Patchwork Eardrum

Well, Jacey's tubes and old patch are out, and the doctor put a new patch on her eardrum. The doctor also put her on a month of antibiotics, once a day, to try and keep infection at bay until her eardrum heals. She goes back for a follow-up visit in a month.

She seems to be feeling okay today. We have moments of incessant whining and crying, much more so than normal, but I think that's pretty understandable, considering.

Yesterday was a lot harder than last week, though. This time, she knew that they were going to take her from me in the OR. When I told her they were going to fix her ear, she looked at me with the big eyes and said, "Will you come with me, Mommy?" I had guilt. And I actually used to work at this hospital, so I have worked in that OR more times than I can count. I wanted to ask them if I could just put on scrubs and go with her, but I knew they'd say no. Even OR employees aren't allowed to go back with their kids. It was so hard to hand her over and watch them take her down the hall screaming for me.

When she came out of the anesthesia, she was so miserable. They gave her Tylenol. That's it - Tylenol. The first time she had the tubes, she was only a year old, and they had given her something to relax her before surgery, which worked quite well and was still in her system when she woke up. Last week, since she had her adenoids out, they gave her 1/2 mg of Morphine after her surgery. Yesterday ... Tylenol. She was not a happy camper at all when she woke up. She cried for a half an hour. Kevin took the day off this time and was there for the whole thing, so he was there to help juggle her. Once we got her home, he went to get her prescription filled, and I got her settled on the couch. It's been pretty uneventful since then, thankfully.

Hopefully, your kids have healthy ears, but if not, Pediatric ENT is a very informative site for all things ear, nose and throat related. It's at least a good place to start to get some information, understand what might be going on and what options your doctor may discuss with you.

I really appreciate all the prayers. I am praying her ears heal up this time, and she never has another minute's trouble with them.

In other news, here's Mr. Big Man, all 22ish lbs. of him, sitting up to play with his toys. He can push himself up to sitting by himself and easily gets up on all fours. Actually today I caught him with his hands and feet on the floor - he looked like Mowgli from the Jungle Book.

And now if you'll excuse me, since Jacey and Kinnan are sleeping, Joey and I have to take down Kinnan's cradle and carry it upstairs. He's so active, that cradle really gets rocking and rolling. I'm thinking he'll sleep better in a bed that doesn't move every time he does.

Here's hoping your weekend - and mine! - finds ample time for a nap!

Oh, Those Ears...

Jacey had her tubes put back in last Friday and her adenoids removed. Everything went pretty well, but her left eardrum had ruptured at some point, probably with the last infection in June. The doctor actually had to patch her eardrum to put the tube in. We went home with Tylenol with codeine that seems to help pretty quickly when Jacey starts feeling bad.

Everything was going okay, but around 3 a.m. Sunday morning, Jacey woke up screaming and almost threw up. I got her settled down and back to sleep in my bed. We got up in the morning and went out to the farm. I was carrying Jacey and all of a sudden noticed that her left ear canal was full of blood; that would be the side that had ruptured. Ugh. I paged the doctor, who called me right back, and told me to bring Jacey in this morning so she could take a look.

We just got home from the doctor visit. The patch on Jacey's left eardrum moved, and the tube is laying sideways. No wonder she was crying and almost sick. To fix it, we have to take her back to the OR this Thursday so the doctor can remove the tube and patch and just put on a new patch. The down side is that if Jacey gets another bad infection, her eardrum has a higher chance of rupturing again because there will be no opening to relieve the pressure.

In conclusion, Jacey is not feeling very well and so very clingy. Kinnan is teething, and hopefully not starting with ear issues of his own, and so very clingy. Kinnan is also very loud, crying and carrying on every time I put him down. Like now, for example. Sigh. Neither one of them are sleeping very well either, and I am tired. Prayers for healthy ears for them and an increase in energy for me would be greatly appreciated.

Diplomatically Speaking...

Iran test-fired a long-range missile on Wednesday in response to what it says are threats from Israel and the United States, Iranian officials said.

Iran says this test-firing was a success.

