here come the colds

We begin with ... KISSY FACE!

Since my hysterical entry in May about Yuki’s first day at daycare, I’ve received many concerned questions of, “How is Yuki doing?” She is good. She took about two weeks (six visits) to totally stop crying, but even by the third day, it had decreased significantly. I was totally fine by the second day. I’m simple. But let me tell you, our pediatrician was not kidding when he told us Yuki would be sick in two weeks. Just as she was getting used to her new environment, she started sneezing. Then she got a fever—her very first one. You can’t send your kid with a fever so I kept her home as I saw the dollar signs fly away. Then she got better so I sent her back to daycare two days later but then we got a call by lunch time saying she had diarrhea so we went to get her then she was out again. After about five days, she was on antibiotics for an ear infection (#3 for those who are keeping track). Within 24 hours, she was much better. Back to daycare. Then I started sneezing. My illness went from congestion, fever, cough and there it lingered. After 10 days of that madness, I went to the doctor and got on antibiotics for a sinus infection. And just as I was finishing my meds, Yuki started sneezing again. We are now coughing in the same manner, which is so sweet I could spit.

I’ve been told by many parents that we will all be sick for about three years straight but after that we will all be super humans. I don't know what it is about a cold that you catch from your kid, but it is totally ass kicking. I better get a super-immune system after a few rounds of this.

Someone told us that they knew a school teacher who has been exposed to so many kid diseases that she could now catch vomit in her bare hands and not get sick. Some day …

Back to Megumi school. Yuki now loves her teachers and has made two friends named Abby and Melody. I’m pretty sure they are both half Japanese like Yuki. In the beginning, these two girls were constantly around Yuki kissing her head, which was very cute. Abby would run up to me when I came to get Yuki and say, “My mommy is coming!” as if to say, “ I have a mommy too!” Then after about four weeks, Ace joined the group as Philip mentioned. Poor kid, he was a mess during the first week, just a face full of streaming tears and snot. I thought, “I totally feel your pain--hang in there dude, it’ll get better.” Apparently he was dropped off from 7:30-5:30 right from the first day and is a month younger than Yuki. That’s pretty tough. Yuki still only goes from about 9:30 to 4:30 so she has it good. Ace is fine now.

I think it is a pretty common practice in daycare, but they write something about each kid everyday in a notebook. Then you take the book home and bring it back the next time with anything you want to share with the teachers about your kid. Just from reading the past six weeks’ entries made us realize what a great record this is of her growing up (aside from this blog, which is more about her spastic parents than anything else). She has come home with three “incident reports” of minor bumps and cuts thus far (which made Philip wary of things, but by then, I was like “She is gonna fall down sooner or later”—again, I’m simple) but nothing more. She has learned to clap and cheer after hearing a song, can throw a ball, and drink out of a straw (though they don’t have straws at daycare so we’re not sure where she picked that one up). It is fun and odd that she is learning things outside of our surroundings and that she is starting to have her own life in a way. I hope that the extra gas-burning drive will pay off when she opens her mouth and is able to speak two languages without flipping though a dictionary in a panic like I had to.

Oh, and on Monday two new kids started. Hold on to your hats. Kenji and Wolfgang. Put them together with Ace and it’s like a trio of WWII fighter pilots.