more ear trouble

We visited the pediatrician today. It's confirmed. Her quote: "Yeah, his ears are BAD." (insert guilt trip here) So we're on antibiotic round 2, a very strong dose, and we have decongestant/antihistamine/cough suppressant drops as well. She thinks he'll be fine to fly on Sunday but advised a dose of ibuprofen pre-flight as an anti-inflammatory and to make sure he has his pacifier on hand (or in mouth).

Mom went with us to the doc's office since David was working hard all day. Poor little guy--we dragged him into a couple of stores to look around for a gift she needed to get for someone. He was miserable for part of it, and for the other part, he was grabbing EVERY piece of Thomas the Train merchandise down from various shelves and putting it into our shopping cart. He wailed when I put it back, so we ended up letting him fill the cart and putting stuff back when he wasn't looking. We abandoned the cart in the middle of the store as we left, and he was fine with that since I let him walk outside on his own (and by this I mean that I didn't carry him). He walked to the exit door, saying "hi" and "hey" to the people he passed. Since he was wearing his knitted winter toboggan cap (striped with ear flaps), he was so cute that most everyone responded to him.

We watched Miracle on 34th Street tonight at Gran's, and it was just too much for Dennis. He walked around and around the room, logging on to the internet (we don't know how), sitting in his Pop's chair and writing with the pen on the clipboard, and various other forms of mayhem that made watching the movie a very disjointed experience. I can most likely explain this two ways. One, he was very tired and hadn't napped, and Two, he ate an entire Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cake when we got to her house. He wasn't cranky, just very active. I don't know how he knew what the snack cake was. Just seeing the box made him break out in smiles and giggles. He has never had any Little Debbie products before (to my knowledge) but there he was, dancing with excitement until his Gran gave him the cake and then dancing even more once he tasted it. I had intended to give him a couple of bites of mine, but he got his own instead. Once he had eaten about a third of it, he started grabbing the other wrapped cakes out of the box and handing them to us to open. I think he planned to eat them all! Oh, well. I suppose a nice sugar binge helped make up for the pediatrician visit (which was wonderfully short--only 20 minutes from sign-in to check-out!).

Tonight I addressed our Christmas cards. How on earth did we get to know so many people? And how on earth am I going to afford all those stamps (the stamps cost more than the cards!)? I suppose it's a blessing to have a lot of loved ones, and I shouldn't complain. So I'll stop. And I'll eventually mail them, most likely before Christmas...