Naomi and Dave Hiking

Naomi and Dave went hiking at Seneca Creek Greenway. Naomi took a lot of photos and videos. The shot of Dave is one where she directed him to pose for the camera.

Halloween

We did Boo at the Zoo last night. The rain held off and Naomi was well behaved, as behooved the little police officer she was dressed as. Today Dave and Naomi went out and bought a lot more Halloween decorations, plus tonight they will be carving pumpkins. She will be a Ladybug for Halloween proper, which is scary than it sounds or would be if you could see the creeping mass of Asian Ladybugs that intends to hibernate on the front wall of my foyer this winter.

Time to Pill the Child!

Pilling cats, as some of you know, is fraught with danger. As a result, some smart puncture-wound averse individual invented something called a pill popper. It is a long slender tube, with a slotted open-ended rubber portion at one end and a plunger at the other. One inserts the pill into the rubber portion, somehow manages to pry open the angry cat's mouth, inserts the tube as far into the mouth as possible, pushes the plunger, holds the mouth shut and then runs like heck.

This worked not at all on my late cat Nikki, who gave me 5 puncture wounds in 2 days and then required 2 vet techs and a vet to "show me how to give him pills", at which point they conceded defeat and gave me the number of a pharmacy who would compound his medicine into a chicken-flavored liquid. Most of which would end up on his fur, but then at least he licked it off, so ingested most of it anyway.

The point, right. One of my colleagues at work, in response to my bemoaning the lack of good data on effective treatment of asthma in children, reminded me that Omega-3 fatty acids are proven an effective adjunct for treatment of asthma. Hey, I have those at home! They are good for you, no side effects, might as well try them. Only complication is that they are large. Real horse pills.

We tried to get Naomi to swallow one this evening. The water went down just fine, the pill, not so much. Chewing was out - the gel capsule was too tough. I looked for smaller ones at the store - no luck. So, I remembered my pill popper, unused these 8 years or more. I found it promptly (I'm good like that) and took it and a pill upstairs.

"Open up Naomi! No, keep your tongue out of the way." [POP] [Gag, swallow, gag]

Success!

I asked her later if she'd prefer to try swallowing her pill tomorrow. "No mommy, I liked it the other way better." Ooooookay.

Bad puppy!

Simon chewed up a flip-flop this evening. Loose in the house privileges will be temporarily revoked.

The Horror

Soccer practice was a complete disaster this evening. Naomi did not want to be there and, despite a stern warning, decided to clown around, throwing herself on the ground repeatedly. An additional warning was only partially heeded with the end result that she went straight to her room with no supper when we got home. How retro!

Tag-Team Spider Hunting

Simon and Susie found a large, hairy spider inside. When it was down to 6 legs, I took pity on it and brought out the vacuum. You'd think they were cats!

Correct Digestion is a Glorious Thing

I finally have the correct food type, amount and meal schedule for the dogs and as a result, the weekly backyard de-mining was quick and tidy.

Grumble

1 big issue with health care - insistence on seeing patient in person for small urgent things. I have an infection, been unsuccessfully self-treating for 2 days, need meds, can't get in to the doc today. Nope, sorry, screw you if you can't come in. So I'll be hitting urgent care late this evening at higher cost, since they wouldn't just friggin' call a prescription in. I'd rather just have clinic care and no doctor, it is way more convenient.