January

We had a light sprinkling of rain, the air was warm, and the kids went out to play.  Braden liked the raindrops falling in his eyes.

The couch has become the favorite toy of the house.  The kids make towers and forts, ramps and runways.  One morning while the rest of the kids were in school, Braden was being very quiet.  This is how we found him.  He had fallen asleep right in the middle of all the fun.  

David and Gavin woke up sick this morning.  David's voice kept leaving him when he tried to talk.  He would get embarrassed and clear his throat until it came back.

When Braden saw the big kids laying in bed he decided he wanted a sick day too.  So he crawled back into his crib and stayed there most of the day.  

This is Katie's 6th day in bed.  She has a terrible cough.  All of her other symptoms are gone.  I cleared her to get out of bed, but she decided that she coughed even more when she was up walking around.  So, she put herself back to bed.  Amazingly, she has enjoyed being in bed.  She can read books for hours without being called to do chores.  She has been given all the Lego buckets and instruction books to herself, no sharing required. She absolutely loves eating in bed and reading at the same time (which is not allowed at the regular table.)  Over the last few days I caught Braden crawling into Katie's bed and pulling the covers over himself when Katie is in the shower.  When the boys declared they were having a sick day, Braden knew just what to do.  He propped up his pillow, pulled his blanket over his lap, and started looking at books.  (It is a family thing; there is a pile of books on every bed, even the baby's.)