Fatherhood

Jen had e-mailed to ask if she should take Patrick in to see the doctor. Knowing he has had a persistent cough (although not bad ... just not going away), I told her to take him ... I expected the visit to occur once she got off work. I learned that she took him much earlier than I expected ... as I got a text message from the pharmacy saying that his prescription was ready. Then, things got exciting. About an hour later, I got a call from his daycare saying he had thrown up and I had to come get him ... since I was only twenty minutes from the end of the day, I left right away. On the way, I called Jen's work and cell phones and left messages, letting her know what was going on. I called the doctor's office to determine what I was dealing with ... thankfully, nothing major. I also got the bright idea to call the pharmacy ... to find out that Jen had not picked up his medication. I stopped in on the way and got it! Then, I finally got to Patrick ... he looked fine, ...

Two days ago, I was getting Patrick dressed ... he was home sick and I stayed to take care of him for the day. After getting him dressed, we played. At one point, he looked like he was getting sleepy and I took him back to my bedroom and put him on the bed. What I didn't notice ... but he did ... was a clean diaper sitting in the middle of the bed. He got hold of it and started swatting at me. We both laughed. Jen loved the story as I told it to her the next morning ... what a cool way to start Mama's day! This morning, as I was getting ready for work, Patrick started playing Peek-a-Boo with me ... tilting his head in from the hall, "Peek," then back into the hall again. Over and over we played, smiles on everyone's faces. He has this incredible laugh that just reverberates ... anytime I can get him to laugh, I go for it ... There are so many things that little man does that make me smile ... the list could go on forever!

  Can you believe that I had no idea how to spell "croup" two days ago? Thank you Google. I arrived at my parents to find my wife and son in the bathroom with the shower running ... I am not sure what thoughts were running around in my head as I heard where they were, but croup was not one of them. Then, I heard it ... croup. And ... so aptly named. In anguish, I was trying to remember everything I knew about child-rearing and croup ... it didn't take but a second, or two. Again, thank you Google. After a quick refresher on what we were up against, I made a quick trip (with Jen ... my parents gave us a break from watching Patrick, knowing we were heading for a long night) ... to get a cool humidifier for his room. Everything together, we headed home. He did get to sleep, after two rough attempts where he coughed himself awake, having trouble breathing because of all the crying he was doing. He did get to sleep ... in between his parents, both watching him ...

Patrick had a rough week while we were on vacation. His allergies kicked in while we were out of town. Lots of coughing and medication later, we got home ... noticing a mild rash that may have stemmed from a new tooth coming in (yes, those two factors do seem to go together somehow). Now, he has picked up something else that is causing diarrhea (think changing the diaper every fifteen to thirty minutes) which has irritated the rash ... taking things to a whole new level. I got called by Patrick's day-care part way through my work day; severe rash and five diaper changes that were getting progressively more painful due to the consistency ... thankfully, I am a good trainer and my students were working through the launch of the software extremely well. I called Jen and left ... I had to stop by and swap vehicles since she had two things in her vehicle that I didn't in mine: the car seat and air conditioning (necessity with a sick child and consistently 90+ temperatures). ...