Cold

It's been a good run, but Bobo got a cold.  He had a case of the sniffles back in the fall, but this is more.

Obviously, children get sick.  And you know how much I hate sick-blogging because ... gross.

However, I am going to say that when you have a Bobo (a kid with ear tubes, an unusually long list of previously contracted ailments, a history of developmental delay, once suspected immune deficiency, and a lifetime ban from child care), a cold can make the twitchin' set in. 

Mrs. Marie is home with Bobo today.  I held him in my arms while he slept pathetically last night.  His face is raw from the wiping (we've abandoned tissues and have moved on to the supersoft cloth diapers for nose wiping).  He's still teething, so his chin has actually been chapped from drool for over a week already.  He asks for Vaseline by brand name and wipes it onto his own face (just a week ago getting cream on him was like trying to get a cat into a carrier, but apparently he's seen the error of his ways).

But, I think he's going to be fine.  We instituted quarantine at the first sign of the sniffles Monday morning.  No library, no play group, no stores, etc.  His body seems to fight off infections just fine so long as he doesn't contract a second thing at the same time.

We're watching to see whether he develops ear drainage.  If he does, we'll be on the lookout for another yeast infection of the ear (or who knows what other plague may befall us this time). 

I suspect this cold will blow over, and it will not even be a footnote to our lives.  At least, that's what I hope.

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If you follow me on twitter, you would have seen a tweet Monday that went something like:  "Got a call from the teacher today.  Chuckles's behavior was 'suboptimal'."

The teacher gave me the whole thing.  It’s long and not all that interesting, but let’s say, he had to write his name on the board for being noisy in the hallway and the hallway is a known Quiet Zone.  He wouldn’t do it, so she did it for him, and then he went up there and erased it.  You might be saying to yourself, "Oh no, he didn't!"  But, oh, yes, he did.

Then he was given a time out in the coat closet ("I'm not going to drag you there, you have to bring yourself"), and he kept himself there for 15 minutes because he wasn’t ready to come out.  He eventually came out and had a good day otherwise. 

When he got home at lunch time, he freaked out, started crying, went to his room, put himself down for a nap, got up, freaked out, and then colored his behavior chart all green (where there had been some yellow warnings…he colored over them because he’s never bad, according to him).  He also kept wailing that he was no good, bad, and was worthless.  He's a challenge.

By the time I got home from work he was defiant and lying like a sociopath right to my face, so I got all matter-of-fact.  I made him apologize to me and his father for every separate thing he did wrong, then we brainstormed ways he could have handled things differently/better.  Reassurances of our undying love were given.  Then, I made him write his teacher a letter apologizing for his naughty behavior.  He hates to write and practice handwriting, so this was quite a punishment.  He did a really nice job.  (Although he didn't believe me that the word listen has a T in it, so he wrote lissen instead.  <-- Stubborn, that one is.)

By Tuesday, he was excited to give his teacher the note.  She was happy to receive it.  And she emailed me to tell me what a good job I'm doing with him.  Parenting FTW!