Update

I could probably cut this way down and just sum up the last few weeks by two words: sickness and Olympics. That's pretty much what we've been doing. You know I can't just leave it to that though, right? I mean come on, two words? That would kill me.

So for the sickness part, as you faithful readers will recall we took Joshua to the ER last Sunday morning and fortunately he tested negative for RSV. He's been pretty good this week, but just hasn't totally gotten over the cold and I'm not sure about his ears either. He had a couple of really rough nights, but I'm not sure why he wasn't struggling to breath or anything I'm wondering if it was his tummy from the antibiotics. Then Friday morning I woke up in the night and got a very nasty case of the throw-ups. Last night Abby and Brennan joined the club. Fortunately this seems to be the 24 hour thing and I'm feeling great and I think they'll be feeling a lot better soon. Hopefully, this will remain an elite club of just the three of us!

I've really tried to keep Joshua home the last few weeks and so I haven't seen much of the outside world lately. I've discovered a crucial key to happiness in these times and that is: take things a second at a time. If I start looking ahead, wondering how I'm going to get back into my exercise regime, or shower or make dinner I start to get a little crazy. If, however, I don't look ahead and just deal with the tiniest sliver of the present I can usually stay calm and sometimes even enjoy the mellowness of it all. Fortunately, too, having 5 kids teaches you that babies are only babies for 2.5 seconds and while it would be nice to sleep each night, it's sooo temporary.

Brennan has been a champ again. He took such good care of me and everyone else yesterday. I was laying in bed worrying about whether Anna would remember to turn in her book report and take her lunch or whether Brennan would remember to pick up the carpool and give baby love his medicine and guess what they did it all. I'm starting to think that maybe, just maybe, we women worry too much. Anyway, Brennan has been in the trenches right along side me through many sleepless nights with Joshy and I am so grateful to have a partner in all this. I love Brennan.

Anna has been incredibly helpful too. She came home from school yesterday and completely took over with Joshua. She knows just how to calm him down, and keep him happy and loves him to death. They had their cast party yesterday for their play they did last week and Anna was supposed to bring a treat. She made no bake cookies all by herself, and they turned out great. I was very proud of her. She and Chloe were here last night and they asked if they could go watch tv downstairs, but instead the little kids started doing "gymnastic" tricks on an old mattress and Chloe and Anna got way into it dressing up as reporters and announcing the gymnasts and their tricks. I love that they are so creative and not to cool yet for those kinds of things. We love Anna.

Abigail saw one of those little coupons tucked into an American Girl catalog, it said, "Free Catalogue!" but she misread it and excitedly said, "Oh my gosh, I am SO keeping this! I can get free college!!!!!" I'm so glad she's on the look out for a good deal for her college education. If only. We tease Abby that while she can be extremely graceful and coordinated, she is also a gifted klutz. The other night she came into the kitchen, stepped around Joshy's exer-saucer which was in the middle of the path and told me something. When we finished there was a VERY loud bang, bam, crash, smack. We looked over and there was Abby sprawled out on the exer-saucer. She gets a little ahead of herself sometimes and leaps before she looks. She's a great sport about laughing at herself and letting us laugh with her. We love Abigail.

Nathan reported to me that Ben should not get in trouble because he was not "traticipating". I love the words he comes up with. He has been our Olympic fan and is obsessed with short-track speed skating. Last week we got to go watch Nate in the first grade patriotic program and it was fabulous. I LOVE watching him in these things because he furrows his brow, looks right at the chorister and sings his little heart right out. He is so focused it cracks me up especially when he's singing a light happy little song and he looks like he's getting dental work done. I'm also always struck by how handsome he is, I know I'm prejudiced, but I can't get enough of his face. We love Nate.

Benny has been a great sport about being cooped up lately. My sweet neighbor has 4 little kids, Ty, Diana, Will and Daisy. Ben loves playing with them and has kind of combined them into one name: Tyana. He is always wanting to go to Tyana's. Nate and Ben were playing football yesterday. Ben has learned that when things aren't going his way play sick. Yesterday he was upset because he wanted the storm trooper action figure, but Nate had it. He collapsed into tears and on the ground saying, "My stomach hurts because I don't have the storm trooper!" Brennan and I watched them tackle each other and then Ben stood up and pretended to throw up. Evidently he's decided the ultimate in toughness is to play so hard you vomit. Awesome. We love Ben.

Joshua is a long-suffering, sweet little chubs. The people at the ER were cracking up at his "stoutness" as they put it. He's had to deal with one form or another of sickness for basically 2 months now, but still manages to be adorably sweet and happy most of the time. He's so social and loves to engage everyone and anyone. Yesterday about broke my heart when he kept looking at me wondering why I wasn't picking him up. I missed him!!! We love Joshy.