On Monday, Zack had his first experience with baby food. I hesitate to say that he ate baby food, because I don't think much reached his stomach. He made this disgusted face the entire time and shoved as much back out as he could. We have made several more attempts and are achieving a slow success. The girls were much more enthusiastic about the whole experience. Maybe we'll add some flavor this week to liven up the nasty, bland cereal a bit.


The biggest news of the week is that Tansy has RSV. Poor baby. She started coughing Wednesday night and had the slightest fever on Thursday. Early Friday afternoon, her breathing had become very shallow and rapid, she had no energy, and her temperature had gone up to 100.2. I gave her some Tylenol and took her temperature again a half an hour later. It had gone up to 101.7. I called the doctor's office to see what was going around and if I should worry. They said bronchitis and RSV were hitting hard this week and I should bring her in. The doctor couldn't hear the RSV in her lungs yet, but he was pretty sure that's what we were looking at. He sent us home and told us to call him if she got worse.

About three hours later, despite the Tylenol, her fever spiked to 104.1, she started trembling, and just laid limply in Ben's arms. I called the doctor, who told me to take her to the hospital for a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia. It came back clear for pneumonia, but he said she definitely had RSV. We had given her ibuprofen as well so her temperature was back down below 100 by the time I got home.

On Saturday, her temperature was much more manageable and her breathing seemed less difficult most of the time. She is doing well again today. The picture is where she fell asleep at 6:15 this morning after being up for four hours and watching Curious George twice. Yes, she is right next to an inflatable bed. To each his own. We hope that she will be back to normal in a few days.

I know this is a pretty wacky picture of Tansy, but it perfectly displays her current beliefs about proper sticker use: remove each and every sticker from the sheet in your hand, place them on your shirt, and when you run out, beg Mom for more. We have yet to convince her that a piece of paper is an acceptable place for a sticker. What's the point of taking it off one paper just to put it on another? Makes sense to me.

She also believes that the back of a sheet of stickers is that best place to color. Coloring book? No, thanks. Scratch paper? Uh-uh. Post-it note? Nope. Sticker sheet or the couch, mom. You choose.

Ben has also started reading The Magician's Nephew to our family. We read a chapter every night. Sydney loves the movies The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian (didn't know how violent that one was before we let her see it) so we decided to read the entire series. My set is numbered chronologically in Narnia time, not by publication date, so that's why we started where we did. She seems to clean up faster when we remind her about what's happening to Polly and Digory since the chapters always cut off at critical moments so we have to find out if their all right.

Ben also took Sydney ice skating on Saturday. She loved it! She has been asking to go for so long. They have these little walker-type things that the kids can use and she got going pretty fast. The videos and pictures are on Ben's cell phone, so I'm sorry I can't post them here. Just know that she was absolutely adorable.

The Young Men's presidency was released yesterday so Ben currently doesn't have a calling. Now for the waiting game. Any thoughts on what he'll be doing next?

Zack got a clean bill of health last week. I took him in for a follow-up so the doctor could be sure the antibiotics had done their job. He's sleeping 11 hours a night again so it makes my visits with the girls all night more bearable.

Wonder Woman! The girls decided that it was time for Zack to learn about the joys of dress-up. Oh, my. We'll have to find some more manly items for the dress-up drawer.

Ben and Sydney went back to school last week. It is always so jarring to go back to real life after a long break. Sydney has been teaching us all about germs since they have been focussing on hygiene this week.

Ben is ready to graduate. He is determined to stay on top of things this semester, but after so many years, he is really ready to be done.

The news on Tansy is that she wakes up several times a night and will cry harder and harder until I come put her back to bed. I don't know what is going on, but after three weeks of this, I am really tired.

My camera has seen no action in the last few days. Not much to report. The kids have improved a lot. We were able to go down to Springville to my nephew's blessing today. It was a last minute decision because of the rampant illness in this family. I have a bit of a head cold so going through Sardine Canyon was awful, but other than that, we seem to be okay. Knock on wood.

Ben goes back to school tomorrow. But it's his last semester! There is a light at the end of this tunnel. Good luck to everyone else headed back tomorrow.