Healthy Habits

Isabelle was heading to swim class with Ed on Saturday. Before she left, I asked her what color lollipop she was going to choose today (the kids get to pick a lollipop on their way out if they have a good class).

She got a serious look on her face and said, "Well, actually, Mommy, I'm not going to take a lollipop today. Because lollipops don't make us healthy."

Maybe the Easter Bunny should pack apples and oranges into her basket this year instead of candy!

Where are you going? Where have you been?

Things have been so hectic the last few weeks, I've neglected Izzi's blog so I apologize. Some updates on the Siler's antics...

• Ed has been hard at work on his Masters Degree. He's taking online classes and thankfully has a one-month breather this month (April) until his next class starts in May.
• We have been hard at work doing some very long overdue home improvements, mostly focusing on the outside right now. We tore down the dilapidated old fence (destroyed by the double blizzard of 2010). The new fence is ordered and that will be started (hopefully) this weekend, weather permitting.
• We also ripped out our old dry-rotted wooden porch and spent two days this past week building a new one. It's low to the ground, so it's more like a wooden patio, but anything over 8 inches above grade required a building permit, so we skirted the system and built a low deck. We're hoping this will improve our summer dinners al fresco since we'll be above the wet sloppy yard that we always have in Edgewater since we're so close to the water.
• I signed up for a 10-week intensive online writing course (Fiction). I'm in week 4 right now and trying to keep up with all the homework, critiques of other student's writings, and balancing that with a full-time job and family life. There just aren't enough hours in the day sometimes.

As for Isabelle, she's as spunky as ever. We're in a consistent mode of dress-up at this stage. She is always wearing a princess dress, or Minnie Mouse ears, or a queen hat, or whatever. She acts out full episodes of her favorite cartoon, The Backyardigans, which typically requires Ed & I to play one of the parts. Of course, Iz always gets to be the nice characters while Ed & I take the spot of the wicked witch, or the mean Giant, or the ugly Beast. I guess it goes with the territory since she is an only child. I do really think that she's heading for the theater one day, if she keeps up this active of an imagination and playing out stories, we might have a budding artist on our hands. Too bad she can't keep a tune to save her life when she tries to sing.

We recently discovered that Isabelle has seasonal allergies. She had a pretty severe allergic attack about a month ago. We thought it was a pesky cold but then one day she woke up from nap screaming that her ear hurt. We took her to the Pediatrician who told us she ruptured her eardrum. Then we got her an emergency appointment at her ENT who told us the eardrum was fine (thanks, Pediatrician, for freaking us out). She had an ear infection in one ear (the ear where the tube has already fallen out on its own) and then the other ear was really full of fluid, but the tube was doing its job draining everything so that one was not infected.

We have to go back in June for a follow-up. If her ears have not fully drained of fluid at that point, then we are looking at another surgery this summer. They will remove the one tube, put two new ear tubes in. They will also remove her tonsils since they have to put her under anyway. We knew her tonsils would have to come out one day but they like to wait until kids are 5 or older now, unless the tonsils have repeat infections. Thankfully, Isabelle's have not been infected (yet) but they are HUGE and referred to as "kissing tonsils" because they actually touch each other in the back of her throat. This leads to sleeping problems b/c she cannot breathe efficiently when she lies down. Plus with the allergies, she was really having some sleeping issues.

She is now on daily allergy medications (one oral liquid, and one nose spray). We'll see what the ENT says when we return in June. We don't have an appointment date yet, they are going to call us when the June books open up for appointments.

Anyway, sorry for the long post. Wanted to update everyone on the goings-on around here. Things are not going to slow down anytime soon but I'll try to post more regularly. What we have coming up...

• Our film-making contest (48-Hour Film Project) is coming up in two weeks (April 29-May 1)
• Ed starts his next Graduate class in May
• Uncle Don & Aunt Susan, Uncle Sean & Jenny come to town in May
• Jen has to travel to Denver for work the first week of June
• ENT follow-up in June -- surgery in June???
• Uncle Sean and soon-to-be-Aunt Jenny get married June 11

I'm tired just typing it all!