There are some attributes I so love in my 4 year old daughter. Some of these attributes that I love so much, like her candid honesty, independence, and her strong will, though, make her very difficult to parent. The other day, her Aunt was asking her a few questions from a child inventory test (she is going to school for her Master's in Educational Psychology, the whole family has been tested for something at some point this last year!! Maybe we are all certifiably crazy).

Sorry to digress, back to the questions, Adeline was so honest and articulate in her responses that I was taken aback. I do not have 8 year old that can do what she did in my therapy office!! She continued with straight questioning for about 30 minutes. Adeline told her Aunt about preschool, her friends etc. She also told her Aunt about her "bad attitude." My most favorite response was when Adeline was asked if she gets mad, and who she gets mad at. Of course she does get mad and she gets mad at.... surprise, surprise Mommy!!! Mostly because I do not let her do what she wants.

I can just see therapy down the road for a conflictual mother daughter relationship.

Shoes, Shoes and more Shoes

As the weather is turning warmer, I feel spring is in the air, which means spring cleaning. My first priority....... the family shoe baskets. Does a family of 4 really need this many shoes???? The one basket became so full, that we got the kids a basket, now theirs is overflowing. And why is it with all these shoes, my kids and husband always have the same shoes on every time I look down?

To someone looking on the surface, this shoe basket could just necessitate a cleaning, but of course being the therapist that I am, is the reason my shoe baskets a total disaster just a passive attempt to irritate my mom every time she walks in the door? She hates our no shoes in the house policy and even worse then that, despises our shoe baskets. I better do some self analysis and discover the deep rooted issue of my shoe basket.

Well shoes basket, here I come.............. unless mom calls and irritates me, then another day.

Proud Day

I am a proud Mama today! Carson had a violin competition and did fantastic. We both worked hard on his songs and practicing religiously. He did a great job. All the hard practicing paid off.

Hmmmm...

Hmm.. So what does it mean when you dream about people in your life from years ago. Like old teachers, old friends and family members I have not spoken to in years. As a therapist I should have some understanding of this, but I am not too sure.

Lung Dr. appointment

So why is it, that on the day of my children's visit with the lung doctor, did they have a great lung day? Why can't it be one of the bad peak flow meter days, the persistent coughing or wheezing day? That way to doctor could see how their asthma is at its worst. I am sure the doctor must think I am making up signs and symptoms.

How can my son go from such one extreme to the next? I guess that is the part of asthma I will never understand. He did a lung functioning test in their office and was at 154%! Two weeks ago, in the middle of his coughing stretch, he could not even talk without coughing. He would cough and get so red in the face that he made his school teacher very nervous.

And my little Adeline. She had a coughing fit like I have never seen before. She had taken a nebulizer treatment and coughed all throughout our grocery store adventure. We wound up at the local Urgent Care to control her coughing. But today, could the doctor hear a wheeze or a cough, not at all.

I guess this is another face of asthma that our family will have to learn to adjust to and cope with. Not always easy, but is the way it is.

Sunflowers

I love sunflowers. We bought our first house because of the beautiful sunflowers in the back yard. It was so beautiful to see the whole backyard wall lined with sunflowers. So, when I saw this background, I had to have it.

On to more news, the kids both see the pediatric pulmonologist tomorrow. Don't believe he is going to make any major changes, but after having a rough asthma month, it will be nice to have the kiddos evaluated.

Medicine, Medicine and more Medicine

I think we single handedly kept the pediatric urgent care open last week.

The first night visit was for Adeline. She has asthma of course, and has done really well. She has never had a severe attack or flare up but this flare up was scary. She had a breathing treatment at my mom's house because of her asthma cough. We went to the grocery store and she coughed all through shopping. When it did not subside after her inhaler use, and she kept having one coughing fit after another, I new we needed some help.

Luckily a new night time pediatric urgent care had opened. We walked right in and were seen. She had an x ray taken and then was given a zopenex breathing treatment, and were sent home with a prescription for an oral steroid. By mid morning the next day she was better, which was great because her bowling birthday party was that afternoon. As I predicted though, she coughed all the way home and had a breathing treatment that night. Poor girl, asthma could not even leave her alone on her birthday.

4 nights later while we were eating dinner after dance class, Adeline looked at me and said her ear hurt, then went back to eating. I did not think much of it at the time. Then as bedtime drew near she started complaining about her ear again. I thought it was just a bed time procrastination trick. An hour after she had been asleep she sits up and starts screaming in bed and holding her ear. There we go again over to the pediatric urgent care. The doctor told me she had bilateral ear infections, with our 2 prescriptions in hand we left to get them filled at the 24 hour Walgreens.

So, as I am treating her asthma and ear infections, Carson starts with his asthma cough. He starts on breathing treatments before and after school, and before bed. Then the cough got to be so constant and persistent that I called the lung specialist to explain his symptoms and report on his peak flow meter readings. I offered to bring him in to see the doctor but was told there was not an appointment available for weeks. They called in an oral steroid and that always works like a charm.

One day later, guess who has an ear infection??? Yep, that would be Carson.

In the morning and at night our counter feels like an assembly line for medication administration. Pills, antibiotics, steroids, inhalers, and not to forget our fiber gummies.

As the picture above shows, I had more bags of medicine then some people have of groceries!!

So, as I look back on my week, I can really justify why I was so tired! Oh, and there was a little thing called work, laundry, household up keep and homework to go with it.

I am hoping for a calmer week, we will see how my luck runs.