Tag Archives: ice cream

Medicine Bird

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You know what I hate about sick kids? They get better.

When Aili was feeling like garbage, she was easy to medicate. Stuff the syringe in her little maw, squirt the medication in, watch as she swallows it meekly.

Oh, but she is feeling better now and, unfortunately for us, the recovery period and the medication dosage period do not match up. There is far more of that bubblegum pink medicine in the bottle than Aili has patience for being pumped full of antibiotics.

At first she would just shout at us and cry when we’d put it in her mouth. Then she started kicking. Then came the spitting out of the medication. Now, she has somehow managed to morph in to a rabid badger at the sight of a full syringe.

She bit through my fingernail two nights ago. I kid you not.

So, we decided to get creative. I have tried hiding medicine in her food and drink before with absolutely no success. This girl has some kind of super power to detect Tylenol in apple sauce. She won’t even touch it if she thinks there is something that could possibly make her feel better hidden inside. But, I had a tub of Neopolitan ice cream and a heaping pile of desperation so, I had to try it just one more time.

The strawberry band of ice cream was the exact same color as her antibiotic so, I squirted a dose on top of the ice cream and put it on the table.

“Aili! Quick! I got you some ice cream, but it’s melting! You’ll have to eat it fast!”

She dashed over and was so excited that I was giving her a bowl of ice cream at 9 in the morning, she gobbled it all up and licked the bowl clean.

It was truly miraculous. Up until that moment, I was certain I was going to have to lose most of my finger tips to get her to finish off that bottle. But, of course, there was a problem. Two problems.

The brothers.

They weren’t there when I did the medicine-in-the-ice cream trick the first time, but I knew they would be for her next dose. I was only giving her a little snip of ice cream, but I knew it would be enough to send the boys in to a jealous rage. (I may be crazy enough to give one kid ice cream at breakfast and bed time, but three kids? No way, Jose!)

Brandon was preparing Aili’s ice cream and I pulled the boys over and told them what was going on before they could start begging for their own bowls. I let them know it was just so Aili would take her medication and that it was a BIG SECRET.

Suddenly it was okay that she got ice cream and they didn’t. Secrets are fun! They scampered to the kitchen to see the ice cream preperation and then skittered back, giggling. They were bursting at the seems because they knew a BIG SECRET.

Dread filled my stomach as I watched the boys watch Aili take her first bite of the ice cream. They were just DYING to tell her there was medicine hidden in her treat. They were vibrating because they knew she was being duped. It was almost painful to  watch them.

“MEDI-cinder block!” shouted Robert in what I can only presume is a secret-induced form of Tourette’s.

“MEDICINE BIRD!” screamed Peter, not to be outdone by his brother. They just had to find a way to let it out without getting in trouble for telling Aili what was in her ice cream.

Aili kept eating as I shushed the boys and reminded them there were certain things they shouldn’t tell certain people or they will be certainly going to bed NOW.

“MEDICINE BIRD! MEDICINE BIRD!” the boys chanted, running around Aili like a couple of hyper-active Labrador retrievers.

Aili dropped her spoon. “DADDY!!!”

Oh no. Here it comes. She’s figured it out. The jig is up. Those boys are SO going to bed NOW.

“Peter called me a med-sin biwd!” Aili howled, deeply offended by an insult she could neither say or understand.

“It’s okay. Eat your ice cream,” Brandon said while dragging the boys out of the kitchen.

She finished up her medicine and the boys were herded off to bed before they could spill the beans. But, all bets are off for tomorrow. Ug.

 

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I Scream

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I took the kids to the Y to play last night while I ran for a while. But, because I am clearly illiterate I didn’t realize we had arrived 20 minutes before closing time we had to hustle out of there rather quickly. (I am one to assume that summer hours are usually LONGER than winter hours, but the YMCA wants me to go outside and is encouraging it by closing early. I so wish I would have known that like, two days ago.)

So, we were in a pickle. Husband had the car and we were stranded at the Y for at least another half an hour. But, I knew our car was within walking distance.

As I stared down the 10 blocks ahead of us, I knew this walk was going to be a challenge. The twins are little runners and could pelt down the street in no time. But, Foodie is like a slow-moving squirrel with ADHD. She likes to run, but never as fast as her brothers and never in a straight line.

So, I had to figure out a way to keep them going all the way to the car and all together AND on the sidewalk. It was looking more and more daunting by the second. Especially because Foodie was trying to hide in a bush, Cereal Killer was running like a mad man, and Rain Man was sticking his face in the drainage ditch.

“Hey, who wants ice cream?” I asked. They all turned to me like hunting dogs tracking a duck. I had them.

“Stay with me, walk together, and when we get to Daddy and the car, I will take you for ice cream.”

If you would have seen me after that, you would have seen me walking blissfully with three little cherubs sweetly skipping by my side. They were good as gold the whole way to the car.

As soon as they got to the car, however, they began running around the vehicle while screaming like meth-addicted banshees.

It still earned them ice cream, though. No one ran in to traffic and nothing was lost down a sewer. That’s worth a kiddie cone with candy eyeballs, if you ask me.

Sunday Snapshot: Moo.

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My milkshake brings all the toddlers to the yard.

You know, when you live in a certain place for a long enough time, you don’t realize the absurd things right in your backyard.

I never thought about how odd a 15 foot cow might look to outsiders until I showed this photo to some people from out of town and they absolutely lost their minds.

The cow is named Jilly and she stands watch over the Jilbert’s Dairy Barn and ice cream shop. I took the kids there last week to have ice cream (Blue Moon and Cotton Candy!) and to watch milk being bottled. It’s one of those unique experiences I take for granted, like living minutes from the shore of the largest and most beautiful of the Great Lakes. Not to get all wishy-washy here, but it really makes you take a step back and realize how awesome your hometown really is.

And, yes. That is Foodie standing under Jilly. She thought she hit the jackpot under that cow. Gotta love breastfed kids.