Autumn leaves and pestilence

Ah, the crisp weather, clear blue skies, and virulent illnesses of autumn. Just the other day, I was remarking on how fall may well be my favorite season - I love the relief from heat and the promise of holidays - but I may have jumped the gun a bit, and I definitely overlooked the sickness factor. One drawback of having a million children is that we catch everything. Seriously, everything. Our kids go to three different schools, and I think they must spend their recesses licking doorknobs and other children. We usually start off in late September with a cold, work our way up the ladder of nastiness to a December-through-February crescendo of rotavirus, then wrap up the season of sick with a lingering, month-long group sniffle.

Right on schedule, we are all sliding into a pit of snot this week. It started with two boys getting a small cold, so minor we weren't sure if it was a cold or allergies. Patients zero, naturally, are also the family members with the strongest immune systems (as they get to eat and sleep at will, lucky kids), so having passed their viral load to the rest of the family, they are mostly better themselves. Now one of the babies and I are down for the count, and I can only assume that the other baby is just incubating her germs and biding her time, to prolong the misery as long as possible.

What was I saying? I can't hear or think through the packed cotton that seems to have replaced my brain. My ears itch on the inside and someone has been sandpapering my throat. I have a headband of headache wrapped just above my ears. Good thing I'm stoic and just push on through the pain, right?

Happy autumn, everyone.