Parenting is stressful

Last week, we had the kids go through their toys and get rid of the ones they don't play with anymore. They just have too many toys, and not enough room. So, we said that if they got rid of a bunch, they could buy something new - that made them more motivated to get rid of stuff. John took the toys to Once Upon a Child, and the kids made $50! Mikayla decided to buy some little dora figures that we found on ebay for pretty cheap. Dakota, of course, bought 2 more Ultraman monsters from Japan. They were $10 each, and they only charged me $10 shipping - which I think is really good for overseas. He's not quite so patient about waiting for the package to come though. And it's funny, he won't let us get rid of the boxes that these figures are shipped it since they have Japanese writing on them. He keeps pretending that he gets a package from Japan. Sometimes I am forced to pretend that I'm the delivery person, and I have to deliver the "package" to Dakota. As some of you already know, Dakota has decided to change his name to Ultra Seven since he is 7 years old. Yesterday, when we were running errands, a little boy asked Dakota what his name was. He replied, "Dakota. Actually my name is really Ultra Seven, but today I'm going by Dakota". Kids...

Sometime this past week, Dakota started getting a bad cough. He was getting bad headaches too - one time he said that if felt like somebody was trying to kill his brain. On Friday morning while he was still asleep I noticed that his breathing sounded awful. He was also coughing in his sleep and it was like a barking sound. I woke him up and took his temp - it wasn't very high though. I also noticed that the center of his chest was sort of caving in whenever he took a breath, and it sounded like he was having a little trouble breathing. He started crying and saying that he hurt, I almost took him to the ER. Once we got him up and calmed down, he sounded a little better - but he just laid around, wouldn't eat, and was pale. I got him an appointment at 2:00 that day (thank you Christine). The doctor said that Dakota had Croup - that was actually a relief. I was afraid he had pneumonia. He prescribed some medicine, and by that evening Dakota was already sounding a little better. He still has a bit of a cough and his voice is cute and raspy, but he's back to his old self again.

Tomorrow, Mikayla has a dr. appt. Mikayla seems to be having the same problem that Dakota had - her pee comes out at an odd angle. I think it's worse than Dakota's though. Instead of going straight down, it kinda shoots out - as in out of the toilet. We didn't notice it at first when she started potty training because she would go pee every 20 minutes and she would only have a tiny bit come out. Now that she waits until she actually has to go - and there's more power behind it - it shoots up. We have to hold onto her, and she has to straddle the seat and lean forward as far as she can so John and I don't get peed on. It's worse whenever she has to pee really badly. It would really suck for her to have to have surgery there. I'm hoping there's some other way, but I don't see what...