Silly Boys & Swine Flu

Tonight for dinner the boys joined Ben in eating Lucky Charms and milk. This is the first time we have actually given them bowls with cereal and milk along with a spoon to eat it with. Zak did really well using the spoon at first, but then decided it was more efficient to just use his hands. Ryder tried to use the spoon, but pretty much just held it with his right hand and picked up cereal to eat with his left hand. Near the end of dinner we noticed Zak was putting his head in his bowl to get the milk. Here are a few pictures and a video:

Zak has started to really like giving kisses to everybody when we ask him to. He has recently started showing empathy for Ryder which is very cute. If Ryder cries Zak will go over and rub his head and give him kisses. Here is a video of Zak giving Ryder kisses:

Of course I have to make a quick mention about the swine flu. I have been pretty good about not being a paranoid mother. I did get more paranoid after Ryder's 4 week hospital stay last year, but I feel that was justified with our situation. With this H1N1 thing going around I have done a lot of reading and listening to press releases trying to learn about it so I could make decisions on how to act. I realize it is very similar to the regular seasonal flu, BUT it is the flu that caused Ryder's 4 week hospital stay last year. I am not going to any extremes (such as those crazy people running out and buying face masks and etc.), but we are going to be smart about things for the time being. We plan to keep the boys away from crowded enclosed places such as the mall, indoor play areas [stinks with all the rainy weather :-(], churches (not that we attend regularly anyways), grocery stores, and so on. If anybody is sick or feeling ill we plan to keep our distance just as we would during RSV season. And we are using hand sanitizer and hand washing religiously just as we do during RSV season. In the end, we are pretty much just going to avoid being around sick people and unnecessary trips to crowded indoor places. With that being said, we are not going to stop our daily lives just to avoid the "swine flu", but we are going to be smart about it to help protect the boys' delicate immune systems and respiratory system. OK, I am done my rant for now...call my a crazy paranoid mother, but I need to keep these boys healthy after everything that have already been through in their short 20 months (almost 21 months!).