As we get deeper into July, our garden is really getting into high gear. We (or at least I) enjoy our daily trips down to the vegetable garden in back to check on the plants. Some of us enjoy these trips more when the hose is involved, whereas others of us find that to make the situation significantly less zen-like.Lime had his one-year check-up this morning. He continues to be my little teapot short and stout, hanging on resolutely in the 6th percentile for height. He's a bit less stout now, though, only the 12th percentile. I can't say I'm surprised, given the percentage of his waking hours he spends in a state of rapid motion. In addition to crawling at Mach 2, he also now stands unsupported and will take a single step in any given direction, as if to remind us that bigger trouble is just around the corner.
Lime had his first blood draw today, to test his lead and iron levels. The technician couldn't find a vein in the first arm she tried, so she had to switch to the other arm. Lime was less than thrilled. I think she was surprised and how un-rattled I was by the whole proceeding, because based on nothing at all, she said, "So, you're a nurse?" I said no, I just like to stay calm so that the kids stay calm, which is true, but I think doesn't quite capture exactly why something like a blood draw, even one that doesn't go perfectly, barely registers for me anymore.
Lemon continues to get closer and closer to being three, both chronologically and developmentally. I've noticed an exponential increase in the use of the word "why" around our house of late. My favorite, if you can call it that, is when he does something that he knows is wrong, and I tell him no, and then he asks, "Mama, why did I do that?" I wish I knew, kiddo. Tonight's example: setting off the alarm on his feeding pump by biting down on the tubing. Anyhow. 
We're a little bit apprehensive this week because this morning Lemon received his last dose in a two-week course of levofloxacin, which we started to fend off a summer cold. I don't actually think there's been an occasion in his life where a single two-week course of an oral antibiotic cured him of anything, but here's hoping for a first. Honestly it's so hard to know what baseline is for him anymore. It used to be no cough at all. Now, I think baseline is a little bit of coughing during his treatments, and maybe a cough when he wakes up. It's hard to know exactly, because I never quite know if the cough is the beginning (or end) of something or not. We're really hoping whatever we're hearing now isn't anything, since we're supposed to travel to the east coast in a couple of weeks. Honestly I'm struggling to imagine how the trip will be logistically possible even under the best of circumstances, but I suppose we'll manage it somehow. Lemon is really excited to fly on a plane again, and we're really looking forward to seeing all our old friends "back home." 
