Kids at the same age

Last night my mom was showing me the pictures she took of my niece Paige while they were down in Georgia last week (so cute by the way!!) and on her camera card she still had some old ones of Hunter, so we took a look at those too. It just so happens that these particular pictures are of Hunter when he was exactly Ella's current age (well, off by 2 days but you get the point.) I got teary looking at those pics, Hunter looked like such a baby, little did he know how much his whole life would change when his sister was born the next month. Here are the pics of Hunter, age 2 years 4 months.

Holding up the

number 4 because

it's the 4th of July.

And of Ella today, age 2 years 4 months. Just to let you know before you see these pics, Ella is SICK. She hasn't been feeling well since Wednesday of last week. Well, Saturday she had a fever of 104 so off to the ER we went that night, yipee. After checking her over, doing a chest X-ray to rule out pneumonia, the doctor came up with 2 ear infections. Her ears were very waxy so he removed some of the gunk and said her ears were red, prescribed us antibiotics and said to follow up with her ENT in a couple of weeks. Well fast forward to today and she is still just not Ella. Even through all her sicknesses last winter she has never been quite this pitiful. She doesn't want to eat, or she seems like she wants to but when she actually does she starts screaming. So, I called the ENT today and they squeezed us in, did some more removal of gunk from her ears, which she SCREAMS while 3 adults pin her down, and said that the ears didn't really look infected, there was fluid but no infection. So then we had a tymphanogram done to see if her tubes were blocked (because of course her ears are still SO small they can't see all the way in them.) and low and behold one is blocked. So, new tubes for Ella, but not till we get back from Georgia. The ENT did not think her ears are the source of her fever or pain. Sinus infection maybe? Who knows. I just know that the antibiotic she is on is the one they used to give her for pneumonia so it should wipe whatever it is out. Anyhow, my point to all of this is that Ella isn't looking so hot in these pics but I wanted one today so they are of them at the same age, so just ignore the hat hair, the red splotchy face and the paci : )

So, besides the sickness, do you see the resemblance? I guess it's a touchy subject with me. Both of my kids in my mind look a lot like me as a small child minus the curly red afro (one day I will scan in a pic to prove it.) I think it must be the Down syndrome thing, I want people to see past that and see that a lot of her features are the same as mine, Hunter's, my moms, my brothers..... Just another one of those quirks of mine. Last time I took Hunter in to Walmart to get his haircut the lady cutting his hair kept looking at Hunter, looking at me, looking at Ella, looking at me, over and over and finally she says "well HE looks a lot like you." What the hell is that supposed to mean. I've decided that I am way too sensitive.