Buy stock in HMO?

I (Jeff) have been wondering if we should be buying stock in our HMO or just a health-related stock fund or something. On Monday we had a wonderful MLK day off (one of the great perks of working for a bank is getting bank holidays off). One of the daycare places (New Horizons) that we were strongly considering had vouchers for a free day there to see if the kids like it. We did a half-day on Monday morning so we wouldn't be leaving them for too long all at once. We got to go to The Roasted Pear (local restaurant) for an early lunch with a gift card we got for Christmas. The food was great and we got a little wine. Having kids will do wonders for lowering your body's alcohol tolerance level.

Anyway, Aislinn had a little stranger anxiety an hour after we left but once she got her special blanket, she was fine. Garrett loved it the whole time. We noticed that the baby next to Aislinn looked flushed an very irritable. Both kids were really good though.

On Tuesday night Amy had a small party to go to with a friend and brought Aislinn with. Aislinn had some rich foods but had a red face because she's been working on popping out several new teeth. She fell asleep on the way home right away though.

When we got her home, she got transferred to the crib right away but she woke up not too long afterward (maybe 9:00 or so). So we gave her a bottle and she fell right back to sleep again. After putting Garrett to bed around 9:15 Amy noticed Aislinn babbling across the room to Garrett. She was on all fours and all of sudden starting vomiting.

Four bouts of vomiting throughout the night was pretty disgusting to clean up because she doesn't give us much of any warning signs - it just comes. We both took a half-day off work to keep an eye on Aislinn to see if it was bad food or just too rich for her 10-month old stomach. Since 3 AM she seemed fine and had no problems at all so we both went back to work around 11 and let Ruthy, our home daycare, watch her. Aislinn was fine the rest of the day but threw up again at 5:00 PM immediately after her bottle. We started to suspect that maybe she was having a milk allergy so we picked up a sample of soy formula.

On Thursday we heard that Ruthy's baby was sick. I felt awful of even leaving it an option for Ruthy and her baby to watch the kids like usual. We honestly were pretty sure if was either a milk allergy or that the food was too rich. Aislinn didn't show any symptoms or problems up to the point she threw up.

On Thursday night, at bedtime Garrett threw up too. He had two more small bouts but at least we could get him to do it in a bowl so it wasn't messy. The smell around the house on Friday was pretty disgusting. I tried valiantly to keep up with it as well as I could.

All day Friday and all day Saturday they've been pretty good now. Garrett is doing well with milk again now. Aislinn is taking her soy formula very well but her diapers are absolutely disgusting. Amy is helping with a wedding photo shoot for Joyce (Grace Park Design) today so I've done more blow-out diapers for Aislinn than I ever care to.

At least with Garrett we knew what it was and didn't have to pay $130 to bring him into the pediatrician.

Ann called today and mentioned that Amy's brother Bryan was sick today. It sounds like a pretty nasty 24-hour flu bug.

Anyway, Amy and I have *so far* managed to avoid it. Given all the germs we've been exposed to with this, I think we should be fine if we haven't gotten it by now.

We'll try to get some new pics posted soon. I set up a Facebook page but don't really feel like I have the time to keep it up as well as everyone else seemes to. Oh well.

Best wishes to everyone - stay healthy!