloon. He considered it for a long moment then “Draw Xander crying because purple boon popped, pease Mommy?” So I drew Xander crying. He nodded, consideringly. “Now draw Nani hugging Xander crying because he purple boon popped.” Ummm…. I did so. He was satisfied with his storyboard and went back to his own work, all the while talking to his drawings confidingly. I just shook my head and laughed and went back to my own work.

The next story is not so much funny as realistic… Poor Xander has been quite sick these past couple of days. Just three days (or nights, more accurately!) ago, I was up eight times – first with Jason at 9:30. (He’s been having nightmares.) then from about 10 pm on with Xander. The littlest one has had a horrendous cough. And that cough was so bad that his naps suffered – first it diminished from 1 ½ hours – 2 hours down to 45 minutes, then, on the following day, that collapsed to 15 minutes. He was coughing so hard, and choking with it, that he just couldn’t sleep. And, as you might imagine, that left him desperately tired and very fragile. That second night, we got the boys to bed by 7:30 – both of them were so tired that they fell asleep within 10 minutes of lights out. But at 8 pm, Xander began to cough. As I listened to him on the monitor, I began to really worry. His breathing, when he wasn’t coughing, sounded horrible. Worried both about him and about the possibility that his coughing would wake Jason, I went in and collected him. He was so very asleep that he didn’t wake, even though he was coughing so hard that his body was shaking with it. Even when I took his temp, he did not wake. There was no fever, thank heavens, so pneumonia was less of a concern. But as I carried him back to our bedroom and lay down with him, I was listening to the quality of his cough. He sounded like he was choking on liquid, and swallowing in-between coughs in an attempt to deal with it. Lying there, in the dark, as that hot little body coughed and shook against my own, it suddenly hit me. He was refluxing. It had been awhile since last I had him on the Prevacid. I had thought that the reflux was done with. Most children outgrow it by there second year. Yet here was a sound that I recognized. The next morning I fed him his first dose of Prevacid and at nap time I gave him tyleonol (he was fussing at his ears). That day, yesterday, he slept 2 ½ hours. Last night he slept from 8 until 10 before he had a coughing fit but after that fit, he did not have another. And though he has had a couple of minor ones today, he seems to be doing a whole lot better. Xander has his two year check on Sept 15 so, barring a series relapse, I think I shall just keep him on the Prevacid and we will see how it goes. What coughing he has been doing has sounded more *normal* (i.e. without the choking sound) than previously so I am assuming that it is a reaction to the irritation caused by the reflux. I am kicking myself fairly hard today, however. I remember reading that ‘silent reflux’ – that is, the type that doesn’t result in the baby/child/adult spitting up, the type where the fluids simply come up the throat and are swallowed, has been implicated in the development of asthma. I should, no doubt, have been more proactive, should have kept him on the Prevacid. I didn’t because I just hate the thought of filling that little body with poisons – and that, after all, is precisely what medications are – judiciously administered poisons, perhaps, but poisons nonetheless. Ah well… hindsight is 20/20, or so they say.

On the other hand, good news: Matt and Maggie have had their third child. Judah Kyrios McKnight was born two days ago by C-Section. Ky has been welcomed happily into his family. His sister, Hope, has been telling all who will listen how she is now a ‘double big sister’ and Zach is busily defending his brother’s name. (Apparently the ‘dults were having a discussion regarding nicknames and Zach became quite vocal in his brother’s defense ‘He already HAS a name. He is baby Judah!’ So there! Aren’t two year olds wonderful?)