Illness has once again reared its ugly head in our home. It’s Matthew – poor kiddo. “I think for Christmas,” he informed me earlier today, “Santa will bring me new Lego City Legos, new John Deeres and fire trucks, and new Kleenex. Santa’s going to bring me lots and lots of new Kleenex.”

We survived the flood last week – no floating away, just a lot of fans, heaters and drying out – and we managed to have the family room downstairs put back together before the 7th Annual Martin Christmas Party Extravaganza on Saturday night. It was an enormous, bumpin’ fun time this year – we had 30 people upstairs and five kids downstairs with a babysitter. It was a blast! As always, our friends left wined, dined and spoiled with gift card prizes for the games – this a year a Christmas Crossword, Christmas Pictionary, a violent wrapped gift game (you have to try to open it with big ‘ol gloves and mittens on, etc.), and the annual and much anticipated Martin Christmas Party Bingo. Yes, we bribe our friends at Christmas time to be our friends for the upcoming year. They’re worth it.

So, we were up late Saturday night and attempted to sleep in a bit on Sunday. The boys both took three hour long naps, from which Matthew woke up with a fever and a cough. We spent Sunday night taking turns getting up with both boys. Monday night was the same drill. Then yesterday afternoon, Matthew said his high lip hurt. (“My high lip, Mom, not my low lip. The high one hurts.”) By the end of the evening, Matthew’s “high lip” had swollen up to a huge, nasty situation. We called the nurse line and they recommended giving him Benadryl in case it was an allergic reaction to something. It definitely looked better today – way less swollen – but since he still had it and a bit of a fever, the nurse recommended we go in to see the doctor. She thinks it could be a viral infection, so we’ll just need to wait it out…but in the meantime, no shared drinking cups (Zachary – stop using Matthew’s toothbrush!), and an entire week of missed preschool!

Zachary woke up from nap this afternoon coughing and hacking away. He’s now totally hoarse and speaks with a raspy little smoker’s toddler voice. Here we go again…