Hair and Noses

As I have mentioned (and as you have seen) Elise has been "follicle challenged" pretty much since birth. A few months ago she started growing hair like wildfire...in the back (she still does not have enough hair on top to make a pony tail or to hold back with a barrette). Unfortunately the hair she was growing was growing first like a mullet and then like a straggly rat tail. Marty and I discussed cutting off her rat tail, but I have to admit I was hesitant to do so. When your child only has a very limited amount of hair and everyone constantly thinks she's a boy it seems mean spirited to chop off what little hair she actually does have. In the end, Marty finally convinced me that it would be better for our child to have no hair than to have a rat tail. He was right, but I now understand the old men that are bald with pony tails i.e. Michael Bolton. When you have little hair on top it's hard to part with what's working for you in the back.

Anyway, a few weeks ago after bath time, Marty unceremoniously chopped off Ellie's rat tail, thus giving her her very first haircut! I must admit, it does look much better - she looks less like a redneck and it brings out her adorable curls. People think that she's a boy just about the same amount that they did before (all the time) so it doesn't really make a difference on that front. I don't think she'll ever be recognized as a girl until she gets a pony tail or a barrette, no matter how much pink she wears.

Speaking of boys, Lucas has developments in the hair department as well. Actually it's not developments so much as it is hair loss. Lucas was born with a full, thick head of reddish-blond hair that has now begun to fall out at an alarming rate. It's not that I am finding tufts of hair in his crib or in the drain of his baby tub, but his hairline has receded to the point where he looks like a middle aged man and it's thinned out to the point you can see his scalp. Just when I thought we were going to have a child with hair! He has also developed a mean case of cradle cap (in his hair and eyebrows!!) which may be what's leading to the hair loss. Luckily it doesn't seem to bother him.

Gram and Lucas
Last week, both Ellie and Luke had colds. They were both in pretty good spirits despite not really being able to breathe. (I, on the other hand, got their cold and was completely miserable.) If you do not have a child you don't really understand what it is like when a child has a cold. You see a child with a runny nose - whether it's fresh or crusted - and you think "that is so gross - why don't they wipe that kids nose?!" I know that you think this. I thought this too. And then I had a child and now I get it. You DO wipe the child's nose. A bazillion times a day. But 1 nano second after you wipe it, there is more. And 70% of the time (or more if you have a particularly feisty child) wiping your child's nose it is an out and out battle. And the frustrating thing is that it's a battle you can never win because even if you DO get a good wipe, the clean nose only lasts for a few seconds. Then it starts all over again.

Ellie has started to want to wipe her own nose (often voluntarily on her own), which is nice, but it usually just means that she just sort of wipes the mucus across her cheek and it makes more of a mess than if her nose just ran uninterrupted. And we are grateful when she actually picks up a tissue to complete the task. In an effort efficiently tend to her faucet nose, she'll do quick wipes with her hand, her sleeve or - my personal favorite - my clothes. Preventing this from happening takes a lot of nagging and still doesn't make much of a difference. Having a toddler with a cold certainly keeps you on your toes.

But having an infant with a cold is interesting too. His nose doesn't run, he just gets very congested. And unfortunately not being able to breathe through his nose gets in the way of his two favorite activities - sleeping and eating. I feel so bad for him when he has to take little breaks while eating so that he can breath through his mouth.

He'd gotten 100% better (completely congestion free for several days) and then the other night in the middle of the night (of course) he woke up at 2am so congested he couldn't breathe at all and struggled for a little over two hours. I tried everything I could think of to ease his congestion, and in the end I am not really sure which of the 50 things I tried actually worked but he eventually was able to breathe again and got back to sleep. In the morning and next day (and since then) he hasn't had any other congestion issues so Marty and I are wondering if maybe that severe congestion was unrelated to the cold he had last week and perhaps instead some sort of allergic reaction. The only thing I'd had that was different from the usual was that that night I'd shared a beer with Marty. But the jury is still out as to whether it was a reaction or just a random two hour congestion. If he does have an issue with beer - well that is certainly something I can avoid and hopefully he'll be avoiding until much, much later in life anyway.
Oma and Opa with the kids
I have a feeling that these first colds of the season are only the tip of the iceberg of a long winter of lots of illnesses for all of us! So many nasal adventures to come...