Cool like Adam

Yesterday I took Adam to the doctor again since his cold was showing no signs of relenting and he was starting to have a really nasty vibrating sound in his chest when he breathed. They were really busy so we spent a little while in the waiting room. There was a 3 year old boy there with his dad and baby syster (maybe 8-9 months old), and a mom came in with her 3 year old boy. Her little boy started climbing on tables and she said "get down", "don't do that" -- but he kept doing it anyway. She looked around the room to see who was watching her and decided to quit trying to discipline him. The waiting room was silent while other parents kept their mouths shut - who are we to offer parenting advice to a woman we don't even know? We'll just silently judge instead.

Two seconds later the other little boy called out to her, "he didn't get down!" She turned a little red and picked up her kid and made him get down. The good little boy's father pretended to be very interested in fixing his daughter's shoe. Another woman and I tried to hide our smiles. She totally got called out on her parenting skills by a well-behaved 3-year-old. NICE.

I am in no way saying that I am or will be the perfect parent -- or even that you can always make your child behave perfectly in public - stuff happens - your kid has a bad day, you have too much in your hands or on your mind, whatever . . . no one is perfect. But she sat 6 inches from her son, told him to stop, he looked at her and deliberately did not listen because it was clear he never had to. And I literally watched her make the decision to not pursue it. It wasn't like he picked up a toy she didn't want him to play with - he was standing on a 3-foot tall table and clearly putting himself in danger. So yeah, I think it's pretty funny that it took a child to say what the rest of us were thinking.

When the doctor called us back she immediately saw that Adam was fussy and commented on it - he is never fussy and didn't utter a single cry when I took him last week. So she knew something wasn't quite right.

The diagnosis: early signs of bronchitis.
The treatment: antibiotics twice a day and breathing treatments with a nebulizer 3 to 4 times a day.
I'm working from home the rest of this week so I can do that for him.

While at the doctor's office they gave him some Respirex with the nebulizer and left me there to hold him while he cried. He really was not feeling well yesterday, it was a different environment and he had just had enough. The picture to the left really captures his misery, I think. It was the longest ten minutes of my life, listening to him cry, trying to keep him from wriggling out of my lap, and holding either the mask or his hands to keep him from ripping it off of his face (which he was very talented at).

When we got home I was a little nervous to put him through it again, so I tried to make him comfortable. I put him in his bouncer sitting as straight up as possible. I had fed him 30 minutes earlier. I turned the compressor on and put the mask on, then held his hands and talked to him. He didn't cry once. In fact, he smiled at me the entire time. The same thing happened when we did it last night, and when I hooked him up this morning. It really does take a lot to get this kid to complain. (picture below)

Shannon and I are amazed by him and his laid-back personality. He is so easy. If he fusses it's usually when he's hungry - don't you dare dawdle when it's time for Adam to eat - or he's tired and no one will leave him alone. If you put him in his crib when he's tired, he'll lay there and talk to himself and play until he falls asleep, or he falls asleep immediately. He sleeps through the night from 9:30 to 5-6. If he wakes up earlier I will go and give him his pacifier and he will go right back to sleep. He loves people and will smile at most, will talk to many. He'll have long conversations with us about all the things that he's thinking - and they sound like wonderful, interesting stories.

The times that he's the cutest, poor thing, is when he cries. He scrunches up his face and kinda "yells" at you and your heart breaks and you want to give him a hug, but you smile because it's just so cute. With this recent cold he does this adorable little thing when he coughs where he does a half-sigh/half-refreshing breath at the end of his cough.

"Cough, cough, cough. Ahhhhh......" Like he just drank a refreshing coca-cola during a superbowl commercial. It's hilarious.

Cough, cough, cough. Ahhhhh.... I wish I could be cool like Adam in everyway.