Sick and hot, and a picture just to keep you interested.

Olivia has been waking up in the middle of the night and having a hard time getting back to sleep the past three nights. It was making me crazy because I couldn't figure out why she was having such trouble sleeping. And then it occurred to me yesterday that she sounded pretty congested and her nose was running a lot.

Yes, folks, she has a cold. A pretty nasty one, it seems. And it took me three days to figure it out because...I'm not sick. In fact, I'm breathing freely for the first time in three weeks now that my sinuses have finally calmed down. It just never occurred to me that she could be sick if I wasn't also sick. That has never happened before.

It seems to be a cruel joke that when kids are most in need of sleep (illness), they are least likely to be able to get a good night's sleep. It's hard to sleep when you can't breathe. But Olivia is already two hours into her nap, and I'm hoping that a good nap and lots of rest and fluids today will help her bounce back quickly. And maybe she'll sleep better tonight. No rest for Olivia means no rest for Mommy, and that doesn't help Mommy stay healthy either.

We had another Santa breakthrough this week. Olivia crawled up into Santa's lap. He's not so scary anymore.

Yeah, I'm sitting on Santa's lap. I don't know why you are all making such a big deal out of this.

I bought a cute new swimsuit for Olivia this week, and today would be the perfect day to try it out if she wasn't sick. It's going to be mid 80s and so humid that it will feel like 90s. On days like this, it's either pool time or indoor time. There is no comfortable activity beyond those two. And tomorrow promises to be way worse.

Maybe it's a good thing that we have an excuse to stay in and enjoy the air conditioning. We can play with puzzles and watch Lion King for the ten millionth time this week. I don't know why, but Olivia is obsessed with that movie. That, and Nemo. She LOVES Nemo.