Bits and Pieces

I've thought of a couple of things to write about on here but none of them are really all that related, so I'll just write and see where the words take me. Excited? I bet.

Lately Everett has really been interested in Ashley. He loves it when we stand her up next to him so he can bend down and give her a hug, and he loves it when we lay her on his stomach. When she is in her swing I always catch him halfway on it with her (making the whole thing swing wildly), leaning over to give her kisses on her forehead. The other day he and I were sharing some apple slices and I saw him go over and try to cram one in her mouth. He is always putting food on the tray in her swing, and often if he finds one of her blankets he will bring it over to her and pile it on her. When I am holding Ashley or she is in her swing and Everett finds a pacifier, he loves to bring it over and stuff it in her mouth. He is usually not satisfied with just handing it to me; he wants to make sure she gets it where it is supposed to go.

Usually Ashley sleeps through whatever it is Everett is trying to do to her. She can be peacefully resting in her swing while Everett is throwing a tantrum right next to her, and she won't even twitch an eyelid. I guess this is the beauty of the second (/third/fourth/fifth/...) child. Everett could only sleep in his bed and only if I put him down a specific way. Ashley can sleep whenever, wherever she likes, and she is happy simply if she has gotten enough to eat.

Joel remarked the other day that he can tell Ashley is the second child because I hold her far less than I did Everett. Part of that was that Everett refused to be put down. Thankfully Ashley is happy to just sit and look around most of the time. I know this has a lot to do with temperament but I think it is partially because of her place in our family's "pecking order". If all my babies will be this easy, I could committ right now to having ten.

Most Wanted Painting

A few weeks ago I stumbled on something that really piqued my interested. That something is one of the projects of Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid, Russian "nonconformist" artists. Some of their collective works were controversial enough to get them expelled from the Soviet Artist Union (1973) and arrested from an art show in 1974. Later, many of their works were destroyed by Soviet authorities at another art show. By1978 they were living in New York city and worked on various projects together, and in 1994 they came up with an interesting idea: to find out what the most popular painting would be (by nation).

You can find their project here. To give you a little glimpse, this is what they found to be the most popular type of painting in the US (this was done by using extensive polls questioning people about different aspects of their preferred art):

(dishwasher size)

Note George Washington, a family, and a group of deer. Apparently they found that people liked historical figures to be in their paintings so they determined that George Washington was the most popular.

This is their depiction of the USA's least favorite painting:

(paperback size)

Now, most of the countries have similar paintings denoted as their most popular--landscapes with lots of blue, trees, mountains, a few animals, etc. But then you have countries like...

Holland

(magazine size)

Germany

(37.5 cm x 37.5 cm)

Italy

(dishwasher and television size)

....And incidentally, some of these same countries had the most unique "least favorites" as well (most were tiny and abstract like the US's):

Holland

(wall size)

I especially think Italy's is funny because It has Elvis and a Power Ranger in it. Do they have something against American pop culture? Granted, I think it is the ugliest painting on the list too, but it's still funny to me that they picked those things to put in the painting.

If you go to the link I provided at the beginning of the post, you can see the favorite and least favorite paintings for all 15 countries surveyed; you can see the results (and questions) of the survey; and read a description of the project. I would really recommend going there. It doesn't take long to see the paintings and it is really quite interesting (though I'm sure not to everyone).

Apparently later they decided to poll all of Webdom and come up with the Internet's most and least wanted paintings:

Most:

Least:

I'm not sure I agree or understand the reasoning behind everything that is in the paintings based on the survey questions...but it is interesting to see what Komar and Melamid came up with, anyway.

The Real Story

Here is the information about Everett's hospital stay Thursday and Friday, for those of you who want to know the gritty details.

I posted a little about Everett's illness. His breathing was very labored and so I looked that condition up online to see what I could learn about it. Apparantly if the areas between the ribs are caving in with each breath (and the whole chest area, even), it is a sign of respiratory distress. Those of you who know Everett know he is a pretty solid little guy, so when I saw how deeply his ribs were showing I knew there was a pretty big problem.

