ears, tears, and fears

After holding Piper for most of the day, we finally made it to her 4:00 doctor's appointment where it was confirmed that both of her sweet little ears are infected. The doctor wanted to give her a shot of antibiotics to jump start her healing, as her ears were pretty bad. She thinks they never completely healed from her 1st ear infection at the beginning of June. Piper was not happy at all with that decision, and with good cause...we quickly found out that she is allergic to the antibiotic given in the shot. She immediately developed hives and we had to wait and make sure she didn't have "trouble breathing" (fastest way to put fear in a mom's heart). H & E were there with us, and the doctor just kept saying what good kids they were. I offered to let her take them home for the night. The doctor came in to check PG every 5-10 minutes and gave her Benedryl, which slowly caused the hives to fade.
We went by Target on the way home to pick up Piper's medicines and check out the swimming pools. We ate at Target, Pizza Hut pizza in the little "restaurant" area. Not exactly the fresh vegetable dinner I was aiming for. But I have so found a way to trick my kids into getting their veggies. V-8 VFusion Vegetable and Fruit Strawberry Banana Juice...with a FULL serving of Vegetables and a FULL serving of Fruit in every serving! I get a shot of joy watching them drink down their sweet potatoes, carrots, and beets, yes beets! They have no idea. They drink it for breakfast, we make popcycles out of it, Ella begs for it and I say, "well, ok, one more glass, you've already had one today, but since I'm such a nice mommy, you can have one more." I sometimes add a little orange juice to make it go further. I am so cheap.
We have a swim/birthday party this morning at a real pool this morning, so we'll get our swimming in today-hurray! This summer feels like dejavu. Growing up, my friend Amie and I, used to spend our summer days trying to figure out a way to go swimming. Neither one of us had a pool, so we'd call a friend that did and "invite" them to play, hoping they'd invite us over to swim. It worked most of the time. We seriously considered digging our own pool in my backyard. I remember asking my dad if we could and him saying "go for it!" He knew we wouldn't get far, and it would be entertaining to watch us try. We thought we could dig a big hole, (how hard can it be?) line it with trash bags, and fill!
So here I am 20 something years later, trying to figure out a way to go swimming. Amie has recently moved to California and lives within minutes of the beach. Hmmm, maybe I should call Amie and invite her to "visit" me...