Asthma with an attitude!

If you've known Caroline from when she was born (granted, it's only been 2 years) you know she was an absolute angel. She slept wonderfully, smiled all the time and was a very happy baby! Who would have known what we were in store for. The past few weeks Caroline has hit the terrible twos...watch out! It's almost a double edged sword -- she can now communicate more, but either it's her way or the high way! For example, I took all three kids on a walk yesterday and it was time to head back home for naps. Caroline didn't want to go home -- she wanted to continue walking. So, she stopped in the middle of this dirt path, dropped down like was playing dead, screamed, wailed, you name it for (I'm not kidding!) 5 whole minutes. Meanwhile, I'm holding Colin (silly me just carried him instead of having a stroller for him), and Cecelia and I are just "waiting" for it to be over. Caroline then insisted on being carried, but she didn't want me to carry Colin too -- just her! Obviously, that was impossible! So, she finally settled on me holding her hand while she pushed her stroller with the other (she can barely steer the thing with 2 hands -- what a disaster!). We FINALLY made it home and hour after we started on the walk. What a nightmare. And it is safe to say I'm avoiding walks for a little bit unless Jeff is with me.

Now, about the asthma....Caroline is not officially diagnosed with it, but the doctor's office said it is likely. She had issues with allergies this past week which kept her up coughing two nights in a row. So, because it was a "tight" cough I brought her in (the nurse of the phone listened to the coughing). Sure enough she was wheezing, but the nebulizer/steroid treatment worked well and the wheezing went away. So, she's now on allergy medicine and we are the proud owners of a nebulizer. The trick is to get her watching her favorite show, Imagination Movers, and she is happy to wear the mask and breathe in the vapors. It's funny we never thought of the asthma diagnosis before as she always has a horrible cough with every cold she gets (and neither Colin nor Cecelia get a cough).

Oh well -- such is life. Hopefully Caroline will grow out of both...Asthma and her "attitude" :)