Medical Mystery

Matt went to bed last night after dosing himself with some Nyquil trying to shake off the chills. I managed to put Chipmunk to sleep despite his head congestion and inability to breathe through his nose. Bear woke up at about 10:30 whimpering on and off because she was having trouble with her stuffy nose and couldn't comfortably fall asleep again for hours

Me? I'm quite well.

It's a medical mystery to me. I'm always healthy and my family is wheezing up a storm around me. I get the least amount of sleep, too. If anything, I should be the one who is sick all the time. It doesn't make sense to me.

My optimistic friends always tell me, "what's wrong with that? That's a good thing because then there is someone to take care of the rest of the family." True. If I was sick with the rest of them, I'd still have to take care of them all, just feel miserable while doing so.

I was sick a lot as a kid. Perhaps that has something to do with it. It got to the point where people stopped taking care of me because I already knew how to take care of myself. Whenever I came down with something, I got the, "oh she'll be fine-she's always sick" response, whereas my sister would complain of a stomach pain and they were plotting which route to take to the hospital. Then again, she just didn't get sick that often. Now she gets sick everytime she hangs out with my kids. Go figure.

So for the next couple of days and nights I'll be taking care of my family. I just hope after they're healthy again, they'll let me sleep for a couple of days.

Mommy in Distress

It's been a rough day with Chipmunk. He caught a cold and is having trouble sleeping. At one rough moment in the day, Bear ran up and said, "Mommy, I come rescue you, okay?"

Sweet kid.

For the Smiles

I've decided that putting in the effort and taking our kids on special outings is beneficial for the whole family. The kids get to take in some culture, fun and some fresh air. The parents get that warm fuzzy feeling inside when they see the tremendous smiles on their kids faces.

This week we went to the County Fair. Some highlights:

Bear's First Pony Ride



We were standing by the pony ride deciding where to go next, when Bear turned to Matt and asked, "I ride pony?" Uh, okay.

Seeing all the Animals



Her favorite was by far the bunny ("pet bunny like Curious George?" she asked). She also got to pet a bearded dragon, see some turtles, ooh and aah at the baby farm animals, and visit with some tarantulas at an insect display.

Hanging Around



Chipmunk was dying to get out and move around. Unfortunately, the fair doesn't have too many places for babies to stretch their legs. He had to settle for riding in the sling wrap with me. I can't tell you how many times people stopped to say hello to Chipmunk. He got more attention than some of the displays we visited.

Fried Foods

When at the fair, you have to eat fried foods.



We stuck with funnel cake. but deep fried artichoke hearts and deep fried cupcakes did pique my interest. Gotta love that fair food!

Trains

Once again, Bear rode a train. A carnival train, of course.



There was this really neat model train exhibit, too. It was impressive and I wish I had gotten some pictures of it.

Ah, the County Fair.

My Favorite Bear Moments (Spoken)

Bear runs into the kids section at a local bookstore and sees a book with a stuffed unicorn next to it.

Bear: Oooh, wow, Goats!
Me: No, those are unicorns.
Bear: Oooh, wow, CORNS!

Bear gets stuck on a staircase that has a landing in the middle that you can either take another set of stairs back down or take a set to the upper floor.

Bear:(sobbing hysterically) I got lost on da hill, mommy!

Bear converses with the doctor when we take Chipmunk to see her.

Bear: Hi doctor! Baby hurt foot...fix it! Ummm, maybe bandage.

Bear tries to console Chipmunk when I step away for a minute

Bear: Okay, Baby. Good boy. Mommy right back. Here play Sonja...Hey! Don't! (Yells) Moooooommmmmmy! Baby eat Sonja! Now dirty! Needs bath. ("Sonja needs a bath" is what we tell her when Sonja mysteriously goes away and comes back clean a minute later)

Bear singing "Where is Thumbkin?" when she thinks no one is looking

Bear: Where is pumpkin? Where is pumpkin? How are you? How are you? Na na na na day sir. Va ma na ma dank you. Wun away. Wun away.

Bear is getting irritated with her brother playing with her toys and runs over to grab whatever toy he is playing with

Bear: Aaaaaiiiii-yaaaaa! Baby! Not yours!

Yeah, I'm guessing Kai lan has something to do with the last one. I'm a fan of "ai-goo" myself (Korean interjection - for those of you who don't know)

Most of the reason I'm recording these here is because I don't want to forget those little sayings that make me laugh from day to day. I hope that when she gets older I can return here and show her how silly she was at the age of two.

Little Friends are Hard to Find

Sometimes you just don't know what will become your child's best friend and comfort. Bear has her Sonja. Sonja is the ragged, gray, fraying love of her life. It would devastate her if she were to ever disappear. It was disheartening enough to watch her cry after Sonja fell in a mud puddle. Because of this, and here's our little secret, we actually have two Sonja dolls. When Bear started becoming attached we luckily found Sonja still available at our local toy store. So we took the advice of a friend and started alternating Sonja dolls unbeknownst to our little girl.

Recently, a friend of ours found another Sonja doll and gave it to us to use somehow. So now our count is at three, but one of them is pristeen. I guess we could wash it a few times, run it over with the car, drag it through a sandbox to give it that timeworn look and throw that one in the mix, but for now we'll keep it shiny and new just in case.

Chipmunk has a little brown beanie bear that he's been becoming attached to. Whenever he gets his hands on it, he shoves the little brown nose into his mouth. When he's tired, he rests his head against the belly and in bed he rolls his arm around the tiny bear body. So we decided that perhaps we better look for at least one other. I think Matt just ordered three of them. Sounds crazy, I know, but we had to do quite some searching for this little brown bear. According to it's maker's website, it's RETIRED! So I think he figured that we bite the bullet now instead of searching later for a retired toy bear.

So that's our secret. We've got multiples.

Shhh...don't tell our kids.

Baby Got Toejam

Once again we visited the doctor today. It seems Chipmunk's big toe on his right foot is marred. We think his toenail snagged, ripped and eventually it just got infected. This lead to an ingrown toenail and our poor little Chipmunk has to take some antibiotics and undergo some foot-soaking treatments as we pray it will mend. If not, he might have to go see a foot specialist, who will probably have to do a minor surgery on his toe.

Yup, his poor little toenail is jammed in his poor little toe.

Poor baby. You should see him wince whenever his toe is grazed.

From 8/31