My kid swallows better than your kid.

"Why in the world does nobody make a camouflage onesie with a frilly waistband?" you've no doubt asked yourself many times on many lonely nights.

Rest assured: someone does.

If only we had more disposable income, this would have been snapped up in a very ironic manner.

Writing the blog is hard work, make no mistake. Churning this stuff out every day is sometimes a chore, especially when nothing spectacularly interesting happens, which is in fact true most of the time (as you've no doubt gleaned by now if you're a regular tuner-inner to this yawn-fest). So when a day trundles along that I know will be a teeth-gnasher, a little part of me down by the spleen is secretly happy to have some fodder for this insipid dreck.

The problem with our kids, they make even the really hard days pretty easy. Damn them.

Enter today. Abby had a swallow study scheduled for 10. Swallow study. I love that phrase. The reason for doing this: two rounds with pneumonia is a reason to start ruling out reasons. One possible cause is improper eating technique, leading to tiny little pieces of mac and cheese (or, god forbid, pasta pickups) field tripping down her windpipe, pitching tents in her lungs, and throwing a pneumonia bonfire party.

I didn't expect this thing to be easy; I knew there would be x-rays, which are never easy with kids. That Abby woke up hotter than the sun cemented my expectations. I opted not to take her to day care for the morning, which was the best decision I've made in a long time. We snuggled. She napped. I did the crossword. She woke up exactly when I needed her to get up for the appointment.

The drive and walk and check in were peachy, despite her feeling sickly. She's such a trooper when she's sick, which is really super because it is often.

The study was interesting. There were no less than six people - two of whom were doctors - working like gerbils trying to get our kid to eat something. Parts of the visit were unpleasant, lots of crying (the worst came when two people were holding her down, a few were working the x-ray, Abby was bawling, and she kept eye contact with me the whole time. Her eyes told me everything: she will blame me for this later). By comparison, though, we've done lots worse; I put it at a 3.4 out of 10 on the horribleness scale.

Her temp wasn't too bad, so she got herself dropped off at daycare. I was at work for two minutes when Jen called and relayed that day care said Abby's fever was at 102, so back to daycare I went.

Picked her up, went back home. More snuggling. She went down for another long, tylenol-induced nap. Snore.

After I picked Lily up, we all went to a rummage sale at the church across the street. I use the term 'rummage sale' quite loosely. If you gathered up all the finest items you might have enough for half of a semi-decent garage sale. Pretty paltry, and very stuffy, nothing of even the remotest kitchy value at all. But, Lily did a great job walking all around the place by herself or clutching my finger. And she performed that pinnacle of kid cuteness: she started walking her stroller down the street. So cute.

I am not sure what this post has become, other than a rambling narrative of our day, and an uninteresting one at that. The point I wanted to (poorly) make was that, sometimes even our busy, crappy, random days are pretty pleasant.

Day seventy four.

Lily strolling the aisles of the worst rummage sale in Minneapolis. Just, really really crappy, seriously bad. Okay, I'm over it.

Lily on her beat.




A little bonus video for ya! I asked the speech pathologist if I could get a video of the x-ray they did for her appointment today. Not sure if that burned dvd will show up on my insurance or not.

This is kinda wicked, actually. Abby is swallowing a spoonful of pudding three times in this. The pudding is the black stuff that shoots down her throat like a slug. I slowed it down a bit for clarity. The two black circle things are the snaps on the shoulder of her onesie, fyi.

If you're eating pudding right now...this may not increase its platability.