Devils we know

The four-day weekend was just barely enough time to recover. Not from New Year’s Eve per se, of course, since my wife and I have given up on going out or even staying up until midnight (maybe next year!), but rather from a fairly rough December throughout which the bino has been dealing with nigh-perpetual illness.

It’s the same old song and dance that we went through with his big brother and sister. For the third time, something about the way my DNA combined with my wife’s and produced a blueprint for constructing inner ears yielded up an environment of unparalleled hospitability for bacteria to settle in and get cozy. So the entire past month has just been one long unabated otitis episode, with three overlapping ten-day antibiotic prescriptions, none of which were able to banish the bugs for good. We did at least get to make some good high-level nerd jokes about the most recent course, which was Cefdinir, and how that sounds a lot like Odin’s mighty steed.

Though those jokes quickly went in the direction of differentiating the two mounts: Sleipnir is of course a regal silver gray, whereas Cefdinir would be a brown horse. Because antibiotics give toddlers diarrhea. This is how we get through the crushing sleepless stretches, people: unapologetic poop jokes.

(Actually we all got off very lightly in terms of wild effluvia this time, and don’t think we weren’t thankful. Our pediatrician recommended probiotic yogurt to offset the worst side-effects, and it seems to have worked pretty well. Or maybe the bino just has bowels of steel.)

My wife took the bino to an ENT today and despite the fact that this is day 9 or the third antibiotics course, apparently the ear infection is still active. So on to round four, super-mega-extra-strength Augmentin! And if that doesn’t do it then we will book yet another trip on the myringotomy express in a couple weeks. At this point we could probably recite the ENT’s spiel about the procedure word-for-word. Can’t argue with the results, though, so please don’t mistake that familiarity for contempt.

So meanwhile, we managed to transition out of holiday time and back to the real world. There are pros and cons to the staggered work schedule that my wife and I have established since the beginning of our child-rearing years, but I was particularly grateful for it today. We got a rolling start on the week, because I had to get to work, and the little guy had to get to school, but making it to the bus stop on time, and then to the ENT later in the morning, was all that my wife needed to worry about. She gets back to work on Wednesday, and the little ones will return to daycare that day as well, and by then the little guy and I should be more or less back in the groove.

Beyond that, though, who knows what this year will bring? I mean, hopefully not very many surprises along the lines of daycare or first grade, as such. But my wife remains open to the idea of changing places of employment, and has been paying attention to local job listings and applying to seemingly well-suited positions. Her schedule, this, is subject to change in the near term. And I’ve got a building pass that expires in about 82 days, and I still haven’t heard a peep about where things stand on our potential new contract here, so your guess is as good as mine as to which way that’s going to resolve. Maybe my schedule is also subject to change. I will post the updates to that effect as they become available.