Busy Saturday, No Fooling

Mom and Jake arrived from Maine last night for a short visit. They will be staying at Mom's friend Mary's house. The boys were almost as excited as I was to see Mom. She was especially pleased by Matthew's warm greeting; in the past, he used to hang back a little when he first saw her.

"He's much more outgoing now, isn't he?" she commented. I agreed. Other people have made similar observations recently. I think between learning to read and starting his swimming lessons last week, Matthew is developing some self-confidence, which makes him less reserved.

Matthew sat on the couch and cuddled with his Nana for awhile last night. Then he started to complain about his right ear hurting. At first I wondered whether he was just looking for some attention and sympathy. Daniel had just been diagnosed with an ear infection earlier that day, which is what made me suspicious. In the past, however, whenever Matthew has complained of pain in his ear, it has always turned out to be infected so I thought I'd better call the doctor's office. Fortunately they have Saturday morning office hours, so I was able to bring him in early this morning.

I reminded the pediatrician that Matthew had been on a daily maintenance dose of antibiotic to prevent ear infections from early December until just last week. "He'd had three ear infections between September and November, but the daily antibiotic helped; he didn't have a single infection while he was on it," I said.

The doctor checked both ears. "Well, he has a double infection now. Tell you what: once we get this infection cleared up, we'll put him back on the maintenance dose until June."

Poor Matthew. He'd been so thrilled to be done with his daily amoxicillin, "the pink stuff." Now, he'll have another few months of it.

The only good news we had was that the doctor gave Matthew the OK to go to his swimming lesson today. All three boys started swimming lessons last week; Matthew, in particular, loves the water. When I told him this morning there was a chance he would not be allowed to go swimming, his face became a picture of sorrow, with silent tears running down his cheeks.

When we arrived home, Mom was here alone with Daniel and Stephen. Tab, Jake, and Jake's twin brother Al, who lives in Pennsylvania, had left for a woodworker's convention up in Edison, New Jersey. Jake and his brother are both independent contractors so they are looking forward to meeting with some vendors and checking out new tools.

After an early lunch, Stephanie came to pick up the twins and take them to a children's play at the Off Broad Street Theater in Hopewell, leaving Mom, Daniel and me. Mom and I decided to go bargain shopping. A couple of the area's Eckerd Drug stores are closing, and everything is at least half price. At the first store I found a Darth Maul costume for 75 percent off. Daniel already has the costume, of course, but I figured the cape alone was worth the $4 since it could be used for other costumes. I also got inexpensive sticker books for the twins and a Star Wars puzzle for Daniel. Mom and I both bought hair color and vitamins. There wasn't much else at either of the stores; they had already been well picked over.

We also visited two of the local dollar stores where I found some good deals on rotelli pasta (three pounds for a dollar) and Mom bought some cookies.

Daniel was very good about accompanying us on our expedition, even though he was becoming bored by the third store. It's a lot easier to shop with him than with the twins since he is old enough not to wander away. Nor does he touch everything in sight as Stephen does. I'll have to try taking him out by himself more often. I don't usually get to spend time just with Daniel as I do with his brothers.

We got home in the mid-afternoon. Stephanie and the twins were already there, having returned from The Three Little Pigs. Both Stephen and Matthew said they had enjoyed the play, and Stephanie reported that they had behaved very well.

Soon it was time to go to the boys' swimming lessons. Tab, Jake, and Al still weren't back from the convention, so we left without them. They joined us at the pool about midway through the lesson. Afterward we all went back to our house for pizza and the end of our long, very busy day.

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