Other kids

We have mild to moderate (totally rational!) paranoia about Blaise being around other kids. Kids are disease vectors: they stick everything in their mouths, including their hands and sometimes other people's hands. Blaise does it, too. But we really don't want her getting sick because short guts have a harder time fighting infections and what would be a regular bug in a typical kid could be a very serious illness in Blaise.

Still, we can't keep her in a bubble and it's really important for kids to see other kids. So this weekend we headed to a birthday party for her buddy Auden's mom where Blaise was one of four babies. She and Auden tried really hard to eat rocks and leaves out of the yard. Great fun was had by all, in spite of some killjoy mom types vetoing the rock-based diet. This evening we took her to a group for families whose kids have medical needs. I don't miss much about being in the hospital, but it is nice to not be the only person in the room whose kid has a g-tube. There was a point a while ago where I joked that half the kids under 3 that I knew had tubes. It's not that I want other kids to need tubes, but it can be comforting to know that other people are dealing with similar issues. As usual, seeing and hearing about the things other families are working through gave us a lot of perspective on how fortunate we are that Blaise is as healthy as she is. While we talked with other parents, Blaise enjoyed the fawning attention of several off-duty therapists and one very interested two-year-old. Did I try not to panic when Blaise stuck all of the toys in her mouth? Yes. Did I succeed? Sort of.

And speaking of other kids, Blaise has another new little friend. We are delighted to say "Welcome to the world!" to Oliver, who was born to our friends Vanessa and Greg over the weekend. I'm sure playdates will ensue.