Even so, I called the pediatrician and explained the situation because I know that sometimes the Internet is not always the best medical resource. He balked a little after my explanation and proceeded to tell me that I needed to get him to the hospital as soon as possible. The way he talked to me made me feel like he was amazed that I was even talking to him rather than having gone straight to the hospital. I had never seen this type of situation before so I didn't know how seriously to actually take it.

Then it took me a few minutes to get through to Joel, who was playing basketball at the church. He came right home as soon as he realized it was his phone that kept ringing. I mentioned how I would like to take Everett but I knew I had to stay home to feed Ashley. Joel understood and happily volunteered to feed Ashley formula for the night while I took Everett to the hospital. I was so grateful for that. My "momma bear" instinct was kicking in and I think I would not have been happy sitting at home and not making the decisions for him.

When we got to the hospital they took one look at him (his breathing was getting worse by the minute) and brought us to the back immediately without even waiting for me to fill out any paperwork--a first for me in the emergency room.

Everett was so miserable he did not even protest the oxygen mask he had to wear for the next little while. Later when he was feeling better, though, he obviously refused to have anything by his face.

After an examination and an x-ray, all of which took surprisingly long considering the emptiness of the ER, the doctors told us that he was in "acute respiratory distress" and that he needed a dose of steroids and a nebulizer treatment. They considered it a full-on asthma attack and were flabbergasted that there was no history of Asthma in either family. After a few hours of treatments they decided that his oxygen levels were still too low to go home to the admitted us to the pediatric unit. By this time it was 4am and Everett had not really gotten more than a few minutes' worth of sleep.

The next morning Everett's oxygen count was much better, but his chest was still retracting (sinking with each breath rather than expanding) and his breathing rate and heart rate were still high. We saw the pediatrician from our regular office and he determined that Everett had a respiratory tract infection and let us know that the wrong infection in the wrong person can cause a reaction like this, so that must have been what happened (apparently there were alot of people in the hospital with the same problem so it is going around). I was surprised to hear this because his symptoms came on so suddenly. They still considered it an asthma attack, but they do not know if this is going to be a chronic problem, something that we have to watch for over the next few years until he gets older, or a one-time occurrence.

So, we were able to go home Friday night which was nice because Everett's energy was back (plus some of the meds made him a little hyper) and keeping a toddler confined in a hospital is not the most fun for anyone involved. He can only watch movies for a few minutes at a time, after all.

We need to give him an inhaler treatment every four hours and steroids twice a day for the next three days. The only bad thing about the inhaler treatment is that he hates it and screams through the whole process, so getting him back to sleep at night is quite the issue. Since we obviously can't just let him cry it out due to the problem with his lungs, we have been a little lax with making him sleep in his bed.

I think that about sums it up. I know this is more information than many of you care to know but here it is all the same. Everett is happy and energetic today, but he has really dark circles under his eyes and is still a little pale. His breathing is much better which is a huge relief.

My main concern at this point is for Ashley. If this is really a communicable infection then I'm sure she has already had the germs. I'm really hoping that the illness that I have is the same thing that Everett had because that means she has gotten some good antibodies through nursing. So far she is looking good, so I am trying not to be paranoid about her breathing.

New Outfit

Everet was sick enough last night that I thought I would let him wear a new outfit as a reward for being so pitiful.

It was in very good taste--a loose cotton with two bright yellow ties in the back, complete with a patterning of sleeping tigers all over the fabric.

Pretty special, huh?

Oh, and I should also make mention of the fact that we love him so much we thought he deserved a one night stay in the most expensive kind of room he'll ever sleep in.

Curious? It's at a place called Reston Hospital, if you'd like to check it out yourself (but don't order the lentil soup).

Yep, that's right! We let Everett be waited on hand and foot, and he never even had to leave his bed. What nice parents we are.

