Cora's RSV segued nicely into a cold she caught from Maddie, and now the tail end of it has become one of those tickling coughs that won't let her alone. As soon as her breathing slows down she's coughing up a lung, and so I've been up four to six times a night with her the past few nights.

Me so tired.

It would seem that both of my girls are addicted to sugar. Maddie is doing the whole “silky training” thing in an effort to keep a steady stream of Starburst candies coming her way, and as for Cora, well, she’s found another way.

Cora has learned how to poop on command.

“Mom, I think I want to begin silky training now,” Maddie said to me a few days ago.

“What’s silky training?” I asked Maddie.

“You know, where I practice using it less.”

“Do you want to give up your silky, honey?” I asked, pictures of kids teasing Maddie during quiet time at school dancing unhappily in my head. I know that when she started school she’d told me a couple kids had teased her about sucking her thumb while she snuggles with her silky, and though she’d told me then she didn’t care I thought perhaps things had changed and she’d become aware of “fitting in”.

I do believe the worst is over – but I also believe that if I’ve learned one thing as a mom, it’s to never say that the worst is over.

We’re back at school today (or at least planning on it when I wake the girls up) and getting into our regular groove. We gradually emerged into public again over the weekend, white-faced and anemic from lack of sun and stimulation. Ok, perhaps that’s a slight exaggeration, but there was something distinctly animalistic about the avidity with which my girls ran towards fresh air and public places.