Captain Freakout goes to the Doctor

Last night I was supposed to be sleeping, but instead my fabulous husband and I were taking turns consoling Captain Freakout.   Both William and Jadzia have been fighting colds for about a week.  Night time had entailed the constant cycle of William waking up because of congestion, screaming because of a sore throat, making his throat worse by screaming, refusing to take any water or medicine because he's too busy freaking out, finally calming down only to wake up again because of congestion.  Last night was the worse.  He would not go down.  He would not calm down.  He insisted on having milk instead of water we all know is a no-no for sore throats (I coloured some water white by adding a few drops of milk).  Our attempts to give him Children's Advil looked like the scene of a grizzly murder, with Adam holding William down while I covered myself in cherry-red liquid making numerous attempts to pour it into his mouth. As the medicine began to kick in, and our son became mildly more coherent, he said "My ear hurts."

Well this morning, I was supposed to be at a bowling birthday party with William's friends (and, more importantly, my friends) but instead I was at the walk-in clinic with my two sick children.  Our regular doctor's office is in the same building as the clinic so, even though we couldn't get an appointment, William insisted we go to our doctor's waiting room to see the fish.  Jadzia, who slept through last night's fiasco, was full of energy for crying.  I suspect she recognized the building as a place where they stick babies with needles.  Luckily, no shots today.

The walk-in doctor looked in both kid's ears and proclaimed them sufferers of ear infections.  Jadzia got a bottle of banana-flavoured antibiotics.  For William I made a point of asking for the strawberry version because he doesn't like banana.  When we got home William decided he liked banana after all and wanted the same medicine as his sister.  I bribed him with a popsicle.  Hopefully I don't have to give him a popsicle 3 times a day for 10 days.