It Looks Like Spit...

I tried to explain the old "it looks like spit but it's (s)not" joke to Megan -- our six year old -- the other day, but it didn't take. It probably came about because I had just wiped our seven-month old, Sarah's nose for the twelfth time in the last 30 seconds.

It's been traded back and forth among the four of us, that I can't remember how it started. This is a fun time of year isn't it?

Sarah has it the worst right now. She started with some sniffles a couple of weeks ago. That turned into an ear infection. She never tugged at the ear, or showed any signs of discomfort, so it was virtually impossible to detect it. The doctor caught it fairly quickly and got her on some medication.

A few days passed, she was getting better, and got a fairly clean bill of health from the doc when we went for a follow-up. Then a day or so later, she started again with the sniffles, sneezes, and all that other fun gooey stuff. Another trip to the doc a day or so after that, and at least her ears were fine. More meds.

Then the cough started. Back to the doc. You can never be too careful with a seven-month old. Doctor said Sarah's chest was fine. I thought that was an inappropriate comment to make about a baby, then I realized she was talking about her congestion. We were told to only come back if the cough got worse.

Which, of course, it did.

The next day Sarah was diagnosed with R.S.V. which translates to really bad congestion. Now we give her breathing treatments every 4-6 hours. Those are fun. Actually Sarah likes it. It must be working, too, because she just sits on one of our laps, lets the mask sit against her face while she breathes in the medicine.

It helps break up the gunk in her chest, then afterwards she's able to get a few productive coughs, and she's fine.

She's been a trooper through this whole bout with the cold. Imagine having a cold where you aren't able to blow your nose, or cough out any phlegm. Unimaginable, isn't it?

Sarah was getting some relief though, as we use the aspirator to suction out the goo from her nose whenever it's needed. I've never seen so much gunk before.

Hopefully this won't end up being a chronic thing. The less often snot is a topic for conversation, or play-on-word jokes, the better.

In the meantime, I need to find a more understandable joke for Megan.

How about this one: Where do children learn their ABC's ? At LMN-tary school !

Hmmm, on second thought --

You see, Megan, snot and spit kind of look the same.

And, "it's snot" and "it's not" sound the same...