Bringing in the new year

Well, we spent New Year's Eve in bed, of course, as we have since having kids. Who would willingly stay up until midnight when our nights are so punctuated and unpredictable on a regular basis? Willingly submit myself to tiredness and lack of sleep? I don't really need to help myself along in that department so we went to bed around 10:30. Matthew came down with an icky cold on Sunday which progressively has gotten worse and was downright icky today. The poor kid. He was spared the stomach flu, but now has a whopper of a cold. And he doesn't really know how to blow his nose, so he instead cries out for someone to wipe his nose or he uses his sleeve or in more gross instances, grabs a blanket and wipes his nose. He seems to have a sore throat as his voice is very raspy and he just looks and sounds miserable. So after dinner tonight I had to take a picture of my little two year old with a drippy nose and red-rimmed eyes.

Sam didn't want to be left out of the action so he popped his head in front of the camera too.

I've been talking to the kids about germs and washing their hands a lot lately (especially when we return from the Y) and this afternoon Sam grabbed Matthew snack and was about to eat it, so I told him that he could get Matthew's germs and get what he has. He immediately washed his hands and washed them well. I think the germ concept is starting to get through although it is very abstract for children. After some individual pictures, the kids got into the mood to take a picture together and make grumpy faces.

I hope Matthew is doing much better tomorrow. He is really quite grumpy and his stubbornness reaches new levels when he isn't feeling well. And I've washed my hands probably 50 times today. And I hope Abby doesn't get it. Regardless, Happy New Year!