Embarrassment, preschool style

We had our first real taste of public humiliation at the hands of our son tonight. We ran to Target to pick up a few things and on the way out, Sam was doing his usual routine of talking to anyone who dared make eye contact with him. As we walked past a nice looking older lady sitting on a bench just past the registers, she smiled at Sam and said a very cheerful hello.

What does my child respond with? "Hi," perhaps, or, "Hello?!" Maybe a "look at the new stickers my mommy and daddy just gave me?"

Nope.

"Hey, Mommy! Where is that lady's tooth?! It's missing!"

I walked out of the store MUCH more quickly, just trying to shush him with a simple, "I don't know" response.

That didn't do the trick. He followed up, still within earshot with, "Did the tooth fairy leave her a present under her pillow, Mommy?!"

The embarrassment could have ended there, but that would not have been torture enough for Mommy. Instead, Daddy has to, while still in the store, ask me if the woman was, indeed, missing a tooth. His interpretation of what qualifies as a "safe distance" and mine are NOT the same.

I'm sure it's just the first of many times one of us will embarrass the other!

In other news, I think I *may* have actually gotten an answer to my phantom medical woes of the past few months. To recap, many doctors have poked and prodded to find the source of a long-term "fever of unknown origin." Last stop was my gynecologist to make sure my hormones weren't out of whack. They're not. Or at least no more so than they were through all of our years of regular doctors visits for ectopic pregnancies. That doctor suggested that since he was the "end of the line" as far as check-ups go, that perhaps we should try a course of broad spectrum antibiotics to see if it makes a difference.

Lo and behold, as much as I didn't think it would, it seems like it might be working. I've only have a fever three of the last ten days, which is quite a record for me. I relayed this new development to the infectious diseases specialist (also known as Fancy Pants doctor) and he said that he was in favor of another, longer course of that same antibiotic to "finish" killing whatever germ seems to be responding. It sounds like the last-ditch theory of a secondary infection that may be culture negative might just pan out.

I will be thrilled to be done with all of this, but perhaps just a wee bit peeved that it took months and months for a drug that even Sam has taken to do the trick!

I'll stop now, so as not to appear as though I am looking a gift horse in the mouth.