Feverish

Shane has learned to associate medicine with garbage trucks.

Several weeks ago, Shane began a two-week cold. The doctor said it could be allergies, but Shane shared. I blew out more snot for a week than I gulped down coffee (and that's an achievement). Carrie got zapped, as well. 

But I digress. Medicine has never been Shane's favorite. He would usually rather DIE than drink. However, God granted a small miracle through Grandma. When we were visiting, She coaxed Shane into taking some allergy meds by calling them "Grandma Juice." The name stuck. Carrie and I dosed Shane with "Grandma Juice" and we drank far more willingly than in recorded Shane history. It didn't hurt that we sweetened the pot with computer time.

Grandma juice worked for the orange-flavored allergy meds, but Shane came down with a fever last weekend (right before we were going to go out and see a bunch of people, too!). The ibuprofen we have is grape flavored and clearly NOT Grandma juice. Carrie and I tried calling it "Nana juice," but Shane wasn't fooled. We ended up having to do a little bit of runt wrestling, but Shane did accept the meds and keep it down once he realized it was futile.

Plus, he got to watch computer. 

Fast forward to tonight: it's almost bedtime and I wanted Shane to eat and drink something, so he wouldn't be hungry.

"Do you want a fruit bar?" 

"No."

"Do you want yougurt?"

"No."

"Do you want bread?"

"No. I want medicine!"

Huh?  "You want medicine?"

"I want medicine! I get garbage trucks!"

The boy learns. He ran to the couch and started bouncing and chanting. "Garbage trucks! Garbage trucks!" 

Shane was sick over the weekend. He woke up fever free, but in the 99s/low 100s Monday and today and he felt a little warm. I went ahead and checked his temperature (something else he normally doesn't like, but he was oh so willing when garbage trucks were on the line).

101.8 in one ear. 102 in the other. I would never have been able to tell from how he was acting, but I went ahead and gave him some fever meds. One, I want him to associate taking his meds with good things happening (especially if he ever gets really sick) and two, the better he sleeps the better I sleep! 

I hope Shane doesn't wake up with a fever tomorrow. I'll be praying for him to be cool and high-energy! Toddlers have to get a little sick from time to time to build up their immune system, but it's no fun for them or their worried parents. Plus, today was the first day of school. These are hard days to miss and Carrie doesn't want to get a rep for ducking out of work when she's thinking of shifting positions either. Shane's not acting very ill or showing any symptoms other than being warm to the touch. Maybe his body is mad he grabbed that day-old Capri Sun and got a quick slurp before I snatched it.

Life is definitely easier now that he wants the meds. The siren call of YouTube drives him to do things he would not otherwise do. Isn't that textbook addiction?  Ha! There's a reason I try to keep Shane's electronic usage around an hour each day.