Four-month-old Reid had to be taken to the ER on Friday for some diagnostic tests. He’s doing all right now, but I have to say that I don’t think I’ve ever seen a human being look as sick as he looked when we got to the hospital. The nurse doing triage took one look at him and asked me, “That isn’t normal for him, is it?” Which would have been kind of insulting if it was normal, come to think of it.

We had come straight to the hospital from our pediatrician’s office, so I had Reid’s big brothers with me.

An experienced traveler, five-year-old Mack took one look at the hospital’s newly remodeled entry area with its marble and granite and knew exactly what was important.

As I checked Reid in, Mack asked the receiving nurse, “Do you have a pool?”