Life lessons, he says

My youngest granddaughter, the four year old, is in the hospital for a few days. She has asthma and was having trouble breathing so my son took her to the emergency room yesterday afternoon. When he phoned me at work to let me know, he said it was just a precaution, that it was safer for her. The doctor decided to keep her for a few days to get her oxygen level where it needs to be. He thinks she has a respiratory infection but the test results aren't back yet. She's doing well.

My granddaughter is such a trooper. She knows she has to keep the oxygen mask on and she does it without complaining. She said a nurse had tried "the thing that goes in my nose but I didn't like it." Tonight I told her that she might think about trying it again, that lots of people use those nose things and it just takes a little time to get used to it and it would probably be more comfortable than the mask that keeps slipping. She's thinking about it.

Before I went to the hospital this afternoon I stopped at the nearest store, a dollar store, to get a coloring book, crayons, and two story books. While I was there I wondered if I should get the same type things for my youngest grandson, who's a year older than his hospitalized sister. They're very close and she's getting stuff and he's not. I decided not to get anything thing for him because I didn't think my son would agree with it. Tonight when we left the hospital I asked my son if he wanted me to get a few things for the youngest boy. "No. I told him today when he was up here to see her that if he was in the hospital he would get stuff and his sister wouldn't. It's a life lesson, Mom. My kids have to learn that things aren't just handed to them because they're who they are. Life isn't that easy and they need to know that."