Familiar Ground and New

It's been a while, but it still feels like we're used to this.

Alicia has pneumonia. She was diagnosed yesterday, the day after we got back from a wonderful weekend away. By all accounts Alicia and Toby had a great time at Granny's, and our time up at my boss's cabin in Two Harbors was beautiful. Alicia was a little under the weather when we left on Friday night, but we weren't worried.

We still aren't; I should make that clear at the outset. She's much tougher than she was last winter. She's gotten over several colds without any trouble by now. But this one got her good. Her asthma symptoms are back for the first time in half a year--wheezing and breathing fast--and she's been just generally miserable. She slept straight through last night, but the night before was up almost every hour. Today at work someone told me I looked tired. I probably always look tired, but of course it's especially nice to have someone point it out.

So Alicia has been put on Prednisone and Augmentin, plus her old asthma nebs as needed. She seems better already, but Prednisone is notorious for making young ones cranky, and it's not like Alicia needed assistance in that area to begin with. Give Michelle an extra hug this week for being the stay at home Mom.

In all other respects, our little girl is delighting us daily. At Granny's Alicia found Toby's old potty, and Granny let her try using it. She did so successfully twice. So now we've got it out for her at home and she seems interested. This is a 19 month old girl, remember. We're just going with it...who knows.

She's also coming along with talking. She has added "No" to her repertoire, like any good girl should, but what's even more fun is her new habit of very clearly repeating a word that one of us says and then refusing to say it again. We'll be having dinner and Michelle will ask Toby if he wants some cheese. Alicia announces, "Cheese!" We all gush with excitement, only half believing our ears and coaxing her to do it again, but she just grins at the attention and sits there being cute.

And let me not forget Toby. He is coming along with reading. He has grasped the idea of letters making sounds and combining into words. And like his dad at his age, he learns books by heart as we read them to him and will sit and recite the book as he turns the pages. Unlike his father at that age, he has a pretty good imagination for stories of his own as well. Last week he went into Mama's room as she was just waking up, got in bed and told her a lengthy story about a dragon and a castle. He's been telling us stories more and more frequently. I may soon be a famous children's book author...if I can just get him to sign the rights over to me.