Supporting the healthcare industry

Lately, my family has been almost single-handedly holding up the healthcare industry, or so it seems. In the past two months I’ve made four trips to the emergency room and even more affiliated doctor visits. Here’s the score:

Cohen: two (stitches near left eye, then a month later, several stitches on left arm)

Tristan: one (stepped on a long screw and then needed a booster shot)

Keegan: one (messed up his right knee, had to also see an orthopedic specialist yesterday and has an MRI today)

Michele has been to a regular doctor visit and so have I.

See? It all adds up to a lot of support for healthcare. (That is a bit ironic since we are in a big healthcare debate right now in this country. While I think we need significant changes in our current system, I would be horrified if the plan pushed by the Obama administration gets passed into law.)

Let’s hope that today’s MRI will show that Keegan’s knee isn’t as damaged as I think it may be. He really wants to play football this fall.

Fun and games

This weekend we’ve had our share of fun and games. Yesterday the weather was cool and rainy but today it was perfect: sunny and in the high 60s. p10501251.jpg In addition to getting another van, which was exciting enough on its own, we made a trip to the Chicago Botanic Garden along with 10 million other people (or so it appeared) to see the Spring blooms. p1050142.jpg Cohen was a real stinker the whole time, running away when he was told to stay put, climbing on things he wasn’t supposed to, stepping in the flower beds, and on and on. Not sure what was wrong with him; maybe he was just more excited than usual. Brinley, on the other hand, was pretty quiet and meek the whole time. She has been unwell for a few days now with fever and sore throat so it’s no wonder. She slept on the way to the gardens and then sort of kept behind everyone else as we walked everywhere. Even though the place was crawling with people, more than we had ever seen before, it was worth the trip. The Spring flowers were gorgeous, especially the tulips. p10501281.jpg We went on some walkways that led out into the lagoon a little bit and were amused to discover a great big ‘ol carp looking for us to feed it, surrounded by a large school of bluegills. (I wish I had had my fishing pole to catch those bluegills!) p1050161.jpg Overall it was a nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon. On our way home we stopped and ate a nice meal at Chipotle’s. Click here to see the full set of photos from the trip.

Cohen turns four

Today Cohen turns four. As usual it seems that time has flown by and our baby is definitely growing up. Today, as we promised him long ago, we took him to Build-A-Bear to pick out his very own stuffed animal. He picked out the groundhog and decided to name him Fire (with a nickname, ‘Trey’). He wanted what he calls “Kwispy Kweme” donuts for dessert tonight. I will post photos of his donut birthday cake in a bit. He has had a happy day!