An Attack In the Night

Well, now that I've got your undivided attention with that sensationalized blog title, let me clear up any misconceptions: no, our house wasn't broken into. But there was an attack in the middle of the night, a terrible one - an asthma attack. It was one of the scariest things I've ever experienced. Noah woke up literally gasping for air. He was coughing so hard his face was turning purple. He couldn't even put together a full sentence. "Mommy! (wheeze) I don't (cough, cough) feel good, Mommy! (wheeze)." It was so sad. We've known he's asthmatic for about a year now, but until this point it's been relatively mild. He caught a cold over the weekend and by morning it had settled squarely in his chest, and worse than I've ever seen.

So, after a morning and an afternoon trip to the pediatrician, three follow-up phone calls to said pediatrician, four inhaled treatments and two oral steroid tablets, we seem to have the situation under control. Right now, he's sitting on the couch in his pajamas watching "The Lion King" and I even managed to get him to eat a half a bagel - no easy feat since all day he was coughing so hard he could barely breathe, let alone eat anything.

For about the hundredth time since I've become a parent, I thought to myself today how lucky I am that any illnesses he's had have been relatively mild and controllable. Watching him struggle for air today was about the most heartbreaking thing I've ever experienced. Honestly, if I could have pulled my own lungs out and inserted them into his heaving little chest, I would have. I said this after Noah had his ear tubes surgery and I'll say it again: any parent with a chronically ill child should be given a medal. Or a huge cash prize. Or a new car. Or something, anything, that would help alleviate the suffering they must go through every day. They are all heroes. Seriously.

Brotherly Love

I am an only child (yes, I know, insert jokes about being spoiled and self-centered here - I've heard them all!) The sibling relationship has always fascinated me. Watching my husband with his brother, or my friends with their sisters - it's like everyone is part of a world I just can't understand. What is it like to have the same parents as someone else? What is it like to know that you can be so different, and fight, and argue, but have an unshakable, unbreakable bond, no matter what? When my father passed away five years ago, would having someone else who was feeling the same loss have made things any easier for me? It's just a relationship that I've never been able to comprehend, and have spent a lot of time pondering!

So now that I have two boys, who are becoming more and more interactive every day, my already-present fascination with siblings has just multiplied. The other day I took Noah and Sam to an open play-time at a local children's gym. It was crowded with three- and four-year olds, all of whom were on spring break from school and seemingly a little stir crazy. Noah ran around like a lunatic, while Sam and I sat together on the floor and I watched as he crawled from toy to toy. Sam was heading for a purple hula hoop when a wild-eyed, curly-haired approximately three year old spotted it and came barreling toward him at full speed. I started to hop up to avert the crisis when out of nowhere came Big Brother Noah, who planted himself in between the errant toddler and his baby brother, announcing, "DON'T HURT MY BABY SAM!" The chastised child slunk away, Sam happily chewed on the end of the purple hula hoop, and Noah resumed his racing around - leaving me to marvel at what I'd just witnessed. At four years old, Noah has already put himself in the role of protecting and looking out for his little brother. And Sam, clearly, will have greater access to the things he wants because Noah will help him to get them. What a gift! It's something I never had, and something I'm so grateful that my boys will.

So any of you who are lucky enough to have siblings - appreciate them! When you've walked a day in my shoes, having no one to make fun of my mom with; having no one to make me an aunt (by blood); having to live with the fear that my mom's aging process and whatever that entails will rest squarely on my shoulders - you'll be grateful to have a brother or sister.

A Mommy Quiz

There’s yet another quiz going around on Facebook, but this time the twist is that instead of answering the questions yourself, you pose them to your child. So of course, I had to try it with Noah. As you can probably guess, the answers were a mix of hilarious, confusing, and just plain…well, just plain Noah. Here’s a sampling!

