Croup, Dancing, and Swordfights (Oh my!)

It's been a while. I had bragged to a friend a while ago that my kids are soooo healthy and hardly ever get sick (other than the occasional heart defect). But the day after I said that, Nicholas had to stay home from school with a bad cough and cold for the first time this year. That was a couple of weeks ago. Blake and Lexi had yucky coughs too but were still doing well.

Then, when I took Blake for his 5 year check-up (he was still coughing), the doctor said he had a double ear infection. And I didn't even know. Bad Mommy. So everyone finally recovered and seemed to be doing fine, and then when we were in Elkhart over the weekend, Alexis come down with croup. Good grief. The poor babe sounds like a barking seal. She wakes up with her little eyes all crusted shut and unable to breath...yet continues to be this perfectly content and smiling little girl. So I'm not complaining.

Nicholas finally has his appointment tomorrow with the pediatric orthopedic surgeon for his scoliosis. I'm really not worried at all and know that the guy is going to look at the x-ray and say that it's very minor and he can get another x-ray in a year to compare the two to make sure it isn't changing. (I've been around enough doctors this year that I feel qualified to say this--I expect my honorary medical diploma in the mail any day now.) I told Nick about it finally today. He's more concerned about walking to the school office by himself tomorrow when I pick him up than he is about the doctor's appointment.

Blake has his follow up appointment on Friday for his ear infections and he will also get his 5 year immunizations since they couldn't do it at his last appointment. Hopefully after Friday it will be our last doctor appointment for a while (other than Lexi's monthly RSV shots, which thankfully, the insurance company is again willing to cover).

Alexis is progressing so well in her therapy. She has a new trick (not to make her sound like a new puppy) which just makes me swell with pride. She will lay on the floor, stomach down and propped up on her arms and when you tell her "dance, dance, dance" she will sway herself back and forth. She's been "dancing" for a while now (put the jokes away), but has just recently learned to do it on command. (I really do make her sound like a new puppy, don't I?) She is also now able to pivot on her stomach, reaching things that are not directly in front of her. And I see the faintest sign of her wanting to pull her knees up under her in the attempt to move. Crawling will be the next big milestone, yet I'm in no hurry.



Nicholas has become pretty much obsessed with the Wii. For my birthday we got a new sports game that he loves, but we can no longer play the sword fighting game in front of Blake. When playing this past weekend, one of the characters lost the swordfight and got knocked off the platform into the water. Blake's lower lip started quivering and he wimpered, "He won't ever see his mommy again!" And then later, when a character named Alexis fell into the water, tears sprung to his eyes and he said, "but Alexis doesn't know how to swim!" I think we better stick to cycling and ping pong.