st. patrick's day

we've had quite the day. it started out great, just as planned. it had to do with st. patrick's day. rainbow painted nails (above), a visit from a leprechaun, green breakfast and outfits. problem is photobucket is acting up and won't let me upload any of my pictures, so i'll just go ahead and tell you about the lame part of our day, which started at ten.

we were at the gym and i heard my name paged to come to the playroom. nash had been coughing so much that we got the boot. he's been coughing on and off for a few weeks, but has been fine otherwise. he does this every spring-he seems fine until he is outside/in public and then begins to cough. and we're talking a chesty, dramatic cough. last week three moms started yelling at him at the park while he was hacking up a lung. luckily he can't hear over himself when it gets to that point! i realized i'm sick the mean looks i get from other moms and i'm sick of chasing my kid around the playground explaining to other moms that "he just has asthma," so we made an appointment for today* (because tomorrow he is supposed to start soccer).

luckily (and this is the only time i would ever wish for his symptoms be to bad) he woke up coughing and didn't stop (actually, he still hasn't stopped and it's eight at night). so the doctor witnessed first-hand what has been going on. during a nebulizer treatment he stopped coughing and got about twenty minutes of peace, but the cough came right back when the treatment ended. the doctor sent us to get blood drawn and for a chest x-ray. we'll find out the results next week, but for now the doc says he has bronchitis most-likely induced by asthma which is probably due to allergies. for safe-measure he put nash on an antibiotic, singulair (for allergies), and albuterol (inhaler for asthma). he's supposed to stay indoors for five days (no soccer), cut out all dairy/eggs**, and take local honey for the allergies.

he's been such a good sport. i hate to say it, but i love him even more when he's sick. all the nurses were doting on him. they'd come over to the coughing kid, look him in his big eyes and melt. if the eyes didn't do it then his raspy voice swept in to make them weak in their knees. he made me one proud mom today. so sweet and courageous. he's reminded me several times that he only cried a tiny little bit when they drew his blood.

and for that, he earned a non-dairy frozen yogurt with carob chips! mmm...

*we tried to have him checked out once before but his cough refused to make an appearance at the doctor's office and then slowly subsided.
**now that he's off diary/eggs he's a vegan (except for the local honey)! he stopped eating meat a week or so ago after he realized what it is (at least he's refused it when he's been able to make the connection). because i'm such a good mom and i told him all the gory details;) i think we should tell our kids what they're eating and let them make their own decisions. he's only four, but he's smart: today he ordered a cheeseburger at wendy's* and asked for "no pickle, no meat. because i want to be nice to animals." 
i'm afraid i'm going to get nasty comments about the vegan thing, so let me clarify: we don't  eat at wendy's regularly and i don't feed my kids white bread with synthetic cheese + HFCS-laiden ketchup and call that a suitable meal. i don't know if nash is really going to be a vegetarian or vegan. i just think it's fun to talk about this stuff and raise awareness now so my kids have good relationships with healthy food and don't find themselves trying to kick bad habits as adults.