Not so healthy...

Robin (and Liam) had a spate of poor health in mid-January.  It started on the 16th, when Robin aspirated a piece of carrot he was eating for lunch.  The first thing he did was scream, and then he coughed and gagged and screamed and coughed and gagged some more.  I never worried that he couldn't breathe because he was crying through the whole episode, and after he stopped gagging I figured it was over.  However, three hours later, after the rest of lunch and some quiet time, he was still wheezing from the experience.  A call to the pediatrician and a trip to the ER confirmed that there was a bit of food in his right lung.  Luckily, he managed to cough it up on his own that evening (if he hadn't they would have had to anethesize him and scope it out) but they still wanted to keep him overnight to watch him and have the surgeon confirm it in the morning.

He wasn't allowed to eat or drink overnight, because if they'd had to take him into surgery they much prefer an empty stomach.  In order to keep him hydrated, then, he had to have an IV.  Poor little guy.  In order to keep him from interfering with the insertion of the IV they wrapped him up like a burrito in a sheet with just his one arm out.  I sat by his head to comfort him.  He didn't do too bad, and they managed to use a surface numbing agent so it didn't hurt him when they inserted it.  After they had him wrapped up but before they inserted the IV he told the nurse "please don't eat me."  At first I thought that was funny, but then realized it was probably part of a real fear.  He didn't know what was going on and they'd just told him they were turning him into a burrito.  :(
However, he didn't seem too terribly fazed by most of the experience.  He loved exploring the hospital and was running up and down the hallway and climbing on all the furniture (completely oblivious to the hour, although he was on overdrive after a while.)  He was a little worried about carrots after it was all over, however.  He now wants them cut very thin, and told me the next day that he doesn't want to choke again.  I told him I don't want him to choke again either, but he doesn't need to be afraid of carrots.

Between going to bed really late and waking up early in the hospital, Robin was pretty tuckered out the next day.  After his nap he was still tired, and wound up falling asleep again on the floor at the head of the stairs.  Fortunately, the following day he was completely normal again.  We went into the pediatrician for a follow up and they confirmed that everything seemed to be back to normal.

We then had a few days or normalcy.  One of the books we recently got from the library is called "Daddy Makes the Best Spaghetti," and is about a little boy helping his father make dinner and then the father getting the boy ready for bed.  Dean decided to emulate most of the book one night.  Here they're having a parade with the pots and utensils.

Robin helping to wash the vegetables

and ripping up lettuce for salads

Consulting the book to see what's next

Setting the table

Liam surrounded by toys, so he wouldn't get bored

Awww!

After giving Liam baths facing toward the wall for all this time (probably because that's the easiest angle for me to wash him from) I realized that I ought to spin him around so he can see Robin better.  I decided this mid-bath, and asked Robin to keep Liam from falling over while I maneuvered the baby tub.  They looked so cute together, I couldn't resist a picture.  Robin, however, did not want to pose for this one.

Facing each other!

The next health issue is that Liam has started giving us potential food allergy scares.  He hasn't had any reactions that are nearly as bad as Robin was when he had egg, but he got blotchy and red after starting a new food.  Said food has since been delayed for a month or two, and if it happens again we'll call the allergist and set him up with an appointment.

Still a happy boy, even though he's got red on his face.  It's weird though, because he was really sucking this new food down as though he really liked it, which I have a hard time picturing anybody doing to something they're allergic to--especially a single-ingredient food, not where it's mixed in with other good tastes.  It also started around his eye, making us wonder if he got something in that eye and the irritation spread.  Maybe.  We'll find out.  A few weeks after this, he did something similar with another new food, although the signs really pointed to getting food in his eye that time.  We tried that food again the next day and are *pretty sure* there's no allergy involved.  We're still being cautious though.

Robin wrote the M, H, and N all by himself!

A week after aspirating the carrot, Robin made another impromptu trip to the doctor (though not the ER this time.)  He started getting a cold over the weekend which progressed normally for a few days, but then one evening he started to wheeze.  The following day he was absolutely miserable.  He cried/whined/whimpered CONSTANTLY, even while eating, and he didn't want to do anything.  He was still wheezing too, so I called the pediatrician and they told us to come in.  (I probably would have called even if he wasn't wheezing, because he was just so completely miserable.  He stopped crying for a while when I sat him in front of the TV, though he slumped over sideways while watching, and even then he suddenly started crying at unpredictable intervals.)  Anyway, at the ped they confirmed that his airways were constricted and gave him some albuterol at the office.  Because he'd recently aspirated the carrot, they sent us to get some chest x-rays to see whether he got pneumonia from the previous respiratory irritation.  He didn't, so they didn't give us any antibiotics.  They did, however, send us home with a nebulizer and a prescription for more albuterol.  This sets Robin on the same path I was on as a kid.  They can't diagnose him with asthma unless this sort of thing happens repeatedly, but unless he was simply vulnerable because of the carrot, it's a first step toward asthma.  Poop.  After we started treating his lungs, Robin started turning back into himself.  It took him about a week to throw this cold off (during which time Liam caught it, and stuffed-up babies are NO FUN, especially at night) but he's doing much better now.  And I'm hoping we don't have to repeat this.

Since getting sick so much in a short period of time, Robin has started playing doctor.  We have a stethoscope, which I was using to listen to his lungs, and he now takes it, places it on multiple places on our chests/backs, and listens to us.  When he's finished, he puts the stethoscope over the back of his neck (that part makes me smile.)  He will also go get a toy or something to give to us, as our medicine.

The other day he also told me "I'm a doctor.  I'm a woman."  *grins*  There are certainly worse images of women that he can have!  (The funny thing is, though, while the majority of doctors he saw in the past few weeks were women, not all of them were.)

After the boys finally threw their colds, I was crazy to get out of the house.  However, this post is plenty long so I'll save those pics for another one.