"We want to tell the world that those who conduct their foreign policy by using the language of threat against Iran have to know that our finger is always on the trigger and we have hundreds and even thousands of missiles ready to be fired against predetermined targets," Gen. Hossein Salami, commander of the Revolutionary Guard ground forces, said on state TV.

"We will chase the enemies on the ground and in the sky and we are able react strongly to enemy's threats in shortest possible time."

Do we really want to elect someone (ahem, Obama) who thinks that diplomacy is the answer? Iran says it's ready to use missiles to respond to "threats." Oh yeah. Let's go talk to those guys.

Rights of the Child

With an election pending this year, I just wanted to make sure people were aware of a little thing called the Convention on the Rights of the Child - formerly known as the Rights of the Child Treaty. The UN has been pushing the United States to adopt this legislation for almost 20 years. I remember it being a really big deal in the 90's and read something about it the other day, which led me to research where our government currently stands on it and what's happening with it now. I am writing this because I am sure it will come up again with a new President, and this is an issue that should concern all families.

A little history from the 90s:

On February 16, 1995 President Clinton had the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations sign the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Then he sent it to the U.S. Senate for a ratification vote. The Senate will either ratify the treaty or reject it. If they ratify it, they will also vote on "reservations" which, if acceptable to the U.N., would govern how the treaty would be interpreted in the United States. Our government, at all levels, would be pledged to publicize the principles and provisions of the treaty and change our laws to match them. Under the U.S. Constitution, state and federal judges would be bound by the treaty's provisions.

If this legislation were adopted, I cannot even imagine the impact it would have on our entire system of law. The precedent set by adopting an international treaty and changing our laws to enforce it despite our Constitution would be catastrophic.

So, who came up with and wrote the Rights of the Child?

The first draft of this treaty was written by the communist Polish government (emphasis mine) to coincide with the U.N. declaration that 1979 was the International Year of the Child.The final draft was put together, over the next ten years, by a committee of governmental delegates with much input from non- governmental organizations including children's rights advocates. (emphasis mine)

Each succeeding draft further expanded the individual rights of the child and further reduced the role of parents. (emphasis mine) The final draft went far beyond any previous international document in promoting children's autonomy at the expense of the family's autonomy. (Some children's rights advocates see the family as a coercive setting which prevents children from achieving their aspirations.)

Just what would this legislation entail?

The treaty would give minors several new rights including freedom of expression, freedom of religion, freedom of association, privacy, freedom of access to the mass media, and freedom from being paddled in school. (emphasis mine) Although several statements in the treaty recognize parental rights, those rights are made subordinate to the rights of the child. (emphasis mine)

If the treaty is ratified, parents who don't give children the freedoms required by the treaty would increasingly be seen as child abusers... (emphasis mine)

Most of us would like to see parents take more control, not less, over their children's activities...This treaty has a different viewpoint. It would tie parents' hands in order to enhance children's freedom. Which direction do we as a society want to go: more control by parents of their children, or less?

Written from the viewpoint of Unicef, who is in favor of the treaty:

Participation rights (pdf): Children are entitled to the freedom to express opinions and to have a say in matters affecting their social, economic, religious, cultural and political life. Participation rights include the right to express opinions and be heard, the right to information and freedom of association. (emphasis mine) Engaging these rights as they mature helps children bring about the realization of all their rights and prepares them for an active role in society.

The equality and interconnection of rights are stressed in the Convention. In addition to governments’ obligations, children and parents are responsible for respecting the rights of others—particularly each other. (emphasis mine) Children’s understanding of rights will vary depending on age and parents in particular should tailor the issues they discuss, the way in which they answer questions and discipline methods to the age and maturity of the individual child. (emphasis mine)

Thank God we had senators like Rick Santorum in office. In a letter to a homeschool leader he wrote:

Like all international treaties, the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child treaty must be ratified by the Senate. Various legal issues have been raised concerning the potential effect of the U.N. Rights of the Child treaty on parental rights and state laws. A number of Pennsylvania residents have expressed concern that the enactment of this treaty could override certain state laws pertaining to adoption, education, child abuse, child custody, and other areas. I take these concerns very seriously. Domestic laws and policies that affect the lives of every American should not be based on a United Nations treaty.

