Man Up

I'm a big fan of the phrase,

or at least the philosophy behind the phrase

"Man Up."

It's the softer, kinder version of the previous generation's perennial favorite:

"Stop yer cryin' or I'll really give you something to cry about!"

I mean, let's face it.

Kids are kind of whiney.

There's sad and then there's not-really-sad-but-wanting-attention.

There's devastation and then there's losing the board game.

There's gravely injured and there's stubbed-my-toe-but-crying-like-I'm-dying.

I'm not a big fan of hysterics or histrionics

hence, the phrase Man Up (or, Get Over It) (Knock It Off) etc.

Honestly, though, there are times that we have called it wrong

and sent the legitimately whiney and complaining child to their room, or to bed,

only to later find out it was a broken wrist (Kate), a broken toe (Kate),

whiplash (Chris) etc.

I hate it when that happens. No, really!

I think this week is an award winner though.

First, Chris got hit in the ear last week, while he was in the pool.

Apparently someone's knee connected with his ear and the knee won.

He came in (this was while we were in OBX) whining and tearful

about his ear.

We looked at it, hugged on him, looked at it again and then I think we pretty much told him to get over it.

He was complaining of feeling like there was water in there, so we had him turn his head

to the side and hop on one leg.

Over the next few days, his ear was draining clear fluid while he slept.

We figured (as did he) that is was the pool water that had been forced into his ear by the blow

and told him to sleep on that ear to let it drain.

One day he complained of pain and we gave him Ibuprofen. He said it helped and that was that.

Fast forward to Sunday evening. The boys went to swim and Chris dove in.

"WHOOOAA" he shouted, "My ear just felt really weird!"

Ah, crap! I thought to myself. I forgot about his ear.

I called him out of the pool, fashioned some clean, unused braces wax into an ear plug

and sent him back on his way.

Then I called Rob and had him pick up some Swimmer's Ear drops.

That night, Rob went to put in a couple of drops into Chris's ear.

...drop..drop.. SCREEEEAAAAMMMM!

If you live anywhere in the Mid-Atlantic, then you heard Chris's scream.

(and scream, and scream.)

Poor kid. We felt awful.

It was our first realization that his eardrum was probably perforated.

Luckily, once the drops cleared his ear, the pain was gone.

So I took him in the pediatrician today.

He has so much fluid on both sides of his eardrum that she couldn't even see the drum itself.

He's now on abx and steroid ear drops.

She said his ear could drain for up to 2-3 weeks!

He got lots of hugs.. until his brother,

who was complaining of stomach cramps,

and who I was sure was faking (and yes, I said it out loud..),

went stone cold white in the face.

So now I'm sleeping next to Trey on a twin bed,

trash can at the ready.

Why?

Cause I'm Manning Up.