A Trip to the Desert

It was a rough week. Matthew came home from school on Monday with a fever and ear ache. The weather has been nice in the 70's but the allergens in the air were bad for everyone. I had a scratchy throat and sinus drainage with watery eyes, too. Matthew's nose was running, making it hard for him to breathe at night. I took him to the doctor Tuesday morning after tending to him throughout the night for his fever. He woke up at 2am and he was really hot. I gave him some ibuproferen with some damp wash cloths on his forehead and it eventually went down. I was exhausted that next morning. The doctor prescribed a stronger antibiotic than previously and some allergy medicine. He noticed a trend with ear infections every spring from March through May. He suggested that we give Matthew allergy medicine on a daily basis in the spring to mitigate the sinus that will in turn reduce the ear infections. Matthew had an ear infection not long ago in the same ear so the doctor was skeptical that it never really healed all the way. Matthew was telling us that his ear was broken for the past couple of weeks but his mood was good so we thought he was just saying that for attention or just repeating those words from before. I guess we should listen to him.

I kept Matthew home from school for 3 days. His fever finally went away Wednesday evening and Thursday I kept him home to get some more rest. He took a late nap on Wed so he didn't get in the bed until 11pm on Wed night. I really didn't want to wake him up so early to go to school on Thursday since he needed the rest, so I just kept him home that day, too. I could tell in his eyes that he was not 100%. Throughout the day he started getting more energy. The first couple of days he just laid on the couch and watched Dora episodes on tv. On Thursday, he started running around with more energy. I took him to Corner Bakery for lunch just to get out of the house and as he was getting into the car, he ran smack dab into the edge of the car door on his forehead. It left a bruise and bump. I felt awful for the little guy. He continued to fall around the house and hit his head continually throughout the rest of the night. I think his balance is off with this ear infection or something.

Andy went to Tuscon for work on Wed so I was holding up the fort at home. It can be very trying to watch a baby and sick toddler but I survived. Thank goodness that Audrey is so easy going. Whenever I want to take a nap, I just put her in the bed with me and she will snuggle up and go to sleep. Matthew resisted his naps and then cried when I made him go down. But once he was down, he was down for 3 hours! So I know that he needed the rest.

On Saturday, we headed to Scottsdale to visit Lori and Bryan and meet up with Daddy. We tried to fly out Friday night but there were thunderstorms in the area and the flights were a mess. We went to Love Field and flew on Southwest Airlines as standby passengers (a nice benefit of working for an airline). Matthew did really well on the flight (and so did Audrey). The flight stopped in El Paso and Matthew wanted to get off the plane but I told him we had to stay and go on to Pheonix. He almost cried because he really wanted to be there already and said "I want to go to El Paso, I don't want to go to Pheonix"

He saw daddy once we arrived at the airport and he ran over to him. Andy was so happy to see us. We stayed at Lori's house and enjoyed dinner at Oregano's Pizza and breakfast by her pool in the nice desert air. No allergies there ! Matthew played with Sadie ( chocolate lab) and he really liked going in and out of her doggy door. We went to the park by their house and Matthew loved it.