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Hot Tea Bad for Five-Year Old Feet

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 20:12:12 -0500

Rita accidentally dipped her foot in my tea and ended up with 2nd degree burns.

Yesterday afternoon, Rita was home with me while Rose was at school. The two of them alternate going to school every other Thursday so they can get some one-on-one time with Mom. Anyway, Rita and I were about to read a book together and I'd made a cup of tea and set it on the coffee table. I went upstairs to fetch the book when I heard her scream.

I hurried back down to find her hopping around and screaming about her foot. She had begun rolling around on the couch when I went upstairs and dipped her foot straight into my tea. Andy and I ended up taking her to U of M emergency where she was bandaged up. We had to return today because the doctor hadn't sealed off the bandages very well and they were opening up and dirt could easily get in.

Rita has been much happier since she got her bandages on yesterday afternoon. She hasn't been on painkiller and didn't even wince when they changed her dressing today. I'm hoping her seemingly pain-free state continues.

When we first arrived at the ER, yesterday afternoon, they mistakenly directed us to the main burn unit inside the hospital. We drove to the main entrance and I took Rita in. She was screaming the entire time as we asked for help and were escorted to the burn clinic. Once there, they informed us that we had to go back to emergency. By the time Rita was eventually seen, I was a bit shaky having listened to her cries of agony for over an hour.

Hard to believe that they misdirected us in the first place and it's also surprising that they didn't dress her wound properly. I questioned the original doctor about the dressings and he felt they were adequate but today when I brought her back, everyone we spoke to agreed that the bandages were not adequate and might easily lead to infection if left alone.

One other frustrating thing about hospitals. When we first got there, they took her name, birthdate, asked why we were there and gathered other information. Once in the exam room, a technician came in and went through the same line of questions all the while looking at her chart (perhaps checking to see if our answers were consistent). Later, a nurse came in and we went through the same questions. Finally, the doctor. Rita was soooo sick of hearing me tell people that she'd put her foot in a cup of tea she asked me to stop talking about it.

Today, when we went back, we went through the same story again with 3 or 4 more people. One doctor had enough of a sense of humor to assume her weight hadn't changed overnight but the entire process was so impersonal. It's as if no one hears what you're telling them. Each person is operating in a vaccuum and is meeting you for the first time. There's seemingly no continuity or communication from one person to the next. Do all those people really need to know Rita's date of birth? Can't they store it somewhere where they all can access it?

Interactions are all about getting the fields on the forms filled in properly and instead of feeling like a person, you feel like you're a case, a speciman, an entity to be processed. Granted, these people treat dozens of patients each week but the care part of the treatment is lacking. To be fair, many staff members seem to be making an effort to be friendly. Perhaps it is just the structure of the burocracy that leaves me feeling like a package arriving at a Fed Ex drop box where it is picked up and passed through several levels of sorting before arriving at a clearly defined, pre-identified destination.

All thanks, however, go to U of M for fixing up Rita's foot. She was more than happy to return this morning and watch cartoons on the exam room's TV and she greatly appreciated the popsicle and stickers.

Reading Accomplishments

Sun, 23 Dec 2007 12:37:07 -0500

Our kids are all reading now and each one's approach has been unique.

On January 1, 2007 Frankie made a new year's resolution to read 200 books. He completed his goal on November 28th and it was big news in our house. We emailed his former teachers and informed his relatives and babysitters when we saw them.

I suspect Rose made a decision that she was going to cash in on some of that hoopla. She had started her own reading list as she saw her brother approaching his goal but after he reached it, she began reading books every day. Her list has already reached more than 60 books.

Her approach to reading is quite different than Frankie's was. Frankie broke everything down and had to understand the mechanics of reading. He wanted no help as he read his first books and I mean NO HELP. If he saw the word “dog” and read “bog” and someone told him that the b was a d, he would be devastated, claiming that now the book was ruined and he couldn’t take credit for reading it.

Rose, on the other hand, has been pulling books off the shelf and barreling through them, asking us to tell her what every fourth word is so she can get through it. She'll figure out tough words like "twisting" or "surprise" and then repeatedly ask us about easier more common words, like "what". Her reading sense seems innate. She doesn't know about long and short vowel sounds or endings like ed or ing. Frankie thoroughly knew these things before his reading took off.

Rita is feeling overshadowed by Rosie's success but she too is reading very well for a preschooler. She figures out plenty of words and often assists Rosie in figuring out a word but she has no interest in putting forth the effort required to read an entire book. She'd much rather have someone read the story to her.

Math Skills

Sun, 23 Dec 2007 12:23:32 -0500

Frankie's math skills have been astounding us lately.

This morning Andy was posing algebraic math questions to Frankie. He first asked if Frankie could solve the problem: n+n = n*n. Frankie quickly answered n = 2 or n = 0. Then Andy asked about n + m = n * m. We all started thinking about it, wondering if there was a solution to this one. After a couple minutes, Andy started to say that he needed a pencil to solve this one and Frankie chirped up, “n = 3 and m = 1 1/2”.

A couple days ago we were watching Polar Express and a character mentioned the number 150.4. A few minutes later, Frankie said 150.4 divided by 4 equals 37.6. He did this all in his head. He has a clear understanding of fractions, decimal places, percentages, and algebraic notation.

This got me thinking about the math program at his elementarty school. Reading and spelling are broken into levels but math is the same for all. The arithmetic that I've seen him doing so far in second grade is still addition and subtraction of 1 and 2 digit numbers.