Because of my strong opposition to the United Nations Rights of the Child treaty, I have cosponsored a resolution that calls on President Clinton to not deliver this treaty to the Senate for approval. As your U.S. Senator, I will work to ensure that this fundamentally flawed treaty does not become law...Rick Santorum, United States Senate

President Bush has been opposed to the Convention, but the Democrats, along with some Republicans, continue to push the issue. Here is an example of Senators pushing for the legislation, along with some statistics:

Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-CT)...described as "glaring" the failure of the Bush administration to sign a 1989 United Nations treaty on the rights of children, as three senior Republican senators were circulating a letter urging President Bush to join the 135 heads of state who have done so.

The letter to Bush from Sens. Robert J. Dole (Kan.), Richard G. Lugar (Ind.) and Mark O. Hatfield (Ore.) expresses "concern" that the United States is among a small group of non-signers that includes Iran, Iraq, Libya, Ethiopia and South Africa.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child...won the speediest approval of any international human rights treaty, ratified by the necessary 20 countries within nine months. To date, 77 nations have ratified it and another 58 have indicated their intention to do so, including all major Western democracies except the United States. Last fall, the Senate approved a non-binding resolution urging the administration to sign the treaty. (emphasis mine)

Tuesday's Tip Jar

Peaches is potty-trained!! This is a really good thing, but it means that when we're out, if she has to go, we have to find a place for her to go. Of course, the first time she had to go while we were out doing errands was at an auto parts store. Ugh. It was SO digusting in the bathroom that since then, we travel with her little potty in the back of my SUV. If she has to go while we're driving, we can just pull over so she can go. If we're going to be in the store for a long period of time, I have her go right before we go in. If we're out and going to be in or near the truck for a while - like the fireworks we went to this weekend - she can just go whenever she has to. Carrying that little potty with us has saved a lot of hassle trying to find a bathroom and then trying to keep her from touching the oh-so-gross public potties.

Why Hello!

The last couple weeks have been a blur. On the up side, Jacey is finally, finally (finally!!) potty-trained. On the down side, I'm not sure what in all else I've really been doing.



My parents moved into their new house over the last two weekends, so we've been down there quite a bit. I can't say we helped all that much. Me, two or three kids and the occasional dog. Yeah, we were probably more of a hindrance, but my mom kept asking to come down, so we did. Their house is in the middle of nowhere. It's on a tiny back road overlooking a gorgeous view of fields, meadow and a creek (or if you're from South Jersey: "the crick"); you can also see ships going by on the river way out from the house. As long as the strawberry flies and greenheads don't carry you off before you make it to the house or truck, you're okay. (For those of you who have never seen a strawberry fly or greenhead, consider yourselves extremely fortunate.)

I got started organizing and planning Joey's homeschool curriculum. His first lesson will be in geography since today he asked me if Baltimore was in Chicago. He's looking forward to homeschooling though, and I get more excited about it every time I sit down with the curriculum and see how much he's going to learn.

Kinnan has started on solids, eats a lot of them and is 27" long and 21 1/2 lbs. He's a really good baby but loves to be held (and protests loudly when put down). Part of the reason my house is a disaster. The other part is largely due to the potty training. You really have to keep on top of a leaky little kid.

We went to a Day Out With Thomas again last week (obviously), and that was fun. Of course, the day before we went, I was back in the ER with Jacey for a 103-degree fever. The cause? Another ear infection, of course. Her ears are totally blocked with wax. She's scheduled for surgery the second week of July to have her ears cleaned out, tubes put back in, and possibly adenoids removed. I hope that will take care of the problems for her.




I haven't even had time to regularly check my e-mail! Somehow I managed to cope with the shaking and other mild-to-moderate computer withdrawal symptoms. And now, I'm off to put away the rest of the groceries that we bought last night along with a buttload of laundry. Because that is the official measuring unit of laundry. . .

Ow...

I exercised yesterday and today. I DVR'd "Gilad's Body's in Motion" and "Total Body Sculpting." It's working. I can barely walk. Oh yeah. I should be toned in no time. Ouch.