Seventeen Days...

Is how long it took for day care to infect Iris with some Eustachian Tube-munching virus, warranting a trip to the good ol' Hippie Doctor Folk. Not so hippie that they didn't slap us with some azithromycin after interestingly minimal inspection, but definitely hippie enough to ask us to hold off on administering said drug for a day or two "to make sure it's really bad first." So we (called Grandma Reinhard, made her tell us what to do, and) got the prescription filled and gave it to her a couple of hours later. Iris is in pretty good spirits, all things considered, and would like for you to know that she weighs 27.4 lbs.

Addendum

Actual conversation between Iris and I, approximately four minutes ago:

I: Bears! Bears bears bears bears bears bears bears bea....

M: Do you want to count the Care Bears on this page? Let's count them. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven,

I: AYT! AYT AYT! AYT! AAEEEEET!!!

M: *blinks* Did you just say "Eight?"

I: *nodding* Aaayt.

M: Okay, let's count the bears on the other pages too. *turns to next page, containing only one bear*

M: *pointing to single bear* One.

I: TWO!

M: *holding up three fingers now* Three?

I: Foooah!

M: Five...

I: Fiiiieee.... SICK!

M: Seven?

I: AAAYT AYT AYT AYT AYT. Nein. *stares in confusion at the little blue cloud of smoke as it puffs from her mother's ears*

Trust me, she didn't mean "nine." She was saying "no" in German because she was surprised to note that my brain had exploded at her shocking display of intelligence, and also because she's freaky like that.

Obligatory front porch photo of mildly willing participants!

Oh you guys. So precious in your back to school clothes, looking both eager and frightened with equal measure. Well, Kyle does anyway. Iris just looks like she has no idea we're about to drop her off in the den of iniquitous germ origins (AGAIN), which makes it a little sad for her. Let's all cherish this photo as the last time we saw her healthy for longer than six days straight. sigh.

Okay! We are being positive! and optimistic! This year will be GREAT! No prolonged ear infections; no evil hades children demanding Kyle's sanity on a platter! No! It's gonna be great.