Parties, Parks, and Pain…

What a busy weekend!!!

Saturday was Bradey’s birthday!!! (He’s now officially 1 Year old!)

We worked a lot the 2 weeks prior to get the yard cleaned up and the house picked up. We now have a 4 foot high by 8 foot wide pile of leaves & debris sitting next to a 5 foot tall pile of branches behind our shed (& a pile of logs that were there when we moved in). But the backyard is a better place to play! We’ve still got a lot of work to go  (lots more raking up twigs/etc, and getting the grass to grow), but we’re slowly getting things together.

We had about 15 friends & family come by to celebrate Bradey’s birthday & we had a blast!

Sunday we slept in (a little) and had a liesurly breakfast before playing with the boys & taking them to the park to eat lunch & play around in the new wagon. Taven was excited to go down by the creek and see the fishies and tiny froggies (& spiders & bugs & rocks & water & moss & sticks & etc……..) Sunday was one of the best days we’ve had as a family in a very long time. Things just sort of worked. Both boys even took naps that afternoon too!!! It was great!

Then Monday came along…

I suppose it wasn’t really bad until dinner time when Taven was telling us that his ear hurt & was asking for his “cold Elmo” (we have a little kid’s ice pack with Elmo on it). We both knew right away that he probably had an ear infection (which is actually his first ear infection! At 2.75 yrs old, I think we’ve been blessed so far). Anyhow, we decided to go to our friend’s house (the McSorley’s) and borrow their otoscope to peer into Taven’s ear canal to see if there were any obvious signs of an infection. It was definitely more red than it should be, but it was certainly not a “raging infection”. At least not yet.

We drugged him up on ibuprofen and anti-allergy stuff to help with the pain and maybe help with the source of the fluids, then went to Central Market to get some Tea Tree Oil. This stuff seems to be a cure-all for a lot of things, but we’re also doing our homework & there seem to be a lot of warnings about using too stong of a mixture. We’re going to try a VERY diluted solution in Taven’s ears tomorrow & see how things go. The idea is that tea tree oil is an antibiotic, so it would kill off the baddies causing him the ear aches. We’ll see. I’m all for a lack of drugs when possible.

And of course the night wouldn’t be complete without a screaming Bradey. He’s got some nasty allergy-like stuff going on & is having dificulty breathing through his nose. This also means he can’t suck on his paci very well, so it made for a fun car-ride to & from Central Market. I think he’s finally down for the night though. (Yeah!)

So, what “home remedies” or “natural alternatives” have you come across or were you forced into as a child?