Mom left yesterday. She had a good visit with all of us. She misses Alex already, she said when she called from home. He is over the cold for the most part, still a little snot here and there but basically he's fine. We all went over to Fort Wayne the other day to shop at Babies R Us for a new car seat for Alex, 'cuz he's getting big. Mom paid for half, which was very nice.

It has been a rough week for the whole family. A week ago Saturday was our church summer kick-off carnival (a little fun for the kiddies) in which I took a 30-minute shift in the dunk tank. It probably wasn't really warm enough for there to be a dunk tank. (I wonder if spring is really going to happen sometime this year...it has been one cold, wet, miserable first half of the year so far) Anyway, by Saturday evening I felt like I was coming down with something, by Sunday morning I was good and sick. Missed church and missed Monday at work. By Tuesday morning Alex was also sick. I have felt so bad for the little guy. He had so much snot that he couldn't breathe when we lay him down so he had to sleep in his car seat for several nights. He wasn't sleeping well at all and he cried and cried. Beth and I didn't sleep well either. He's finally seeming to feel better now. I hope he's over it all. Now, add onto this that at the same carnival, Beth severely twisted her ankle stepping out of our camper. She's been lame all week. We bought a new water softener and an RO system last week, it's being installed Monday. Tuesday, my mom arrives for another visit with Alex. She's getting so excited already.

The rice cereal experiment has been a failure and has been terminated. Alex has been backed up so bad he's cried himself hoarse over the last couple of days. We're pretty sure the cereal is the culprit, so he's not getting any more of it for a while. Next up is the apple juice experiment. Gotta see if we can get his little system flowing again. Softball is back on the winning track after a 3-game losing streak. We are now 4-3 after winning last Tuesday. It's kind of frustrating sitting out half the games because we have too many players but at least everyone bats. I'm hitting 11-17 (.647) on the season, my best season at the plate so far.