Mom Scouts

Last Friday I earned two new Mom Scout badges: Bare-Handed Puke Catcher and Bathtub Poop Scooper. I guess I was pretty lucky to go over a year without earning those particular badges. It all started on Friday morning around 5:30 a.m., Chloe's preferred wake up time. We went downstairs to get a cup of milk like usual when all of a sudden she started to puke. Instinctively, I stuck my hands out to catch it. It was mostly mucous so I didn't think much of it, but about an hour later I sat her in her highchair for breakfast, and she started to gag again. This time I caught twice the amount of puke.

Unfortunately, some if it ended up down her shirt, so we went straight to the tub. I washed her all up and she was just playing like a good girl when my Mom said she would watch her while I went downstairs. Well about 30 seconds later I hear "Aaah YOU ARE POOPING!" I ran upstairs and sure enough there was something floating in the tub that certainly didn't belong there. I scooped out the poop and flushed it down the toilet. Okay I know this is a little graphic, but my point is that prior to 7:00 a.m. I had already caught puke in my hands TWICE and scooped poo out of the tub.

Chloe still wasn't feeling well in the afternoon. My Mom called and said Chloe was very off balance and was crying a lot. Her fever was about 102 degrees even with Tylenol.  I made her an appointment to see the doctor. Mind you, I was complaining the whole time, because it seems like every single week that my Mom is here we are going to the doctor. I am the type to never go to the doctor. In fact, I didn't even open Chloe's thermometer until she was about four months old. It seems like every Monday Chloe goes to daycare feeling fine, but by Wednesday she has a runny nose, and by Friday she has a cold that has got my Mom thinking a visit to the doctor is in order. This winter the doctor has told us about five times and about $400 later that Chloe has a cold. (I'm sorry, Mom, I'm not blaming you per se, but you are batting, like, two-hundred.)

This time was different, though, because this time Chloe had a double ear infection. Poor baby had to get an antibiotic. She is now about half way through the medicine, and is starting to feel better. At least she doesn't have a fever anymore. But she is turning into a bubblegum flavored amoxicillin junky.  The doctor said that most kids have had four ear infections by the age of one.  Good job, Chloe!

Anyway, I figured I get to add my new badges to my recent collection, which include:

Board Book Memorizer - for the ability to read Chloe's favorite books without looking at the words while doing a variety of daily activities.

Poop Inspector - for the instinct to do a quick once over on a poopy diaper to ensure there are no rouge pennies.

Booger Picker/Snotty Nose Wiper - for the successful removal of the stickiest of boogers and runniest of noses using a tissue, shirt sleeve, finger, and/or shoulder.

Early Riser - for waking up every single morning at 5:30 a.m. for over a year.

Sure, they aren't exactly glamorous, but I am quite proud of them!  Oh, and Paul gets an honorary badge.  I'm going to call it something simple and self-explanatory like... I-didn't-quite-get-all-of-the-poop-out-of-the-drain, so-when-Paul-took-his-shower-after-work-and-tried-to-figure-out-why-the-tub-wasn't-draining, he-stuck-his-finger-in-the-drain, wriggled-it-around-a-bit, removed-his-finger, and-proceeded-to-sniff-said-finger, and-in-doing-so-he-confirmed-that-there-was-indeed-poop, human-poop-in-the-tub.  I think that has a nice ring to it, don't you?