Brooke has been cramped up in the house since our little holiday hospital trip. She is better, but we are being cautious (and probably overly nervous). The doctors indicated that she likely reacts different to common viruses than other kids, and that future viruses can bring about similar outcomes. As she seems to pick up one virus after another, this is a very real situation to face.
This morning a couple of her friends were going to check out a new playplace only a few blocks from home. Despite the fact that a playplace with tons of kids is probably the most germy place I could take her, the poor kid had to get out ... and so did I. Both Ryan and Brooke slept in this morning, which was a great start to the day. I got both of them ready and we made it to meet our friends a bit before 10. I put Ryan in a carrier and Brooke and I head off to explore our new surroundings. She loved it. I'm not sure if the place was that great/special, but since she has been been pretty restricted lately it was a dream come true. She jumped in a bounce house, wrote with a glowpen in a glow in the dark room (which she referred to a a circus, for some reason), climbed into an activity center and dressed up as Cinderella. She was fine doing everything but jumping in the bounce house ... which caused her to cough. Of course, she jumped in there about 10 times. I think the parents around us were a bit concerned about the kid hacking in there, but I knew she was ok (and took a step back so nobody realized I was the parent who brought the sick kid out to play).
Ryan was pretty cooperative during the whole experience and that gave me the courage to extend our trip. We went out to lunch with one of Brookes friends (and her Mommy, of course). The girls were nutty at lunch, and Ryan slept through it. It turned out to be a pretty great morning, and to thank Brooke for being so good (and giving us both the opportunity to get out for a bit) we went next door to the bakery and got a "special cookie". Brooke had to choose between a penguin, snowman, and snowflake cookie. She picked the snowflake one right away.
Since it took her half-an-hour to eat the cookie, she ended up going down for nap really late. At (almost) 5:30 she is just waking up. Our morning pretty much screwed up our whole day, and will likely impact tomorrow as well ... but it was worth it!
