I may have created a monster...

Mairead was not feeling well on Friday night and woke up Saturday morning with fever of 101.4. She had also woken up crying in the middle of the night a few times, which she NEVER does. I called the pediatrician to have her seen since I suspected an ear infection. So, while I was getting her ready to go to the doctor, I asked, "do you want to go bye with Mom?" She signed 'car' and yelled, "Target! Target!"

Yikes. How bad is that?

In my defense, I did take her to Target last Saturday and she loved it. There are circles everywhere, pictures of a dog on all the signs, and we bought a dinosaur that she is in love with. Not bad.

So we are in the car and she is saying, "Target. Shopping. Dinosaur." I was actually pretty psyched because I knew she was remembering our trip last week, and using words to verbalize that she knew where we were going and she knew what we would do there. Pretty cool!

The not so cool thing is that she has a double ear infection. We are lucky in that this is only the third EI in her lifetime, but I wish she weren't feeling so lousy. We have been watching a lot of Sesame street and hanging out on the couch.

I just love everything about our new pediatrician's office- they are kind, easy to work with, organized, and my favorite- efficient and timely. We have never had to wait more than a few minutes to be called in, and then just a few more minutes to be seen. It's a whole new world.

Anyway, yesterday we saw a Nurse Practitioner that we had not met before. She was wonderful with Mairead. Mairead has serious anxiety about doctors. In fact, we literally pulled in to a parking space at the office and Mairead was saying, "No, no. No thank you." She knew where we were going and was not happy about it. Granted, she has only been there three times, and two of those times were for shots, so I guess I can't blame her.

When the NP came in, she started talking to Mairead as she would any 3 year old, so I explained that Mairead had delays, problems with receptive language, etc, and that she didn't understand.

The NP immediately switched her approach. Slowed down, talked more quietly and in simpler sentences. She showed Mairead the stethescope, let her touch it, and THEN listened to her heart. She took out the otoscope and showed M how it made circles of lights. On her book, on her hand, on her arm, and then up to her ears. She was awesome with her and Mairead visibly relaxed. She even counted along as the NP listened to her heartbeat. I was so impressed with her approach and her understanding. She is also the mom of triplets, so I am sure she has a lot of patience!

Despite her anxiety, Mairead really did well today. She made a lot of eye contact, said, "Hi doctor," counted for the NP while she listened to her heart, etc. It was pretty awesome, actually. It was almost like taking a typical kid to the doctor... I love moments when she is just a regular kid.

Oh, and she has been talking up a storm this weekend! I have actually teared up a couple of times because I was so proud of her! This morning, we were sitting in the family room and she smiled at me, signed car, and said, "Target! Shopping!" I said, "No, honey, no Target today." She thought for a moment and said, "I...want... Target... please!" We are always encouraging her to make sentences, so I think that she figured that if she asked in a sentence, I would have to take her to Target. I think we are in trouble here...

Other random thoughts--

Today, the boys were running around with their toy broom and mop, and I thought to myself. They are so stinkin' cute. And there are two of them. And they're MINE! Every once in a while I just have staggering, "Oh my God, there are TWO of them!" feelings, but in a good way! How cool to have two adorable little ones at one time? They are playing with each other more and more lately, and it's really fun to watch.

Jack has become the more affectionate kid lately. If an adult stoops or crouches down, Jack runs over and hugs the person. Adorable. Ben makes use of his excellent balance to climb on furniture, stand up, and dance. It is SO hard to keep a straight face and tell him to get down because it is just so cute when he does it. I think he knows he is cute, so he can get away with a little bit more.

I was able to go out last night with some girls from a mom group and we had a great time. Dave was awesome about taking on kid duty on such a hot day, and even let me get a little extra sleep this morning after the boys had a lousy night sleep-wise. He is SO good with the kids-- we are lucky to have him!
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