Coxsackie Virus

Ever hear of that? Yep, me neither. It is also known as Hand, Foot and Mouth disease, not to be confused with Hoof and Mouth because that is in cows, not children, silly! Oy.

Kath ran a fever Thursday night starting aroung 11:30. So, I called and brought her in on Friday (was 20 minutes late so I had to wait an hour for the next available opening AND I wasn't even seeing Kath's DOCTOR, but a physician's assistant, no, a nurse practitioner!) Anyway, both girls were stellar in their waiting skills while I was upset because I had to wake Kath up to bring her in to wait for an hour in a stew of germs. But it was my fault, I was late, so at least we were still able to have Kath checked out.

I don't really believe she has this virus though since she has shown no signs of blistering on her hands and feet. She tested negative for strep. She does have sores in her throat and now I think I do too. Darn girl grabs my glass and straw and I think "Hey, look! Remember when she didn't do any of that curiosity grabbing?? And look she can drink from a straw! Do you know hard that is? Her mouth is working!!!" Ugh. Anyway, I am hoping she is over this soon (and me too) and we can go back to regular old worrying.

Today she worked on climbing in and out of the back door. The first couple of attempts could have been disasterous if I had not jumped and held her (she was playing on the deck nicely one second so I was cleaning then wham she was in the house and trying to get back outside again.) Luckily, I was never more than 5 feet away, especially since I am not as fast as I was in high school. :-)

Alex is a wonderful first warning alarm system. It's either a loud 'MOM! Katharina is ... (doing any number of things from eating chalk to jumping out the door face first)' or 'Kath, that's a NO-NO! Yuck, Kath, that doesn't even taste good" (once again that is for anything ranging from the chalk to a dog-hair-covered pretzle stick or worse).

Today I want to talk about Alexandra. She is a pretty amazing chickie. She has gone from pretty much being the center (the boys are so much older and gone most of the time) of our attention to . . .well, not being the center. She has a bright sun-shiny smile and personality. She loves to tell stories, make people laugh, sing and dance. She is as smart as a whip (not sure where that expression came from, but you get the idea) and loves to learn and to help. A new passion of hers is yoga. I bought her a childrens yoga DVD and she sets herself up with my yoga mat and plops the DVD in and works on 'her yoga.' Then during the day she will show me her moves, with a very serious face (the DVD is called Silly to Calm Yoga) and very serious yoga breathing and calmness. She paints and draws something every day. She 'reads' to herself, to Kath, to me, to Roger.

Now, under normal circumstances an almost 4 year old (April 27th) may show signs of jealousy and meaness towards the sister who gets all the attention (therapists coming to the house, being told to be quiet "your sister is taking a nap" or "we have to go now your sister . . . ." )

But not Alex. Alex claps the loudest when Kath finally manages to get out the door by herself, when she colors a picture, when she stands for a long time, when she throws a ball, when she does anything at all Alex cheers for Katharina as if this baby didn't just cut the attention she gets from others down to squat. She reminds me of Stargirl in the YA novel called Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli. She is everyone's cheerleader, she sees no boundaries in making people happy. She laughs and makes others laugh. She cries when others feel bad. She makes pictures to make people happy. She truly thinks about other people's feelings and thoughts. She is an amazing girl. She tells us though when she needs a break "I need some mommy and Alex time" or "Daddy and Alex time" and we do everything we can to make sure that happens when she needs it because she deserves it too. She re-energizes me, so it is only fair that we re-energize her.

She began telling a story today about a woman from Coxsackie, but of course, she can't pronounce it correctly. That girl . . . she makes us laugh.