Keeping Us On Our Toes

Are you wondering how things are going with three kids? Wonderfully. We aren't losing any sleep at night, Emilee eats well, and is very predictable during the day. She is still sleeping tons and isn't fussy as long as I respond to her quickly. I feel much more laid back as the mother of a newborn now than I did when my other two were babies. I'm really happy. She is 5 weeks old and will smile at me every once in a while. I am really looking forward to regular social smiling and for Millie to fill out a little more and have a round face. She's still so scrawny to me. ;)

Meanwhile, the older two are giving us a run for our money.

Ryan started swim lessons two weeks ago. Before the lessons started, he was still afraid to go under the water. Now, after 4 lessons, he begs to go to the pool EVERY day because he is confident enough to jump off the side of the pool into the water and swim over to the steps. He loves to dive down and get rings off of the bottom step but he can't quite get himself under the water far enough to get rings from the bottom of the pool. My point is, that he now tells us every day that he can swim and is a bit over-confident.

Last night we took the kids to the pool and they were piddling around on the steps while Derek sat out and watched them. Katie walked off of the step and was under water for a few seconds. Derek jumped up and ran over to save her but slipped on the pool deck (remember why they say "no running") and fell. He jumped up again and was able to get her out before she swallowed too much water. She was probably under for a total of 5 seconds, but it totally went in slow motion. Didn't take her long to recover - but it gave us all a good scare.


Then tonight, I was giving the kids their vitamins and was playing around with Ryan. I held up the vitamin and he opened his mouth for me to give it to him. I pretended to give it to him but took it away when he was about to close his mouth. I did that a few times while he was laughing about it and then the time when I decided to let go, I didn't want him to bite me and I dropped it into his mouth. Unfortunately, it went right to the back of his throat and he started choking on it. I'll spare you the details, but basically, I was 3 seconds away from starting the Heimlich maneuver. I put the baby down on the floor, got behind him, tried to get his hand out of his mouth so he wouldn't push it in farther, and was ready to start when he managed to get it out himself. Another brush with death. That one also lasted probably 4 or 5 seconds, but it sure made my heart pound. I could see how scared he was and didn't know how long I had before he'd pass out.

Life is fragile - they keep reminding me. I get the point.