MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Elsie sends her love to all. We're here in St. Louis through Christmas, as Michael is working up through Christmas Eve very late, doing a homily for the midnight service. Then we get a couple days in Peoria with the Burkleys to celebrate. Michael and I are also looking forward to a day to ourselves, when his parents drive up and keep the kids for our anniversary (#4 - crazy).

So Merry Christmas to all. I'm sure we'll have present-opening pictures for you post-holiday...

Healing

So I think we're healing around here. Finally. Except for mama - I still seem to have a cold and am stuffy. But that's ok. It's better for me to be sick than either of the little people. Michael's a bit stuffy, too. But overall, things are about 462% better than they were a week ago. Elliot is no longer having multiple fevers of 104 and 105 degrees every day. His ear is not leaking green fluid anymore. He is sleeping in his own bed, and he doesn't complain that his ear hurts. Elsie is not having fevers anymore, either. But the antibiotics are ripping the poor baby's stomach UP. She seems uncomfortable a lot, but I think after a couple more days once the Antibiotics are finished, she'll be ok. She's a sweet little bug.

So here's Elliot finishing a masterpiece. He often plays songs for me and sings along with them. That's my favorite. Then he claps for himself. Also very fun. He is slowly figuring out that the letters we practice every day are on multiple surfaces. Suddenly they are on the trucks on the highway, and on bottles and cereal boxes and on the front of his books. He seems to recognize "A, B, C, S, R, and E". However, any number he sees could also be "A". We'll get to that. He can currently count to 2. Everybody's gotta start somewhere...

Service for service

I think we should go back to the medical system where we pay in whatever currency we have. Like when farmers would bring a chicken or a basket of eggs for pay. Maybe Michael could do a wedding and I could play for it, or cover a funeral or a gallery opening? We asked at the doctor today if we could just get a season pass instead of paying a copay each time. Or maybe a weekly pass? This was the third time in 5 days that we've been to the doctor. Monday was Elsie's 4 month checkup. Wednesday was Elliot's double ear infection. Today - Elsie's ear infection, her first.

My friend, Melanie, told me one time that she thought her house turned into a circus at night once the lights went out. I think my house has joined hers. We play musical beds. Kids move in and out of their own beds as well as two adult beds. The parents move back and forth between the adult beds as well. Last night we made tea and a hot toddie about 2am. The kids were finally asleep, but we were both up with our coughs.

On a happy note, Elliot, just within the last 2 hours, seems to be feeling a bit better. His fever is finally down. He is not pointing to his ear and saying, "hurt". He's watching George, walking around the living room and talking to the television. THIS is normal Elliot activity. This is a good sign. The doctor gave us some numbing drops for his ears, so we're hoping that he may sleep more than a 2 hour stretch tonight. This is GOOD NEWS! He got a green sucker and another sticker at the doctor's office. Suckers seem to be able to heal many things. Maybe faster than Ibuprofen. Keep this in mind. The magic power of the sucker. I think it only works on small children.

Anyway, service for service. Maybe if you didn't need the service at that time, you could make up a legal IOU. Like, a card guaranteeing wedding music or flowers or accounting or whatever your trade happens to be. Think about it.

Stats on the bug

My friend, Leslie started calling this sweet baby girl "Elsie bug". It stuck. Now she's pretty much "Bug" or "the Bug". She also named our other child - Smelliot. So, Elsie had her 4 month checkup yesterday, which was actually her four month birthday. Hard to believe. Here are the stats on the bug: 12 pounds, 3 ounces, 23 inches long. She is still in the 25th% for these things. This makes sense of why she seems so small to us, still. We looked in Elliot's baby book. When TWO WEEKS older than Bug he was 27 inches long and weighed over 16 pounds. Oh my. She's just gonna be little, for a while, I guess. Michael actually took her to the doctor, WITH Elliot, as I was playing a funeral. He did a great job and even survived 4 shots with Bug, which he hates. When I saw them, Elsa had 4 bandaids on her thighs and was dressed in a pink shirt that said "Daddy's Little Sparkler" with overalls and a sweet sweater over that. Elliot had a massive truck sticker on his shirt. And he had french fries. So all was well.