rivka

Okay, honey, take a sip of water.
Good boy.
Another one.
Do you want your juice or your water?
Do you want to drink from your cup or your bottle?
Take three more sips.
First water, then Blue's Clues.
Just take a sip. Just taste it. It's good.
Do you want to drink from the cup or use a straw?
One more sip.
Swallow.
Try just a little bite of the jello. It's tasty.
Look at Alex! Alex is eating her jello. Colin try a bite.
Can I put jello in your ear? In your eye? In your nose? ...In your mouth?
Okay, drink some water.
Little more.
Little more.
Good boy. Another sip.
First juice, then see-see. Colin see-see after juice.
Good boy. Another sip.
Try a little more juice.
No, Colin, you must drink. Drink now. Little bit.
Good boy. Another sip.

...Uphill, all the way, we got another pint or so of liquid into him between the hospital and bedtime. Not counting breastmilk, because Sunday's experience tells me that the only rehydration I can count on is the stuff I can measure. He woke up coughing this morning and threw up a little (in our bed, thank you Colin) but his diaper was heavy and wet so we seem to have the dehydration beat. And he doesn't seem particularly sick this morning.

I watched him this morning vigorously practicing his jumping and remembered that yesterday morning, even while I packed up to go to the ER, I told myself that maybe Colin was doing better because for a little while he sat up straight on Michael's lap. Yeah. At the hospital, stripped of his clothes, he looked like one of those TV commercials about how pennies a day can save the life of a child in a developing country.

The thing about babies and toddlers is that they get sick really fast and then they recover really fast. By the time you fully understand how sick they were, they may already be better.