Saturday was our last chance to use our annual passes for the San Diego Zoo before they expire at the end of the month, so we decided to take advantage of the beautiful, sunny weather and visit the animals one last time. We actually didn't even arrive at the park until close to noon and Luke was a tired puppy most of the trip, but that didn't keep us from seeing all of our favorite beasts! :) It was a gorgeous day in San Diego....sunny, about 65 degrees and clear! It doesn't get much better than that! We all were in desperate need of some fresh air after being cooped up inside with this cold for so many days. And despite Ellie and Ty feeling a little below par, we all had fun! Luke loved watching the brown bears wrestle with one another and the elephants having their mid-afternoon snack. He got a big kick out of watching them use their trunks to scoop up the hay and then stuff it in their mouths. Fun times. But his favorite adventure for the day had very little to do with the animals though. All he talked about from the moment we got the zoo was taking a ride on the big tour bus. He must've asked us very 20 seconds if he could ride that thing. "Please, please, please, Mommy...can we ride da bus??? Pleeeeeese???" If he hadn't been so incessant, his pleading would have probably been kinda cute. But honestly, he drove us nuts with it until we were finally able to ride it to the other side of the park a little later in the afternoon. And of-course he cried when we had to get off. :( That's a three year old for ya! We decided to head home after visiting our favorite polar bears, as Luke was melting quickly with no nap for the day. He slept a good part of the way home....even through his sister's screams in the car. She must've been hurting, 'cause she usually loves car rides. We made it to dinner moments after she fell asleep (go figure!) and I tried to scarf down my food before she woke up and began to fuss. Ty swears she has food radar....if she knows I am eating, she will cry and fuss until I pick her up. It drives him crazy, and he cannot begin to understand why it doesn't do the same to me. He just wants to see me enjoy my meal without having to hold or nurse our daughter. But I don't mind hanging onto her (usually). I would much rather hold her and eat my meal in relative quiet, than to have her screeching in my ear the whole time.! Wouldn't you??? It won't be like this forever....soon enough she'll be eating her own meal while we eat ours and the days of needing to hold her will be a distant memory. At-least that is what we hope.
Anyway...I digress. For dinner that night, Luke chose chicken tenders to eat. His typical favorite...the one 'sure bet' for him. But on this particular night, he was in a 'mood' (much akin to the rest of the week I guess!) and after three bites decided he didn't like chicken. With his third bite still in his mouth, he looked at Ty with the look that we know all too well of "Can I spit this out please?" Ty insisted that while he did not have to eat anymore of his chicken, he needed to chew and swallow the bite in his mouth. Fair enough, I thought. And so the battle began. I'll tell you before I go any further that the label of a 'feisty little guy' that all the NICU nurses gave him three years ago has certainly been accurate as he's grown. And the other night at dinner was no different. He definitely sticks to his guns when he puts his mind to something, that's for sure!
So.....what happened??? Well, as dinner wrapped up, Ellie was fussy and Luke was refusing to eat, so we made a b-line for the door in somewhat of a hurry. It was getting late and we needed to get home anyway. We had another 45 more minutes in the car still before we got home. So off we went, urging Luke to quickly swallow that bite of chicken before we left the table. But being in the rush that we were, we never thought to check his mouth again before we left. I simply figured that he ate it and that was that. He surprised me in the car when he remained awake the entire rest of the ride home, despite only sleeping about 40 minutes the whole day AND it being dark outside already. But I didn't think too much of it. I just figured he'd sleep well in bed when we got home. It wasn't until he was up in the bathtub and I heard Ty tell him in a firm voice "Chew that chicken, NOW." that I realized why he hadn't slept on the way home. Yup! You guessed it.....my feisty, stubborn child STILL had that nasty piece of half-chewed chicken stuffed in his cheek over an HOUR after he first put it there!!! We have no idea why he was so adamant about not eating that bite, but he was dead set against not downing it! He refused to chew it through his bath and continued to refuse it as he stood naked in the bathroom, awaiting his pajamas. It reminded me off all those stories you hear from your own parents about when you were a child. At first Ty told him that he could not go to bed until he swallowed it, but quickly realized that that would not work. So we changed our tune and told him that when he decided to swallow his chicken, we would be glad to get him dressed. STILL....despite being chilly....he stood his ground. ARGH! I'll tell you that power struggles with toddlers are NOT fun things and we try our very best not to get into them with him, but at this particular moment, we were stuck and very unsure of how to handle this particular moment without teaching Luke that it was okay to be blatantly disobedient like he was being. To wrap up an already long story, I'll just tell you that the chicken saga ended with Luke spitting the chicken out, getting a firm talking to and loosing all of his normal bedtime routine privileges. He went to sleep in tears and we headed downstairs in frustration. Not the best way to end a relatively good day. :( I can laugh about it now, but it wasn't so funny at the time!
Now....onto today......
I had to take Ellie in to see the doctor today. Her cough and rattling in her chest just isn't getting any better and last night she began to loose her voice. So thankfully, I was able to schedule her a same day appointment this morning. The doctor took one listen to her chest and ordered a breathing treatment there in the office. Poor child...she just sounds awful! You can hardly even hear her cries because her voice is so shot, and her lungs sound so gunky and wet! The treatment helped reduce her wheezing, so we were sent home with a prescription for Albuterol and a nebulizer 4 times a day for the next week. That should do the trick, but if she's still hacking in a week's time, we'll need to be rechecked. She sees our pediatric an next week anyway for her much delayed well-baby visit, so I'm sure she'll just check her again then. Hopefully she is better by then. I hate to see her feeling so crumby!
Luke was a trooper during the appointment. He played peek-a-boo with Ellie to keep her from crying during her breathing treatment and was pleasantly well behaved! He's starting to feel better himself, which is helping to turn around his stinky behavior of the past week. I'm definitely ready for my sweet boy to return. He's given me a run for my money this week! Phew!!! We've had some rough days, that's for sure!
Well, friends.....that's my story for today. Thanks for sticking around to get to the bottom here. I was kinda long winded today! :) I'll update again soon...and Roni...I'll have to share my big head story with you some other time! :) Until then.....
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