Long-awaited update . . .

Leave my daddy alone!  I love him.

As usual, I've been getting a lot of flak from some quarters (I'm looking at YOU, Coverdell people), about the infrequent posts.  While I'm honored that some folks out there believe that every one of Reagan's BMs is a noteworthy event, I would simply prefer providing meatier, though less frequent, updates.

All that being said, here are the high points since my last update in January:

Let's see, about a week after the last post, Reagan cut her first two teeth -- the ones in front on the bottom.  That event almost warranted a blog post itself, but not quite.  After those first two came in, we thought she'd have a lot more come in pretty quick since she continued to be fussy and kept trying to bite everything.  But here it is, three months later, and we have had no further breakthroughs.  By now, there are probably a half a dozen ready to cut through all at once.  When they finally do, she'll look like she has antlers in her mouth.

Also, Reagan is now sitting unassisted, which is a nice milestone.  Even better, she stays where we put her, and as long as there are toys within reach of her tiny, tiny arms, she's pretty happy.  In addition to sitting, she spends her days in the exer-saucer, in the door jumper, or in someone's arms being carried around like royalty.  And we're suckers, so we tend to be all too happy to let her get away with it.

Here's the most current, up-to-the-minute update available:  On Sunday, (4/3), Reagan was a bit wheezy in the morning and coughed occasionally, as well.  Since the pollen has been bad lately, we thought she might be suffering from seasonal allergies, and since she otherwise seemed relatively happy, we were content to wait until today to take her to the doctor.  The nurse took one listen to the breathing and the seal-like coughs and basically diagnosed her on the spot with croup.  That diagnosis was kind of alarming at first since I've always heard of it as some sort of dreaded childhood illness, but it turns out to be (apparently) not too big a deal, at least not in Reagan's case.  In fact, it should run its course after three days.  To treat the inflammation of the trachea, she got an oral dose of steroids at the doctor's office, which promptly triggered Reagan to throw up all over Susan (heh!).  In fact, the vomit episodes (there was another one a little later while she was eating puffs) were probably the most alarming part of the experience.  We ultimately got her to successfully 'roid up by using another form of the juice, and she only needs two more doses before the symptoms should be gone.  As a side effect of the steroids, she'll develop terrible back acne and also be able to lift a car.

Even as Reagan has been battling croup with performance-enhancing drugs, Amanda has also been sick.  She was fine on Sunday but woke up with a 103 fever on Monday.  Since we were already taking Reagan to the doctor, we just schlepped Amanda along to get her checked out, too.  The doctor (or PA, or whatever) seemed to think Amanda had the same virus as Reagan, but it just affected her differently since she's older.  Instead of inflaming the trachea to the point where it affects breathing, it basically just gave Amanda a fever.  We tried mightily to get Amanda to drink a little children's ibuprofen to knock the fever down, but she would have absolutely none of it.  We tried reasoning with her by explaining that it would help her feel better.  When that failed, we (actually, I'll take credit/blame for this brilliant idea) took away her favorite stuffed animals as punishment (!) until she took the medicine.  Strangely, that didn't work, either.  Finally, we settled on the strongest weapon in the parental arsenal -- deception.  We put the ibuprofen in a half a cup of milk and encouraged Amanda to drink it since she "needs to drink fluids."  She bought it!  So, the moral of the story is, reason and logic are no match for deception.

And now, Susan is on the verge of a week-long trip to Chicago, and I'll be home from work tomorrow with the girls.  At least I get to join her in Chi town on Friday, and hopefully, Aunt Terri won't have two illnesses to contend with while we're gone for the weekend!

Plus, see photos on the right . . .