On the one hand the boys are pretty healthy.

At some point in the spring I realized that Ethan had been sniffling and sneezing non-stop for a year.

Allergies. Guess the breast milk didn’t work after all. *sigh*

On top of that, ever since he threw up on a plane on the way to Jessica’s bar mitzvah in May(?) 2008, he’s had trouble with his ear plugging up when we go around corners or up and down hills in the car. Middle ear fluid? His pediatrician showed no interest in this. But it was driving Ethan CRAZY. I gave him benadryl for it when we would go on long car trips or get on an air plane which helped. But anyway, the middle ear fluid can also be caused by allergies.

So finally I find an allergist. After a couple visits to the wonderful Dr. Machtinger, (really I just like to say his name with a german accent) we discover that Ethan is strongly allergic to dust mites and slightly allergic to cats.

Well, maybe the breast milk did work. Glen’s allergic to cats and pollen and grass.

So we got Ethan a new ionic air purifier thingie, vacuumed, vacuumed, vacuumed, (which actually doesn’t help that much apparently so I’m not sure why I’m doing it) dusted, washed all linens, swapped out his pillow for one that can be washed better and will be getting rid of the carpet in there. Of course, we haven’t yet invested in the special mattress, linens, pillows, powder to kill dust mites….. Ugh. I can see the circles under his eyes and he wakes up sniffling every morning.

On top of that, there’s the root canal.

18 months ago Ethan 2 front teeth broke off halfway down when a baseball took a bad hop smack into his face. Dr Terrence Lau of San Mateo (AMAZING pediatric dentist, can not say enough good about him. The children have never experienced a moment of pain in his chair and considering what Ethan’s been through that’s saying a lot. Thanks Dympna for introducing me to him!) met us at his office after hours and, without assistance, painstakingly glued the pieces of Ethan’s teeth that his team mates had found back on. I think we were there close to 3 hours.

Then in January of this year Ethan’s mouth hit some playground equipment and the pieces broke off again. Luckily he was able to remain calm and find them in the sand before some preschooler came over and buried them. This time it was during the day so at least there was an assistant to help!

But unfortunately we discovered a few weeks ago that the nerve in one of his 2 front teeth died the 2nd time. Root canal. Not only that, but it means multiple visits to the endodontist because the tooth hasn’t finished growing yet so they’re putting some special substance into the tooth to help it grow which has to be replenished every 2 months before they seal it up once and for all. Dr Lau thinks Ethan should be able to keep his 2 front teeth for a few decades if not more, and who knows what dental cosmetic surgery will be doing then. Advancements are made every year.

Hassle. Yes. Expensive. Yes. BUT thank goodness this is the worst of the health problems in our family (knocking on wood) and that dentistry is so advanced that this can be treated fairly easily.