The week before last we had visitors and Jackson and Owen both seemed to be coming down with something. Owen woke up from a nap with a fever and was generally miserable. He started waking up each hour in the night and carried on for 4 straight nights. It was very reminiscent of when he had the double ear infection he had in December.  We talked to our pediatrician but the office was closed from Thurs through Monday so we had to wait it out over the weekend. They told us to take Owen to the ER if we felt he wasn’t improving. In the midst of Owen feeling miserable Jackson heard us analyzing and wondering about Owen’s ears. About the time on Saturday morning that Seth had to take Owen to the ER, because he still had a high fever and was in pain, Jackson started talking about having a sore ear himself. Looking back I feel horrible but at the time it seemed obvious that he was just trying to get in on the attention and he was very disappointed to not be going to the hospital himself. (Although his interest in going waned when I told him Owen wasn’t going in an ambulance and it wasn’t an emergency). By the middle of the weekend Seth touched Jackson’s ear and he erupted in wails. By Tues morning when we got into the doctor Owen’s ears were just fine and Jackson was the one with a fiery ear infection. And on top of the infection he had so much blockage in his ears that we will be going back tomorrow for the doctor to remove all of the junk. I can tell you I am not looking forward to that!

Back to the title “treasure”. At the end of Jackson’s checkup he got to pick something from the prize bin. I usually try to give guidance but this time I was bundling Owen and trying to hurry Jackson out the door for lunch.  He was lingering over the prize bin, slowly and carefully digging through, picking what he found to be the most valuable treasure. I didn’t want to minimize his excitement (or tell him I would likely toss it in a few days) but we had to get going because of teethy fussy babe was biting my shoulder to get out of there. When we were halfway out the door I asked what he chose. A gaudy, gold ring with a heart-shaped red gem. He beamed as he talked about it and put it on his thumb. He said, “mom, in the morning when you say “put your socks on and put on your clothes ” , you can also say, “Put on your ring, Jackson” “. He wore it for the remaining hour until nap and asked if he could sleep with it.  I agreed but only if he laid it on his pillow, I didn’t want him to wear it and scratch his face.   After nap he walked upstairs to find me and again had that beaming grin as he slid it back on his thumb and said “mom, I’m wearing my ring”. He looked at it off and on to make sure it was still there and at one point realized that the gem had fallen out. He retraced his steps but much to his dismay he could not find the precious stone. He finally decided he could still wear it without the red bling.

Since last week we have lost and found the ring a zillion times. As I swept on Saturday I was about to shake out the dust pan when I glanced down and a dot of red-bling caught my eye. It would have been easier to just let it go out with the dust. It is a pain to continue the hunt for a toy that is dangerous for Owen and quite honestly hideous…and made for a little girl. But, I stopped myself and called to Jackson. He was thrilled to see my discovery! “Mom, you solved the mystery”