Scariest Item for a baby

If you're a rational-minded adult, one of the two items above looks like a perfectly reasonable apparatus.

If you're an uninformed, silly-girl infant, one of the items looks like a fun toy to play with.

The item on the right, however, is the torture device. Seriously. If Megan knew how to dial child services on the phone she would have had them on our doorstep within minutes of being introduced to this item.

Lately our whole family has been knocked out by some sort of cold/flu/pestilence that is in the air. However, our little Megan has taken the brunt of it. In fact, in a bout of 'mother's intuition' Jillian took Megan to to doctor this afternoon who told us Megan had two ear infections. Egads. Her treatment is to knock back an amoxycillin cocktail. This happens to be something deadly toxic to me. So we're a bit worried she might be allergic too, so we will be watching her EXTREMELY closely over the next few days.

But regardless, we've spent the better part of the last ten days sucking buckets of mucus out of her cute, button nose. And every time, without fail, Megan's face goes from a pale vanilla to a burnt red and her little gums vibrate from the wailing. What I can't figure out is why? What is it about this process that bothers her? After the first one helped clean out her nose, you would think she would welcome the nose sucker.

Maybe it's the teacher in me but I can't stop there. I have to analyze and internalize the whole process. Over the course of the past few weeks I've surprised myself with how I've become less skittish with Megan. The me seven months of ago was handling her like she was a mint condition Honus Wagner baseball card (very rare and precious). Now, using the nose sucker, I'm forced to be much more rigid with her to keep her head still and suddenly she's not so fragile. Of course, she's much more feisty now. It's like twisting the lid off a pickle jar, only the pickle jar is twisting back.

But the best part is after putting her through this 'torture' treatment I get to hold her in my arms tight, she eventually stops crying, we share kisses and look at each other with clear eyes and a mutual understanding that this is the dance we will do for the rest of our lives. I will take care of her and guide her even if it means short-term pain, and she will fight me every step of the way. But then, (in my sepia-toned version), I will hold her tight and we'll stare into each other's eyes and know that we will love each other always.