Mr. Mopples and our maching inhalers

After a restless night of coughing Zane and I headed off to his doctors visit Friday morning, bright and early. I was braced for the old, he sounds great, it is probably all viral, conversation. It was going to be worth the twenty dollars to say I had done something to try to make my baby feel better.

 I should really start by telling you that Zach and I had searched amazon.com a few days ago for a stuffed chicken to put in Zane's Easter basket. I promise it wasn't a random idea. Chickens are currently at the top of Zane's favorite animal list. I wanted something that actually kind of resembled a real chicken, since he loves Grandma's chickens so much. This is what we landed on, Mr. Hairoid Mopples. It is from the Hairoids line from Gund. I love Gund because they always come with highly original names and they really look like they they are going to be able to withstand a lot of love, in turn becoming real. I haven't captured any pictures of Zane with Mopples so the amazon picture will have to do. But keep in mind it is 14" tall, so good sized.


Mopples arrived Thursday and Zane tore into the package before Zach could hide it. I had planned on hiding Mopples after Zane went to sleep, so he could be an Easter gift, but of course forgot to hide it before going to bed. This meant that Mopples was sitting on the couch waiting for Zane when he woke up Friday morning. Zane was beyond excited to see him and of course had to make the trip to the doctor's office with us. All the grown ups at the doctors office where somewhere between highly amused and thoroughly confused by my choice of a chicken for my son's stuffed animal. I tried to explain the situation, "I grew up on a farm, my mom has chickens, Zane loves them ect ect" but I think they thought I was crazy. It's fine, Zane was having a blast showing Mopples around the doctors office, playing with all the random wooden bead mazes and books.

When the doctor finally came in to see littley Zaney he was actively tap dancing around the room in his big boy jeans, new sandals, shirtless, rubbing his scar. To which I said "it is going to be hard to convince you that he is sick when he is tap dancing around the room." But much to my surprise he actually sounded wheezy and congested when she listened to him. Cue me going from feeling stupid for bringing my kid in because nothing was wrong to feeling stupid for not bringing him in because I am a nurse and didn't know he was wheezing. Yes, I had listened to his lungs when the cough started and he sounded fine, just for the record, but it had been a few days and I had been at work listening to other kids wheezing. So he got a couple puffs from an albuterol inhaler, with his very own teddy bear spacer, and was swabbed for RSV, which was terribly traumatic, but luckily came back negative.

So off we went with prescriptions for Zane's very own albuterol inhaler and steroid prescription to match his mommy's. And here in lies the first time I apologize to Zane for his useless lungs. I told him to blame his Grandmother, but I don't think he was buying it. He surprisingly enjoys taking his inhaler though. He sits very still and takes big deep breaths, just like we show him. I think it is helping and Zach tells me that his cough sounded better today. He seems to be feeling better, but who knows, he may just be hyped up on albuterol.