Driving Lessons Start Tomorrow

Well, my sister has complained that she is tired of looking at Bambi threaded through the BMW engine, so I have a post for you. Big news. A new milestone has been reached here at The Outpost.

The Governor (age 5) swallowed a pill today. Whole.

Friday The VP took The Gov to the doctor to see how much of this "My throat is so sore it's gonna die!" theatrics was genuine. A lot, as it turns out. He was diagnosed with strep. I begged The VP to ask the doctor for pills instead of liquid antibiotics. Our last round with The Governor and medicine resulted in a twenty minute ordeal every dosing time as I would have to mix chocolate syrup with the medicine and feed it to him in smurf-sized spoonfuls. And the medicine didn't taste bad to begin with.

So this time, I was determined to try pills.

The first six doses, I ended up breaking up the pill and hiding the broken shards in pudding. But this morning, I was set on making him try a full pill swallow. He was reluctant at first, so we did a trial run with a mouthful of juice sans pill. Fill mouth, tilt head, pretend to drop the pill in and let it settle to the back of your throat, and then gulp.

I offered him a second trial run, but he declined and went for the real thing. And he got it on the first try. I was prepared for gagging, crying, and possibly having to fish the pill out of a pile of vomit and trying again. But The Gov came through for me.

No more hiding medicines in ice cream and pudding. No more listening to "how much more do I have left?" Five second medicine distribution. I wept.

And such a milestone, small though it may be, brings him one step closer to being an adult. An adult that does not reside under my roof and doesn't wake me at three in the morning with a 103 degree fever and can drive himself to the clinic.

Life is good.