just breathe . . .

My youngest has had asthma for years now. It's such a horrible thing to watch when she has a bout with it. It's also something that's so hard to control. You have to stay ahead of it. Well, with winter, comes cold, and with that comes more likeliness of symptoms. We've had our share of emergency room visits via ambulance (not sure how I wasn't medicated to get through that!). Well, after Christmas, and all the excitement, she started having trouble. Then it starts. . . breathing treatments every 4 hours. You have to check her blood oxygenation level to make sure she's getting enough air. She's amazing. We will wake her up at 3am or 4am, (my wife way more than my hibernating body) and she pops out of bed with a smile on her face, stumbles out to the living room, lays on the couch, puts the mask on, and sleeps for 20 minutes while the nebulizer helps open up her lungs. I don't know how she (or my wife) do it.   After the treatmen, she'll be woken up again, back to her room, climb the ladder back to her bed, smiles, kisses, and then back to sleep.  I'll try and stay up for a 2am treatment, because once I'm asleep, it's nearly impossible to wake me up. Well, her numbers are good today, and she seems not to be struggling (we have a number scale for her to gauge how she feels, and she's giving me the thumbs up as well). I'm not always a big believer in things I can't see, but I'll knock on wood or pray to whomever if it will help keep her breathing free and easy.

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location location location . . .

We are lucky to have a nice house with a large front yard.  The "negative" about it is that we are in a prominent location in our neighborhood , so there are expectations for the holiday decorations from the  "un-appointed neighborhood judging committee".  My wife is the true spirit of Christmas in our family, and she puts her sweat and muscle into it,  braving the freezing cold, to decorate our big tree in the front of our house.  She kept wanting my help, but I would reach for the camera instead because there were just so many photographs to get.   Needless today, without her , our tree would be quite bare, and we would be the outcasts of the region.

one of my favorites. . .

So this is a shot of my oldest a few years ago at Christmas time. It's one of my favorites.  We decorate our tree out front with lights and giant silver balls. (we've now added giant lit up stars as well).

But her look of wonder was so precious, I couldn't help but grab my camera and take a few shots.  Once she saw me shooting her, she got a bit shy and left the area.  

It's those fleeting moments that are so important.  Now, as she runs out the front door, she may take a glance at the lit up tree, but now it's just "the lit up tree".  The older I get, the more I tend to focus on how fast life moves.

My 'little one' (13 months younger) still has a little of the wide-eyed-ness going for her, but she's forced a bit, being so close in age to her 'big' sister, to grow up faster than normal.  We haven't gotten all the lights up yet (with only 12 days left until Christmas), but hopefully I'll be able to get some shots that also become a favorite.