Success

Tonight was pill night... once a week we take 4-5 pills to prevent malaria. Everyone here has different methods for getting their kids to take these nasty tasting bits of good health. Most people spread peanut butter and chocolate on bread and crush the pills on top. But since we're not much into high doses of sugar right before bed time, we have opted to teach our 4 year old and 2 year old to swallow pills like the grown little men they are.

Our first pill night took 2 hours... the first hour was spent calculating everyone's weights in kilograms and figuring out how much medicine each of us needed... and figuring out how to cut the pills into thirds and fourths so the little boys got the right dosages. The second hour consisted of screaming and holding the boys down while we jammed pills down their throats - or should I say holding Elijah down... Caleb took his pills like a pro - he tends to be a medicine junkie. After that first traumatic night with Elijah we looked ahead to years of the same and cried. I was a notoriously horrible pill taker as a kid and couldn't swallow a pill to save my life until college. I remember many times where my mom shoved a pill down my throat, poured lots of water in and then shook her head in exasperation as I managed to keep the pill in my mouth....

Anyways, 3 months later, I cut all our pills and portioned them out without checking my cheat sheet for the first time tonight. (I did go back and recheck with the sheet after I was done!) The other major accomplishment of the night was Elijah took the pills in his little hand, put them in his mouth and swallowed them, two at a time, all by himself - his reward of little yogurt drink sitting in front of him. My mother would have been so proud. I was so proud. Another milestone passed.