We should buy stock in Lysol. Or give up the germ battle. Perhaps we're approaching this germ thing all wrong. Maybe, when one of us gets sick we should just cough on the others immediately so we can all be sick and then well again at the same time. Or maybe not. There's no way we would have managed with sick babies when I was sick last week. So, I guess we'll keep fighting the germ battle and perhaps we'll even declare victory a time or two. I'm feeling better now after a week or so of a miserable cold that still lingers in the form of cough and congestion. Yuck! Ok, so I'm dealing with my ailment when I about have a heart attack due to the new neighbors ailment. Let me explain. The neighbor two doors down has a 4 year old, an 8 year old, and an 8 month old. The older two girls and Taylor have been playing non stop. They come here to our house and play and then they go over to their house and play and so on all day long. A couple days ago the mom and I were outside at the same time. That's when she dropped the bomb on me. Let me preface this by saying I'm generally not a paranoid type mom that never wants my child to be around anyone with a sniffle, but this, this was no sniffle. She informs me she has shingles and her baby has chicken pox!! I try to hide my panic and disgust. All I can think of is Taylor and the older girls running back and forth from house to house, possibly spreading the virus with each play date. ARGH! So, then I have to be mean mom and ugly neighbor and forbid the kids to play together for a while. Although the 5 day fever the baby suffered prior to coming down with the "chicken pox" is subsided and the rash is spreading at this point. So my precautions are probably in vain. This story doesn't end there - fortunately - the baby does not have chicken pox. It's a virus in the same family that affects infants only called Roseola. Click here to find out more about Roseola. It's also a good website for other kid health questions you may have. Dr. Ellison said the boys should still have enough antibodies from me so as not to contract it. Whew! Right?


Now, for those of you reading this that are extremely sharp, you caught the fact that I said "Dr. Ellsion said.." Again, I'm not that paranoid that I would run them up to the dr. at the thought of possible exposure, I mean I'm rash-inal (hee hee), I'm waiting and checking the boys for symptoms like bumps and fever daily (again, paranoid, but rational) So I'm not running them to the dr. No, my doctor visit came when Brayden did in fact come down with a fever. And can I say ARGH! again. Brayden is taking the Lloyd record for ear infections. I didn't think, or at least I hoped, that Taylor's record of 3 1/2 months would never be broken. At the ripe old age of 11 weeks and 3 days Brayden has a minor ear infection and is starting Amoxicillin today.