Last night was our worst asthma night yet! As I've mentioned, my 6-year-old daughter Rae has had a mild cold for more than a week now, and last Wednesday she started waking up at night coughing. She was diagnosed with asthma when she was four, but she hasn't had any symptoms since then. She had never even had an official "asthma attack," nor had she ever taken Albuterol or had a breathing treatment. All that has changed. We now have an Asthmatic Child. It's something we're just going to have to accept.

Forgive me if I'm a bit bleary-eyed and incoherent as I write this post. My daughter Rae has kept me up all night with her coughing for almost a week straight. It started out as a simple cold, but when she started coughing at night I took her to the doctor because she does have a history of asthma.

My daughter Rae has never been a good pooper. From the day she was born, she struggled getting out those bowel movements. At three days old, she was hospitalized for jaundice, a condition that can be alleviated when the baby poops often. When she was only a few months old, she would get severely constipated and let out blood-curtling screams whenever she pooped. When it was time for potty training, the pee came with no problem. The poop, however, is still a major issue.

My daughter Rae turned 6 on Saturday, and while I am shedding my own tears about my little girl growing up, no one seems to be suffering as badly as my 4-year-old son Rocco. He idolizes his big sister like nothing I've ever seen. He hangs on her every word, he copies her every move, and he takes her proclamations as gospel. If I tell him not to do something, he will say, "But Rae told me I could." I find myself repeatedly reminding him that Rae is not in charge, Mommy and Daddy are in charge. But I can't seem to get it through to him. To Rocco, Rae is the Queen of the Castle.

Is it normal for a 4-year-old boy to have a crush on a twenty-something woman?? Let me explain...I signed my kids up for swim lessons at the YMCA. They are already pretty comfortable in the water, but I wanted them to have some formal training as well. My son is 4, and my daughter just turned 6. My son has never been in a "classroom" environment before. My husband's a stay-at-home dad, so our kids have never gone to daycare. They've never even had a babysitter who wasn't a relative. So we didn't know how he would react to a teacher telling him what to do.