I took Christopher to the doctor today because he has been coughing for more than a week, and he was up most of the night last night whimpering about this that and the other, and we are planning to go out of town this coming weekend to go visit Uncle Brett (and, of course, someone always has to be sick when we go visit Uncle Brett!!)

Anyway, the short of it is that Christopher is fine. Dr. Guerrero thinks that he just has allergies (bummer) ... and he is therefore not contagious. His cough is being caused by a irritating drip down the back of his throat and we are to continue giving him Robitussin DM. His tummy ache went away after he went potty this morning, so that was already gone before we even saw the doctor ... there will be more raisins, grapes, grape juice, and pears on his menu for the next few days.

Christopher funnies: Christopher is very proud of the fact that he has learned to dress himself. He also will not accept any assistance for anything but shoes and socks (and that was only after he threw a 45 minute tantrum while I tried to convince him that he was not able to tie his own shoes - I never did convince him, but he has given up and lets me tie them without complaint). Pants and shorts now must always have elastic in the waist so that he can do it himself. Anyway, now that it is fall, it is cool in the mornings, hot in the afternoons, and then cool again in the evenings. A few days ago, Christopher started out the day wearing sweat pants, changed into shorts for the afternoon, and then in the evening when we were getting ready to go out, we told him to go back upstairs and put his long pants back on. He came down wearing a different pair of pants than he had in the morning. This was his explanation: "Mommy, I had to change pants because those other ones only had one hole for the legs, and I needed two"

Samantha is participating in "Marathon Kids". It is a program where kids run 26.2 miles cumulatively over a period 5 months. We have measured out that it is a half mile to go around our block once. Stephen and I have been taking turns running with her in the evenings. I have decided that this is one of those things that will either kill me or get me into shape (pant, pant, wheeze, wheeze, groan). Of course, it would be easier if one didn't have to deal with pushing Christopher along on his bicycle.

Have a nice day! It finally quit raining here and the sun is shining. Christopher threw a fit this morning when I opened the curtains because the "sun is in my eyes" ... he had forgotten what the sun looked like!

- Tana