Sicky McSickersons

I am looking into a crystal ball and it is revealing the future of the Molloy household: lots and lots of runny noses and illness for months at a time for the rest of eternity. At least that's the way it's beginning to feel at this point. Since birth, Elise typically has gotten a cold just about once a month in the fall and winter, but it usually lasts about a week and is really not much more than faucet nose and a little coughing. At night, we slap on some Vicks, turn on a humidifier and wait for the cold to blow over in a week, and then about three weeks later go through the same thing again. Well, it seems like those days may be long gone. Two children seems to be a recipe for endless cycles of sickness and two children in daycare basically gives us absolutely no chance of being healthy all winter long.

When Elise got her usual December cold it was much worse than usual - she was actually so congested laying down at night that it was waking her up because she couldn't breathe. Every night. For weeks. Since Christmas Eve we have been waiting for the cold to blow over - and here we are a MONTH later and Ellie is showing absolutely no signs of shaking off this "cold". She is still coughing at night and struggling to breathe out of her nose 24/7. And Lucas also seems to have the same issues - an endless runny nose and horrible congestion, especially at night. We have tried absolutely everything. Humidifier, pillow under the mattress, Vicks on the feet, back and chest, saline spray, nasal aspirator...nothing seems to provide any relief. Every night for a month at least one of the children has woken up in the middle of the night struggling to breathe. And of course this eventually led to me getting sick too. Somehow Marty has managed to stay healthy. I can feel it though, his time too shall come...

It has been bitter cold for the last few weeks, and with our family illnesses we have basically been shut-ins. Spending so much time indoors, we have started introducing Ellie to a bunch of new indoorsy things to keep her entertained, since she is typically a playground/outdoorsy kinda of gal, and now she is coordinated enough and has a long enough attention span to sit down and do some art! We have started engaging Ellie with more art projects - like making cards and crowns - as well as artsy activities such as coloring, play-doh and floam. She is really starting to enjoy this kind of thing and it's fun for us as parents too - who doesn't love coloring?!

In the last few weeks, Lucas has really started to become more interested and engaged. He loves sitting up in the Bumbo seat (thanks Christine!) and watching his sister running around. He's playing with toys a lot more and putting everything you give him directly into his mouth, and he's picking things up and putting them directly into his mouth. Basically everything within a 2 foot radius of our boy is soaked. Maybe it's related to his endless runny nose, but Lucas has also started non-stop drooling (and no, I don't think it has anything to do with teething - we are late teethers in this family). He actually seems to play little games with his drool - he loves sticking his tongue out and spitting, and blowing saliva bubbles. He's such a boy! It is also the stage where you have to put a cloth diaper or rag on your should every time you hold him or you're going to have a soaked shoulder.

The great thing about sick kids is that they really don't let something like a little cold bog them down. While they are both struggling a little at night, they are not dragging during the day and are generally in good spirits. Ah, to be a kid again...