Things seem to be clearing up around here a bit. Yesterday Breanna was still stuffed up and feeling less than enthused about life. You can see it in her eyes in that picture, she was here but not REALLY here. Her naps were ridiculously short because she kept waking herself up by not being able to breathe properly but she was more or less okay.

Luckily she slept last night. She managed to only wake up twice while in the crib between 8:45 and 11:30. Then I went to sleep and I’m not even sure what time it was when she woke up again, but I brought her to bed and she miraculously slept the rest of the night, waking up at about 9:15 this morning (!) when the phone rang. Even better, I slept that whole time too, sleeping for almost ten straight hours.

I can’t tell you the last time I slept for ten hours. Seriously. As a mother, I have to tell you that ten hours of solid sleep is pretty much on par with having someone hand you a thousand bucks. I felt great this morning. I even felt better cold-wise, having dropped from blowing my nose every ten minutes to only every hour and a half or so; my nose is grateful because it was getting pretty sore.

Winter, in the meantime, has hit even though it’s officially still a couple of weeks away. We got blasted by the freezing rain the other day, but today it’s been snowing steadily since before we got up. It wasn’t a heavy blizzard, just lots of big flakes continuously hitting the ground and it’s cold enough that it’s sticking. Hayley even went out and played in it and shoveled over at George’s parents’ house today with his sister. It was one of those snowfalls where you actually think winter is kind of nice and pretty and I would have taken Breanna out in it for a bit to see what she thought of it except that 1) she was still technically sick, 2) we have to exchange her winter boots because the ones she has are too big but she’ll likely outgrow them before next year so they’re not worth keeping, and 3) I’ve had enough Canadian winters to know that as pretty as the snow looks right now it still sucks, I hate winter anyway, and there will be AMPLE opportunity to get Breanna out in the snow before the season is over.

Yes, I’m a little bah humbug about snow.

Hopefully by tomorrow everyone will be back to at least 90% functionality and we can get on with life again. Today I spent part of the day just madly cleaning up the incredible mess that had been generated by four sick people who just didn’t give a shit and I’d like to avoid having it get that way again. Also I have to get to the dollar store before Tuesday night because Wednesday is St-Nicholas Day and I have to pick up a few little things to put in the kids’ shoes before I go to bed Tuesday so they can find them in the morning. I had never heard of that holiday when I was a kid but I love it now. Last year I totally forgot and had to use some costume jewelry that I had from my younger years and a few cookies, so this year I want to actually pick some stuff up specifically for each of them. I’ll probably get Hayley some hair stuff and maybe something crafty, along with a chocolate bar, and I’ll find some kind of toy for Breanna. Dollar stores are perfect for this kind of thing.

Mostly though, I just want everyone better so I can stop hearing sniffing, snorting, sneezing, and whatnot, and stop seeing everyone – myself included – moping around like we’re all dying.