Sounds Like Trouble

Today started out well enough. Harper slept much better last night and was in excellent spirits this morning. So I'm thinking her little cold, or whatever it was, is pretty much behind us. We had a nice game of socks and shoes on hands to get the day moving. It cracks me up, the way anything in the wrong place is totally hilarious to a toddler.


The second activity of the day involved opening an early birthday present from some good friends. Harper enjoyed reading her card, but the best was reading Belly Button Book and listening to our new copy of the Free to Be You and Me CD.



Opening presents will get any day off to a pretty nice start -- thanks Erin and family!

After our gift opening, and putting socks and shoes on feet (a much less popular game), we headed to the mall to meet Harper's friend Dana and Dana's mom for a little play time in a new area there. It was toddler and mommy heaven. There were interesting things to climb on and see, comfortable seating for me, and lots of room to run and dance to the music being piped into the mall corridors.



Harper enjoyed exploring the play area, though I think she was a little disappointed that there wasn't anyone to actually talk with on the giant cell phone. You have to give her credit for trying.


We joined Dana and her mom for lunch in the food court and then headed home. Even though it was early, Harper seemed sleepy in the car -- this should have been my first clue that the day was about to take a downward turn.

Due to the drooping eyelids in the back seat I decided to skip a trip to the grocery store and head home for an early nap. As we sat down to read books, I noticed that Harper was wheezing. She didn't seem uncomfortable, but it sounded pretty nasty so I thought I'd better call the doctor, just to be safe. Once I told the nurse that Harper was wheezing, she said I definitely needed to bring her in. Ugh! Of course I wanted to have things checked out if Harper was sick, but you might recall that the doctor is not her favorite person to visit.

I did lots of talking about how the doctor was a good helper and was just going to check things. I had Harper saying, "Checka my eas? Checka my tummy?" And she didn't seem worried. She was fine in the waiting room; nervous, but composed in the exam room; slightly panicked when the doctor walked in; but she did really well over all. At least until they decided she needed a breathing treatment and came in and strapped a mask to her face and then turned on a noisy machine. That, as you can imagine, did not go over so well. The first couple of minutes she screamed like crazy and did everything in her toddler power to get that mask off her face. I finally managed to calm her down enough to finish. . . we opted for a modified inhaler treatment for at home, the machine being another option. I decided I would rather not reenact that screaming scene over and over.

It turns out, Harper has some kind of virus and will just need a little help in the form of a few breathing treatments and drugs to get it out of her system. Should be a fun couple of days! The good news is that she really doesn't seem to be feeling badly at all. Despite the wheezing she was running around and dancing in the kitchen while I made dinner tonight. We are going to try to take it easy and hopefully all the illness will have moved out of this house before the birthday celebrations begin next week. We'll cross our fingers.