Shef snuck in another double ear infection without spiking a fever or engaging in relentless screaming. This makes us feel guilty because it means we’ve let him languish in pain when we could have procured antibiotics days ago. Our Dr. Gold was nice about it, of course, but she was a little disappointed in me for not remembering if this was the third or fourth ear infection of the fall. To help me out, she wrote down the dates of the three infections and the antibiotics she prescribed for each on a little piece of paper. She told me to keep it in my wallet for future reference, which I thought was a good tip.

Although the kid didn’t display the classic symptoms, he was having an unbelievably hard time sleeping, and he did hit and kick me several times, as if to say, “Why the hell won’t you take me to the doctor, you heartless wench.” Still, I was blind to his needs.

I’ve been letting him watch unlimited Sesame Street to make up for my shortcomings. Also, I bought a pack of lollipops to dole out as needed.