The Eclectic Dabbler

If you’re in the baby/toddler stage like me, you probably find yourself on occasion holding a feverish child and asking, “How much tylenol should I give her this time? . . . Is she still at the 0.4 ml level? or is it 0.8? or maybe up to 1.2 ml?”

If it’s a particularly high or persistent fever, I may find myself calling the pediatrician or the pharmacist to determine how much tylenol or ibuprofen to give.

Dr. Sears wrote a very helpful post about the use of acetaminophen, which you can read here. With the simple equation “7 milligrams per pound of bodyweight,” you can determine exactly what dose your child needs. This Works for Me!

He even discussed if (and when) you can double up on the tylenol for a really high fever and alternating between tylenol and ibuprofen in an effort to reduce a stubborn fever.

The most helpful part of his column is a Dosage Chart which lists weight in the left-hand column, and then showing the milligrams needed and the “translation” for infant drops, children’s liquid, and children’s soft chewables.

Yesterday I checked this chart to see how much tylenol Carissa should have after her shots. (I have copied a portion of Dr. Sears’ chart below.)

Carissa is 15 lbs., 4 ozs., so I gave her 1 dropper (.8ml).

With three under four, I know I will be referring back to this chart often!

My “little” Carissa Marie is 15 lbs., 4 ozs., now and 25-3/4 inches long. . . still falling in the 75th+ percentile for weight and 85-88% in height.

She did great for her shots. She cried literally 3 seconds after the second needle–only till I lifted her to my shoulder.

This, after all, is the baby who smiles when you aspirate her nose.  You have to wonder about a kid like that!

I’m so very grateful! Especially after Micah–what a screamer! Hours of screaming each night for the first 4 months–with strangers (well-meaning, I suppose) telling me how they would never “let” a child cry that way. . . What a relief to have such a very happy child!

“I find that, typically, the personality that you see at four months is the personality you’re going to see through the teen years,” the pediatrician remarked. “Not always. But typically. If you have a really picky, easily irritated four-month-old, you’ll probably see a particular teenager. If you have a easygoing, happy four month old, you’ll probably have a teenager like that too.”

I’m sure that’s a generalization, but hey, I’d love to have a happy, easygoing teenage girl!

I’m SO. VERY. Grateful for this little girl!

If you’re a mom of three under four, getting ready to go on vacation, you should plan to start packing two weeks ahead.

Because the week you leave, you’ll need to allow for. . .

• the pipes under your kitchen sink to burst (while you’re making dinner for company)
• your basement to flood (from the thunderstorms this week)
• your husband to strain his back working on the basement, and
• 2/3 of your children to come down with some respiratory bug that keeps even the most angelic of babies awake at night.

Oh, and there won’t be time for blogging that week either.

So this morning, right after her breakfast (but before I could finish eating), Mara informed me that her tummy hurt. She didn’t make it to the potty in time. . . No big deal, right? Get new underwear, wash out dirty ones. . . She says her tummy still hurts, so I say, stay close to the potty, in case you have to go again!

Micah said he needed to go potty. I never know these days how to know whether he does or doesn’t, so I sat him there for awhile, but he never went.

We had some “sharing toys” issues to deal with, and I decided to get out the guitar for some special fun. I had to deal with Micah for some misbehavior, and Mara broke one of the guitar strings. I’m not sure how that’s even possible, unless it was strung too tightly. But in any case, I went to repair the guitar string, and while I was doing that I suddenly heard Mara shouting, “Micah has the orange one!”

At that point, I didn’t care what “orange one”–I knew that was not a positive comment–and found my son crawling under the easel with an open dry erase marker in his hand. Of course, he had marked up his shorts. So I deal with that one: google “dry erase marker stains” and start applying Murphy’s Oil Soap to his shorts. . . With a LOT of scrubbing, it worked! The dry erase marker came out! for which I was very thankful since those were his best khaki shorts!. . . I began to wonder if Murphy’s Oil Soap would work on Sharpie stains too? But I didn’t have a chance to experiment, because I heard Carissa fussing upstairs in her cradle, ready to be nursed again.

On the way, I rescued some slobbery chapstick from my son.  (Okay, it is booktime!)

Daniel and I IM’d. I told him a little about my morning (it was only about 10AM). He said, “Sounds pretty simple.  Should you leave plenty of time for pleasure reading too.” And I used to wonder what moms did with all that time!!!!!!

With the older two reading books in their beds, I got to sit and nurse my sweet Carissa and enjoy her smiles! And by the way, she turns four months old today! Happy four-month-birthday, little Carissa!

I have a three-year-old and a two-year-old who are primarily feeding themselves, which is awesome since it seems the baby is always nursing during meals.

However, my two-year-old still needs his food cut up into tiny pieces–and not because he can’t bite or chew it himself, but because he would stuff half a PB&J sandwich into his mouth as one “bite” if I didn’t cut it into tiny squares.

Enter the Versatile Pizza Cutter!

Hardly a day goes by that I’m not using mine! It really Works for Me! I use it to cut . . .

• Pizza (of course)
• Waffles/pancakes/french toast
• PB&J sandwiches, cheese sandwiches, deli meat sandwiches
• Baked potatoes (cut in half first)
• Burritos (they’re pretty messy though, once they’re cut into little squares!)
• Pierogies
• Even chicken nuggets

It doesn’t work so well cutting hot dogs or bananas. (Yes, I’ve tried!)

Maybe you don’t have a toddler, but I’ll bet you use the pizza cutter for something besides pizza too!

Leave a comment. I’d love to hear how you use it!