Sweet Kate, Ill Jack

Kate can drive you crazy. She stands up in her high chair halfway through every meal, or dumps her plate, or starts pouring her milk or water out. Then today she was spitting her milk out again, something she hadn't done for months.

And yet, she's also incredibly sweet.

Bringing Jack his sandals when she and Emily were headed outside. Jack was going to stay in, but she wanted him to come. "Shoes! Shoes!" Then she saw he was already wearing sandals. "Oh!" she said. "Shoes."

Saying "Hi, Daddy," and "Goodbye, Daddy," at morning and night, respectively. The way she says it, kind of dragging out each syllable, with a sweet little happy smile. So it's, "Hi, Dah, Dee."

When I read her stories, on each page, after each line, she looks up at me and beams. That's just if she likes a book, and if there aren't cows or dogs on the page. If there are cows, she points and says, "mOOOOOOOOOOO." If there are dogs, she points excitedly and says, "WoofWoof! WoofWOOF!"

She physically brings me over to see things, or draw with her. Last week I was sitting at the laptop. She brought a piece of paper and markers over to her little table, then came over to me and took my hand. I can't remember what she said: Here? Or, Sit? Anyway, she beckoned me over to draw with her. Very sweet.

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Then there's Jack. Jack was sick most of the week. First he had what we thought was pink eye but turned out to just be some kind of irritation. Then he had a fever and the worst cold he's ever had -- rivers of mucus. Let's leave it at that.

Through it all, though, he was in really good spirits. Cheerful. We played games, drew pictures (he made an awesome house with the whole family in it.

He slipped a bit over the weekend -- maybe going stir crazy a bit, like me probably. Still in good humor, but more frustrating. Little stuff here and there. In fairness, he was probably sick of his being sick, like me.

You realize that some of the stuff you worry about and get upset about doesn't seem to matter as much as simply not being sick. So we're hoping for a week of that, at least.