Baby Steps: Spring, and allergies, are in the air

Spring is in the air! That means the flowers are blooming, the temperature is rising, and my kids are red-eyed and runny-nosed.

Every year we look forward to spring weather. In our hurry to go outside and play, we forget that spring also brings sneezing, runny noses and itchy, watery eyes. This year seems worse than in the past. I don't know if that's because I now have two snotty kids or because the pollen is worse than usual.

Poor Cooper seems to take the brunt of it. He wakes up every morning with his little eyes matted shut and dried snot all over his face. Instead of, "Mommy, I'm too tired to get up," I hear "Mommy, I don't feel very well, I think I'm sick." On the really bad mornings, I hear in the most pitiful voice imaginable, "Mommy, I think I'm dying!"

We have tried every over-the-counter medication that skinny little 4-year-olds can take, but none of them really work. He hates the taste of everything, and it is almost better to let him suffer through the day than to hear him scream about taking allergy medication. Of course, my slightly dramatic son makes me feel horrible. For weeks I was hearing how "icky" his medicine was and I was chalking it up to him being 4 and prone to theatrics.

One day, after 20 minutes of threatening and begging him to take his meds, we decided to take it together so he could show me how "icky" it was. For one split second I thought, 'This is going to show him -- all my problems will be solved now!' And then that purple liquid hit my tongue. I didn't know whether to spit it out or take it like a champ to prove it could be done. It was the most horrible tasting thing I have ever put in my mouth!

After my failed attempt to prove I was right and he was wrong, I turned to bribery: Take your medicine and get a tattoo. Take your medicine and get a sticker. Take your medicine and you can have chocolate milk. Take your medicine and you can watch TV. It was a never-ending cycle!

When did we decide to let a little blonde-haired, blue-eyed 4-year-old boy run our lives? If I had acted like he did, my mother would have set me straight! Kids today, mine included, have no fear of their parents. I try to be that scary rule-setting parent, but he just looks at me like I'm speaking Chinese. And what is worse, I would put money down that when Felicity is 4, we are going to be wishing that she was more like Cooper.

Until someone figures out how to make allergy medicine that tastes like chocolate or cotton candy, I guess I will be continuing to bribe my kids. Please, science, get on it!

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Kristen Pind, a native of small-town Gower, Missouri, came to Southeast Missouri State University with big dreams of being the next Katie Couric or Diane Sawyer. She never thought that in her 20s, she'd be married with two kids and living in Cape Girardeau. Keep up with Kristen's adventures as a young mom who's still trying to figure out how her own life fits together. Turns out, she's living a dream she never knew she had, and loving every minute of it. Kristen invites moms of all types to find her "Baby Steps" page on Facebook.