Week 73: Sickness, Allergies, or Teething

Dear Hannah and Nathan,
For the past week, we've all (except Daddy) have shown these following symptoms: coughing, sore throat, and a little bit of occasional runny noses. I'm really not sure what is going on...I know Hannah was sick with a little cold, but you are still fussy at night and will wake up in the middle of the night, crying, unless I give you some advil before bed. Maybe it's teething. You still have a runny nose, but its clear and gets worse after we go outside, so I'm thinking that is allergies.

Nathan, you and I have had these dry cough spells on and off for the past week. You tell me when you have a sore throat, and some days you seem to get better and then the next day, you are coughing your lung out. I know you are allergic to cedar, which is high right now, but we've also been doing nasal steroids to prepare you for this. Your symptoms are very similar to mine, sore throat and dry cough. Either sickness or allergies. Not sure.

Anyways, the weather has been on the cold side, but nice enough to go outside to play, but we've been stuck inside for the most part because I don't want your allergies to get worse. So, we've been spending lots of time playing inside.

Our favorite activities are still playing with the train set. Now I have to make 2 separate track systems, one for each of you and divey up the trains so you two don't fight over them. But then occasionally, Hannah thinks Nathan's track is cooler and turns into destruct-o-Hannah...

Hannah is getting more interested in cooking. I remember the afternoons where Nathan and I would cook side by side. Hannah is now interested in helping out. You either point at what you want to help with, or if a step stool is nearby, you'll push it to the counter and climb up to help. You want to try out all of the neat gadgets.

 And then Nathan, sees Hannah helping and suddenly wants to help too. Below, we are making a quiche for dinner. I step away for a minute to grab a few things and when I come back, I found that my spot was taken and a medium sized ninja turtle boy was helping me roll out some dough. (We call you medium sized, because you are not a little boy anymore, but you are not quite a big boy yet. Lately, you've been kind of obsessed with growing bigger. Every morning, when you wake up, you will ask me if you "growed."

 Hannah's communication is starting to get even better. Your verbal vocabulary is slowly expanding, and I find myself in the same predicament I faced 2 years ago, with having to figure out first if you are speaking chinese or english, and what you are talking about. Just the other day, we were at a fabric store and passed by a section with fuzzy boas on large bolts. I kept hearing you say, "moy, moy" which is your usual word for "more," but I couldn't figure out what you wanted more of, then I looked up and saw you pointing at the bolt of fuzzy things and realized that "moy" is chinese for "touch." You wanted to feel the fuzzy things, which I thought was pretty cool.

Today we took the car in to the shop to get a few things taken care of so while we were waiting, we decided to split our time between shopping around and watching the mechanics work on cars. On our walk back from the shops, Nathan, you decided that you did not want to walk anymore, so we tried having Hannah sit on your lap and walked for about 5 minutes back to the shop. Usually Hannah is not up for these kinds of shenanigans, but today, you were quite content, sitting on Nathan's lap, looking around. No double stroller, no problem.

 Hannah's also getting better at sorting shapes. You seem to like to put things away and take things out of containers these days, but I'd have to say your attention span isn't quite like Nathan's was when he was your age. I'm actually a bit nervous about how you are more strong-willed than Nathan is, very determined too. But you love to help and you are super gentle with Teddy. I think you'll be ok to handle.

Well, that's about it for now. I am going to take a nap. This coughing at night has worn me out. Until next week, 

Love, 

Mommy