A weekend of ailments

It all started with Allison's elbow on Friday night. She was up on the window seat in the living room, intentionally diobeying Paul's commands that she get down. (We let them sit up there, not stand.) He was helping her down and somehow pulled her arm in such a way that she had a slight dislocation. It's called a Nursemaid's elbow and apparently is very common. Paul felt awful- he wasn't even being rough at all. Of all the countless times we've swung her by her arms and nothing's ever happened, then this one time she gets pulled ever-so-slightly the wrong way. We thought she was playing up the drama, but after awhile of her not moving or using the arm we knew something was wrong. The great thing about the whole experience was our pediatrician actually drove into work, met Paul and Al there, and fixed it within minutes. Paul said it looked like he hardly did anything at all and Allison didn't even whimper. They returned home after only being gone for about 20 min. (we live 5 min. away from the doctor's office) so I knew all was well. She was good as new! How's that for service...a doctor agreeing to meet you at his office on a Friday night, no ER or urgent care involved? We were impressed...and relieved she was back to normal!

The other main event this weekend was a bout of food poisening for me. We decided to try this new restaurant in downtown Louisville...a mexican food place called Senor T's. We'd heard other people recommending it so we figured, why not? Well, the stale, cheap tortilla chips and strange, salty, chili-powder-laden salsa should've been our clue to leave. Our meals came out within minutes of ordering, another very bad sign. My food was terrible. Honestly, I have never had anything so bad ever. Airplane food, cafeteria food, even Taco Bell would've been better. Why I ate it, I don't know. I guess I just wasn't thinking. We'd also heard that mexican food around here was lacking...now we know it's the truth. I was in the throes of agony all day yesterday because of it. Nausea and the whole works...yikes, it was bad. It's so hard to be sick when you have kids. All I can say is thank goodness Paul is so good at taking care of them. He really helped me out yesterday. I was useless. I finally started to feel better at around 5 pm, good enough to eat some ice chips and plain pasta. I also went to bed early and slept pretty well, considering it's so hot here at night. I never want to go through that again! It makes you appreciate predictable, safe food from the so-called boring chain restaurants. We should've just gone to Chili's!

As a sidenote, my being nauseous all day yesterday pretty much sealed the deal that we're done having kids. The way the sickness came on yesterday morning was all-too-reminiscent of how morning sickness is for me and I just don't think I could go through it again. We were pretty sure after Thomas was born that we were done, but a small part of me sometimes still wanted to have another one. It's just so cool to go through the whole experience, growing and birthing a new person. We agree, though, that we want to be able to give Allison and Thomas everything we can...including all our attention. I know a lot of families make it work with 3 or more, but I just don't think it would work for us. In a way it feels like a huge relief...now I know how I'd feel if I were to get pregnant and chasing 2 kids in that condition would probably be the end of me!

What the kids are doing now:

Allison is very into drawing and then having us put her creations on the walls. She's really good at drawing faces...it's sort of amazing to see. She also started trying to write her name, which looks nothing like letters or anything, it just looks like scribble. It's a new thing for her to say she's going to write her name at the top of the drawing, though. She likes to watch a show on PBS Kids that teaches letters and I think she's picking up on them. She named all the letters in her name, pointing to them on her monogrammed towel in the bathroom. She did this with no help from me! It was so cool! She's still enjoying her little preschool, though I'm starting her at another new one next month. This one will be a co-op with minimal committment from me. It was something I was looking into doing in the Bay Area before we knew we were moving since I wanted to be more involved and keep costs down. I met a new friend here with 2 little boys about the same ages as Al and Tom so I'm sending her to the same place as her older boy. It should be fun!

Thomas is talking more and more. He almost says Allison, too. He knows the usual ones- mama, dada, bye-bye, hi, mine, no, more...last night Paul got him to say "bath time". Well, at least it sounded like that. He's so funny about playing in the water...loves his bath, hates any water temp. that isn't warm. He screams if the hose gets squirted on him...even if it's 90 degrees. It's so different from Allison. She loves all water...she hardly notices the cold. He's sleeping better now, too. We got him to start sleeping through the night again after we moved in...he's been great ever since. The only thing is he wakes up super-early, which isn't too bad since he goes to bed at around 6:30pm. I can't complain since he's no longer waking me up in the middle of the night. I'd rather have him wake up early, then take a quickie morning nap, then a nice afternoon nap. It works, for now.

We're loving life here! It's so nice to have our own house, finally! My parents are coming to visit this weekend- they can't wait- and we'll have a blast showing them the house. It's nice having the basement to use as a guestroom, too. Perfect!