Curiosity

After a long couple of days focused almost solely on Clare and her health, it's nice to muse about the perks of being a mother. One of the things I love about Jamie's age is his curiosity. I don't know if all 6-year olds are like this, but there are days when Jamie's curiosity is insatiable. The other day, we had a deep discussion on the way to school after Jamie asked whether Jesus was around during the time of the dinosaurs. This naturally led into an explanation of the Holy Trinity (awkward and inadequate on my part, inquisitive on his). As in, no, Jesus was not around physically on earth when the dinosaurs were around, but, yes, God was in existence; and how God and Jesus are the same, yet not the same. (Okay, where are Jamie's godparents when you need them? I really need to find a book about explaining the mysteries of our faith to a 6-year old.) I admit I pulled out the old analogy of relating the Trinity to a shamrock - which Jamie grasped fairly well since he had just had his St. Patrick's Day party at school a couple weeks ago.

When he's not asking question after question about the world around him, Jamie also loves his new skills of reading and writing. He carries a notebook and pen around with him to copy anything and everything he sees. He especially loves to do this in the car, so when we get home and I read his notebook, he has quite an eclectic collection of phrases! In school this past month, his class has been learning about outer space. All of their reading, writing, and math activities are focused on the solar system. Every day, we learn new facts about the planets as Jamie learns them. And his memory is incredible. Today Jamie enlightened me about the meaning of the word "year" (as in how many days it takes a planet to complete its orbit around the sun) and which planets had long years and which had short years. He knows how many moons each planet has, what the air is like on Mars, and how no one has ever seen the side of Mercury that faces the sun because it is too hot for anything to go near to take a photo. It is so refreshing to see life through his eyes and what amazement and wonder he has for the world we live in and how it works. I just wish this lovely planet was a little kinder to him sometimes!

Jamie has been fighting more allergy attacks since about January. We finally had our second long-awaited appointment with the allergist at the beginning of the week. I filled the doctor in on how we had taken Jamie off the Zyrtec in November (per the doctor's orders) and tried getting through the winter on just two of his allergy meds. Come January, however, Jamie's allergies kicked back in, so we restarted the Zyrtec. Since where we live was covered in snow and ice during this time, the likely source of Jamie's allergy symptoms were the dust and cats in our house. (And although my housekeeping would not necessarily win any awards, I do dust, vacuum, and clean frequently!) The allergist is a little concerned that Jamie could not survive the winter without being on all his allergy medications since that does not bode well for what will happen when the pollen season is in full force (Jamie being most allergic to trees and grass). Ideally, winter is a time to skate by on minimal meds, so the arsenal can be built up come spring and ready for the attack. Unfortunately, Jamie headed in the opposite direction. We again discussed allergy shots, but the doctor believes we are still at an acceptable level of medication without shots being necessary. The doctor did question me on whether I was okay with the number of doses I had to dispense each day. I did not even crack a smile when I assured him I was on board - after all, what's six more doses when you're already doling out eight to Clare? Sometimes I feel like I'm my own little pharmacy. My kitchen counter has quite a prominent space carved out for our morning meds.

So the plan with Jamie's allergies is to bump up his Zyrtec, add a fourth medication, and use eye drops as well if needed. Sort of like getting ready for battle by storing up extra ammunition. When the pollen season hits, if Jamie's symptoms become out-of-control like they did last spring, the allergist will put Jamie on a short run of steroids to wipe out the allergies. However, if Jamie ends up needing more than 2-3 courses of steroids over the next year, then allergy shots would be the next step. I have been warned that, due to the severity of his allergies at such a young age, allergy shots are most likely sometime in the near future. As long as Jamie is reasonably symptom-free, I want to see how long we can hold that off.