Mikah's 10!!!!

Yesterday was Mikah's 10th birthday. I can't believe it is already 10 years since she was born, 10 days early-to my great relief (water retention...). There she is with her newly layered hair holding up her new drawing kit (bought from Costco 1.5 years ago-remember Heidi?). Mikah had 5 friends over and we all went to the pool for a swim right after school. We had some cupcakes there too. Then we went home and opened gifts and had hot dogs for supper. I have actually found one brand of hot dogs that is okay. I personally won't eat them, but I'll feed them to the kids and they enjoy them. Plus these ones don't give off red dye when you boil them like so many of the others do. Why do they think hot dogs have to be bright red? Anyways, it was a fun party and we all had a good time. Except for Hugo and Brynnie. They are both sick. Hugo started on Thursday and had a malaria slide done but it was negative. But that doesn't mean he doesn't have it. You see, we don't need many parasites in our blood to make us sick but Papuans need a lot. So it's a lot easier to find the parasites in their blood. Today, Saturday, Hugo was still pretty sick. Last night he soaked the sheets with his sweat and his head has been pounding. It's possible it's dengue fever. So I got him some guava juice which has the right combination of vitamins to help get better. There are no drugs to cure dengue, you just need to drink about 3 litres a day and get lots of rest. However, if you get really super sick, you need a blood transfusion, which means getting medivaced out of the country as there is no way you'd want that done here! If he's still bad tomorrow, I may just take him to get another malaria slide done. As malaria can be fatal, it's important to rule it out first. Brynnie isn't as sick. She just has fevers and is more tired. Apparently this virus is making the rounds around here right now.
So that's the scoop on our family!