"The Family That Sprays Together Stays Together"

This was the motto of my family, growing up. And with good reason; we were never far from our inhalers. Today we cordially welcomed Lyle to the Asthmatic Club, and as you can see, he and Baxter have more in common than ever.

After a great first day at Jefferson, Baxter and I walked home talking about the high points of his day at school. I had a Madeline cookie (his favorite) waiting for him in my bag to celebrate his, well, second first day. However, when I got home and picked up Lyle and held him for a few minutes, I heard a familiar wheezing sound coming from his stuffy little head. Within half an hour, the three of us were in the car on our way to the doctor, while I weighed the merits of taking him to the office v. the ER. In the end we went to the office, only because I found parking closest to the office, and shortly thereafter he was breathing medicated mist from a nebulizer machine. (Everyone in my family is nodding sagely with a slightly pained expression right now, I can guarantee it. Them's some strong genes there.)

It wasn't the way I envisioned this afternoon working out. (Gosh, have I said that before on this blog? "It wasn't the way I envisioned it" seems to be a recurring theme in this life we're leading.) I had set everything aside, including my plan to go set up my new office with my colleague Liesl tonight, in order to have a soothing afternoon and evening at home with the kids. You know, to try to keep everyone relaxed after the stress of the past few days. Instead I was holding a screaming, sweating baby with a nebulizer mask on his face, while his exhausted older brother took refuge on a chair he had dragged out into the hallway, with his hands over his ears, so he wouldn't hear the screaming. I'm pretty sure he was singing to himself to block out the crying, but how would I really know? Lyle's lungs were working better by then, and I was grateful.

But we got through the first day at the new school, and as Matt said, we're happy with our decision. So what if we've got gimpy lungs over here, at least we've got kindergarten figured out!