 

1. What is something mom always says to you?  Don’t do it!
2. What makes mom happy? When I’m a good boy and don’t hurt my brother.
3. What makes mom sad? Not being a good listener.
4. How does your mom make you laugh? With funny words.
5. What did your mom like to do when she was a child? Eat baby food.
6. How old is your mom? Ninety. (Boy, guess it’s time to break out that night-time wrinkle cream!)
7. How tall is your mom? A lot of inches.
8. What is her favorite thing to watch on TV? Commercials. (Ok, we have DVR and I think the last time I watched a commercial was about three years ago!)
9. What does your mom do when you're not around? She works. (Um, I’m currently unemployed. But it’s good wishful thinking!)
10. What is your mom really good at? Projects!
11. What is your mom not very good at? Nothing. (Good answer - I swear I didn't coach him on that!)
12. What does your mom do for her job? She makes books. (Uh, formerly the editor for an on-line magazine. But close enough!)
13. What is your mom's favorite food? Cream of wheat. (Never eaten this in my life!)
14. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? Mickey Mouse. (Seriously?!)
15. What do you and your mom do together? We love each other. (Melting!)
16. How are you and your mom the same? We have brown hair. (Yes, but mine is brown from the salon - he doesn't know that yet!)
17. How are you and your mom different? I’m a boy and you’re a girl.
18. How do you know your mom loves you? Because I’m your cutie-pie!
19. What does your mom like most about your dad? That he’s cool. (I can hear all my girlfriends laughing right about now - they know the truth!)

It's worth trying out with your preschoolers - I guarantee it's good for at least a few laughs!

 

Mom Ideas

Did you ever notice that moms have the best ideas? Not to take anything away from men, or inventors, or geniuses in general, but I just think it's a fact that moms are particularly brilliant and inventive, especially when it comes to those ever-present problems to solve with kids. There's a saying that goes something like, "necessity is the mother of invention," but I think it should be revised to be "mothers are the necessity to inventions." (Or something similar that actually makes sense!)

Take, for example, my friend Lauren. When her daughter was about a year old, she figured out how to unsnap her one-piece sleeper pajamas and open up the sticky tabs on her diaper. Which meant that when Lauren came in to get her in the morning, her daughter would be in her crib, naked, happily painting the walls of her room with the poop from her diaper. (I know, EW!) So after a few nights of this, Lauren came up with the (brilliant) idea of snapping her daughter into her pajamas backwards - buttons up the back - where the baby couldn't reach them. And voila! No more Poopy Picasso. So simple, yet absolutely genius!

And then there's my friend Tracey -- an amazing mom who had two children thirteen months apart (on purpose!) She's solved the problem that all of us face, time and time again - how the heck to remember every thing you need to pack in order to travel with your children? To non-parents, this may sound like no big deal, but every parent will know what I mean: every month, the things kids need on trips change - at certain ages they need bottles, at certain ages sippy cups. At certain ages they need liquid medications, at certain ages they need chewable medications. And something is invariably forgotten on every trip (and depending on where you are, the missing item is not always readily available!) So every time Tracey packed for a trip with Noah, her older son, she typed the list of everything she packed and saved it on her computer, using his age at the time as the file name.  So now, when she travels with both children, it's that much easier for her to pack for Asher, her younger son - she just looks up her list of what she packed for the big brother at that age and replicates it. So simple, and also, absolutely brilliant!

And I've got to give props to myself (since hey, it's my blog!) for a recent a-ha! moment while Noah and I were painting. He loves to paint with watercolors, but always saturates the brush with too much water and not enough paint. This causes the paper he is painting on get too wet and tear, which frustrates him to no end. So now I give him paper plates to paint on. They're much thicker than paper, and the ridges on the edge give him a natural "frame" for his artwork. He's so much happier (and so am I, because it makes much less of a mess!)

What are your best "mom ideas"? Send them to me, and I'll write about them in future posts. We know that us moms have the best ideas, so let's share our wisdom with the world!