The entire time the doctors would keep our interest with phrases like, "acute respiratory distress"...."retraction of the chest"...."low oxygen count".

Honestly, it kept me on the edge of my proverbial seat. It was the most exciting night I have had in a long time.

BUT,

Before I give more details I should get some sleep. Seeing as I got less than two hours of sleep last night, plus a short nap this afternoon, and have been hit with some sort of nasty respiratory bug myself,

I'd better wait until tomorrow when I can string more than two words together at a time.

On that note...Tune in next time for the very exciting saga entitled "Everett, his lungs, and the thousand-dollar-room."

(In the meantime please cross your fingers with me that we don't end up having a sequel featuring Ashley.)

Sickie(s)

This morning Everett had a case of the sniffles.

This afternoon Everett had a case of the sniffles and a sore throat.

This evening Everett had a case of the sniffles, sore throat, coughs, and fever.

Then I put him to bed early, went to Walmart, and came home.

After I came home, I found him pathetically draped over his giant stuffed doggie, both of them on the couch watching 101 Dalmations....

....with the case of the sniffles, sore throat, coughs, fever, and very labored breathing.


I was fine with all of that other stuff until the labored breathing decided to manifest itself (thankyouverymuch). Now I just have to decide whether he is sick enough to warrant a visit to Urgent Care. But, seeing as he has now fallen asleep on the couch next to me and his color is very good, I think I'll wait.

But waiting is the hard part when his lungs sound like he has been running a marathon with a bad case of bronchitis.

My poor baby. I am tough enough on myself when I get sick that most of the time I don't bother telling anyone...but when it is my little boy it is harder to not dwell on it. Sometimes I wish he could talk to me enough to answer all the symptomatic questions I'm dying to ask him.

And then there's the fact that I am in a battle with myself over keeping him home or going to the doctor's office only to hear exactly what I knew I would: "It's just a virus (or "I'm not sure what's wrong"). If it's still there in a few days, bring him back. Oh, and that will be 20 dollars, please (200-something if we didn't have insurance)."

It's a good thing I don't tend to get too worked up over illness--I'm a big fan of trusting my instincts.

Oh, well, he's awake now. If I don't go sit by him he will start to get upset again. Poor guy!

Recreational Hitting

Everett has begun a new practice in this house....recreational hitting. Of his little sister, that is.

I wondered if this would start and now it has. Most of the time he does it out of curiosity (in a "will she cry this time?" kind of way), but sometimes he does it out of frustration that she is taking my attention. Those times really only happen when I am feeding her. Usually I try to read to him or involve him in a game while I am tending to her but sometimes all he wants is for me to put her down so he can sit on my lap all by himself.

I've been punishing him accordingly, but in a way it is interesting to watch how his interest in Ashley changes. Ashley is an absolute peach, though. If he aggravates her she only stays upset for as long as he is doing it. She calms quickly and easily. I do not deserve such a good baby! I thought Everett was a good baby, but compared to her he was difficult. I guess I had no one to compare him to at the time.

Ferberize

So who here agrees with the Ferber Method (letting your child "cry it out")?

Everett has been such a good and willing sleeper until lately when he will come to the door, banging, yelling, screaming, crying and anything else he can think of. This will last for a very very long time (our poor neighbors!). Usually he goes down fine initially but then he wakes up later and demands to either come out or for one of us to lay down with him (not something we indulge him with).

I hope this is only a short phase because I worry that the neighbors are bothered by it. I haven't had any complaints. I suppose I also don't want anyone to think there is child abuse going on here :).

I have been trying to let him cry it out because I don't want him to get in the habit of thinking he can get back up and just hang out with us. If he needs something, that is fine. But getting up just because he can or wants to isn't okay with me.

But I do have this nagging worry that he is scared or uncomfortable or something else that I can fix that he isn't able to tell me about. I guess time will tell on this one. Hopefully our neighbors won't want to kick us out by then!