It's Not December Unless We Are All Sick

I was looking through some of my previous years' December posts, and in each one, my house in under siege with illness. And, like all other years, we are again ailing over here. The Norwalk virus has invaded our home. Mark Monday, Keegan Tuesday, Ty Thursday, and Phoenix today. So far, knock on wood, I have avoided getting it, but I am not without my own tales of physical woe...I have strep throat, and an ear and sinus infection...and after spending 4 hours coughing my guts out this evening, I'm thinking bronchial pneumonia is about to rear its ugly head again this year...

That being said, I have fallen behind on my Christmas to-do list. This week was supposed to be my baking week...but seeing as I spent the week cleaning dairy-based vomit out of carpets, this plan has fallen by the wayside. This evening, in desperation, I bundled all of the kids in the car (with a barf-bag for Phoenix) and went supply shopping, so I now have all of my ingredients to start the baking as soon as I am in a germ-free state.

However, I am almost finished with my Christmas shopping, so that is one chalked up for the plus side. This is our year for the entertaining, so I am hosting Mark's family for Christmas Eve, my Dad and 2 brothers for Christmas dinner, and my other brother and his family on Boxing Day. Trying out a few new recipes; should be good times, as long as we all have our health back on track.

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In other news, Phoenix and Keegan both had good report cards and are happy in school. Ty is trucking along at preschool as well. Yesterday, I went to bat for Ty, and finally got him on the (year-long!) waitlist for a psychoeducational assessment, the purpose of which is to determine the extent of his developmental delays, obtain any possible diagnosis, and get the necessary services in place. My optimistic goal was to have him enter JK in the fall next year, but I can see now that it is just not going to happen. Sadly, once he enters the school system, he would lose a lot of the services he is currently getting through the region, most important being his speech and language therapy. Ty is 3 1/2 years old and is still pretty non-verbal. He has what they call self-motivated speech, meaning that he will only say something when he wants something. He will not engage in conversation, but will request things that he wants. We are constantly working to improve his spontaneous speech, but it has been a long, hard road so far.

Ty has also moved into his demon phase. I know, you are thinking, well what phase was he in before? Have you not likened him in the past to Stewie Griffin? Well, as bad as things were before, I now see that that was pie compared to what he is like now. He's just what my mother would have called "a going concern". You know, things like climbing bookshelves, hoisting himself ON TOP OF the refridgerator, general chaos and destruction...his cuteness is his saving grace. It's a true survival tool of his species...just let me live though this year. Hopefully, being 4 years old will be calmer. Ha. Ha ha ha.

I have a bit of a new obsession these days. Well, two really. The first is knitting. I have become a machine for knitting all sorts of little knitted stuffed toys. They are fun to do, and keep me occupied while I am watching tv at night. Which leads to my second obsession: DVD box sets...

In the past few months I have burned my retinas watching Entourage, Prison Break, Smallville, the Tudors, Lost, and most recently, The O.C. The problem with having multiple episodes at my disposal is that I do the "oh sure, just more more episode" thing, and end up going to bed at 3:00 am. No wonder I'm sick....I used up all of my energy stores on teenage tv angst...

That being said, I am going to go watch an episode (okay, maybe two) of The O.C. before coughing my guts out for another night. Hoping that the drugs kick in soon, and I can get back to a normal (ish) life...

Sunday update: Damn....caught the Norwalk virus after all...day 2 of impending death...