When to call the doctor

One of the hardest parts of being a parent is figuring out what to do when your children are sick. It is so easy to over react to every little thing. Normally by the time your 2nd one comes around you, parents have pretty much seen it all and done it all. Gone are the days of calling the pediatricians office for every sneeze, every bump, every cough.

So it made perfect sense that when Charlotte came down with a cold we did nothing. Virtually everyone we know with kids have colds. Its fall. Kids are back in school. Spreading germs by touching their little grubby hands on things then picking noses, eating food, rubbing eyes. You know how it goes.

Fast forward a week later and Charlotte still has a cold. Coughing like a 90 year old asthmatic. Oh and along the way she had a fever one night. Nothing too bad. Like 100 degrees or something. So what do we do? We give her some children's cold medicine. What happens? She wakes up covered in hives. Great an allergic reaction. So now we call the doctors. What do they tell us? Give her some Benadryl. Hives go away. The cold does not.

Obviously someone is not feeling well.


Knowing we are going away for the weekend, dad puts the request in to mom to calls the doctors, just to get her checked out. She is still coughing horribly (although he assumes a productive cough), but is also coughing so bad at night she makes herself puke. So much fun. So we visit the doctors and she tells us Charlotte has a "touch of pneumonia". A touch of it? What the hell does that mean? Charlotte lucks out and gets her own two week supply of pink antibiotics plus her own inhaler and face mask. Boy is she a lucky girl.

She is still hacking away and will not be going to school tomorrow. And to top things off she has shared her little "gift" with her 5 month old sister. She has her own aspirator to suck the snots out of her head. Such lucky girls.

Pneumonia and all we went away to Vermont for the weekend with Kelly & Dave and the kids. Destination. Oktoberfest at Mt. Snow. Lots of German beer, German Music, and the longest line in the history of the world for German food. What a great thing to do with kids with colds.




Dad had the brilliant idea to take Charlotte on a scenic chairlift ride to the top of the mountain. Seemed like a great thing to do on a beautiful sunny fall day. However, average age of those riding the lift 75. Therefore the lift was moving at about the same pace as a 75 year old with a walker. Time to the top...35 minutes. With a 2 year old coughing and calling for her mother it felt like 2 hours. Oh, then the return ride DOWN the mountain. Yet another 35 minutes. I should have asked for my $15 back.


Going up.
Coming down.


Brodie and Charlotte playing.


But the beer was cold.

Day two we were to visit the corn maze, pumpkin slingshot, and giant pumpkin eating dinosaur at the Apple Barn. The kids were all so excited to see these things. We get there and there is no corn maze. No giant pumpkin eating dinosaur. No pumpkin slingshot. There is however a giant tour bus with loads of leaf peepers visiting the store. Ugh.

So we did redeem the day with a visit to Park McCullough and the now famous "Mile Walk Around the Woods". We were smart and brought some apples and lettuce for the horses.

Dave, having some trouble with the stroller? It must be the very outdoorsy RedSox backpack.







Look kids, a REAL UNICORN!!!!!