Sibling Rivalry

Yep. We have it. The Kids... Not The Boy so much as The Baby. She absolutely cannot - CANNOT - stand it when The Boy gets attention and she's is not smack in the middle of it. "What you're petting Him? But what about meeeeee!!! It is almost comical.

The Boy has to take his pills twice a day - two Benadryl in the morning for his allergies, and two antibiotics for his infected toe [which, by the way, looks like it is clearing up again - I don't want to get my hopes too high]. The Boy is not thrilled about taking his pills. It is not like I can just set them on his table and he'll take them and wash 'em down with a drink of water. Oh, no. If I mix them in his food - like peas - they will remain untouched, nice and clean, in a little pile. If I crush them and mix them in his food - he won't eat his food - he eats his Sister's, and she eats his - only she doesn't have allergies and doesn't need Benadryl, and she doesn't have an infected toe and she doesn't need antibiotics, either.

In order to get The Boy to eat his pills I have him sit, and then two pills at a time I pry his mouth open - he knows - he resists - it is really a "prying" action that is necessary to get his mouth open - and then I stick my entire hand in his mouth, pushing the pills down his throat so he can't easily spit them out. It is not pretty; it is not pleasant; it is not without some "dog slobber." It has to be done. We go through the same routine twice a day - and have gone through the same routine for sometime...

Yesterday morning I was getting The Kids' breakfast ready and pushed The Boy's antibiotics out of the foil-wrapped cellophane package and left them sitting on the counter under the coffee-pot [Spacesaver - it hangs underneath a cupboard]. I don't know exactly what I was doing - but I turned my back for all of a half a minute and dayum... The Baby was scooping them up from the counter! "Oh, my. What a naughty Little Girl. What exactly do you think you are doing Young Lady?" Could I get them from her - the two pills? No. She was happily crunching them like they really are some kind of special treat.

No doubt, every morning - and again, every evening - as she sees The Boy getting some "special" attention, i.e., me sticking my entire hand in his mouth and pushing pills down his throat, and she is thinking along the lines of "How come he always gets the 'special' treats?" They both get a "real" treat after the pill-taking - so she isn't really being left out. I guess, in her mind, she is, though. And do tell me, Pretty Princess, exactly how do those antibiotic pills that you chewed and swallowed taste?!? I'm only guessing that they taste nasty. What pills don't? They didn't seem to phase her at all. Not in the least. I will not make that mistake again. The Baby cannot be trusted with The Boy's pills...