I've always thought of summer as a time when the kids could be relatively healthy. I've been kidding myself.

A few weeks ago the kids started getting colds, which they generously shared with each other. It seemed that everyone was getting better until two weeks ago when we were at David and Elise's house for dinner. Chase was particularly melancholy. As he walked across the family room he began barking orders at the ants. Emilie dutifully tried to stop the orders that were flowing from his mouth, but with limited to no success. Did I mention that we were at David and Elise's brand new house? And Chase was walking across their brand new, light-colored carpet? Well, both those statements are true.

After that he looked horrible and Emilie and I took turns holding him so the other could eat. We were unfortunately destined for a quick departure. Nevertheless, the food was very tasty and I'm looking forward to eating there again sometime without cleaning up vomit right before dinner.

We didn't realize it at the time, but the night was going to take a nasty turn for the worse. Everyone was in bed and Emilie and I were about to go to sleep. Chase suddenly began crying so we went to check on him. He was having trouble breathing, so we took him downstairs and gave him a breathing treatment with the nebulizer. It was marginally helpful, but Chase was still unable to sleep because of his labored breathing. He was only able to sleep when I layed with him outside in the hammock where the air was considerably cooler.

After about an hour of restless sleep I brought Chase back in the house and his breathing difficulties seemed to be getting worse. At that point we decided to take him to the emergency room. Emilie stayed home with the babies and I took Chase to the hospital. It was a long night, but their treatment eventually helped make Chase comfortable enough that he could sleep. He was pretty tough in the hospital, being very cooperative and brave.

We didn't get home until 7:00a the next morning. Chase fortunately recovered very quickly and didn't need any of the medication prescribed to him.

On the other hand, Mason decided to get sick a few days ago and was sporting a pretty high fever. A couple of nights ago Mason was obviously feeling pretty horrible so Emilie and I took turns staying up with Mason much of the night. He slept a little better the next night and last night his fever finally broke. He's been doing pretty well since.

Hopefully Jaxon doesn't pull some sick magic out of his hat.