A small-town house call

Mama, I love my hat. I'll even keep it on till Papa comes home from feeding the turkeys so we can be like buckaroo buddies.

When he's asking for Papa, Lazarus puts his hand on his head and says "Dhat?" because Antonio always has some kind of hat on, usually his beat-up black Stetson. Laz still doesn't seem to have any words, but he's definitely working on expressing himself.

In other news... 'tis the season to keep kids out of doctors' offices and hospitals, if at all possible. I knew Lazarus or I would catch something when I went in for a pregnancy checkup on Wednesday -- Antonio and his uncle had to go to Albuquerque, so I had to bring Laz with me, and I really regretted it when we entered the waiting room full of sneezing, coughing kids and grownups. Especially since my usual five-minute wait stretched to almost an hour thanks to, well, all those sick people.

Sure enough, Lazarus had a mild fever all day yesterday, and it jumped to 103 overnight, so of course we were a bit worried this morning when he still had a high fever and was also lethargic. What to do on a Saturday, when the only apparent option is an emergency room 30 miles away? Call a friend in for a house call, of course. Antonio asked Christine (Jai's mama) to come check Laz out -- she happens to be a physician's assistant, which is just about as good as a doctor for most stuff -- and she came over with her black bag and wonderful bedside manner. And some Children's Motrin which, for the moment at least, seems to be giving Lazarus some relief. Christine said lots of stuff is going around, including RSV, a respiratory infection that sometimes turns dangerous quickly. He might have an ear infection, but it's too early to tell, so we'll just watch him.

A house call -- how cool is that? Thanks, good neighbor.