The Eternal Sickness

This month has been a blur.  Where did November go?  All we've done is be sick.  We have all been sick at our house.  First Benjamin, then Kelly, then me, then Christian, and finally Isabella, with quite a bit of overlap amongst us.  It's been brutal.  Congestion, coughing, nausea, headache, sinus pressure, body aches. I'm not completely better yet, after 4 weeks of coughing, but I'm on the mend....I hope.  There was a week where I never slept more than 3 hours a night due to coughing fits.  I spent three nights in the van in the garage because I was keeping everyone awake with my loud, barking coughs.  Kelly sometimes coughed so hard we would all just stop and stare at him in shock and fear, half expecting blood to come spewing onto the floor, as he stood doubled over hacking.  So, we've been taking it easy, hanging out at home, and doing little this month other than falling asleep at random times when we just couldn't take it anymore. I found Bella in the basement like this one afternoon.  (Mumbo had been asleep too. It was adorable. Sadly, I woke him when I took the picture.)

I guess this month hasn't been a total loss - we did manage to dig a large tunnel.  Let me explain.  There's a park near our house with a large, long pile of dirt.  It's been there so long that grass and weeds have begun to grow on it.  We have no reason why it's there in the middle of  the park but it's the main attraction in this park for as  long as we've been going there.  Location for King of the Hill, secret spy fort, pirate's hideout - you name it, this hill has been it. This month Benjamin decided he would like to dig a tunnel through it, big enough that he could crawl through.  I handed him a small shovel that I had in the car for playing in sandboxes and went to push the other two on the swings, figuring he'd give up soon when he discovered how much work that would be.  Benjamin is no friend to work.  He'll shirk anything he can, so I really wasn't expecting him to stick with such a task.  He proved me dead wrong.  Four hours of digging later, he had a tunnel he could crawl through.  FOUR HOURS!  It was crazy. We'd all helped some in the process, but the majority of the work was his.   He really impressed me. 

He was the first to go through and then everyone else wanted to try it too.  The whole tunnel was just about as long as he is, so his feet would just disappear at one end as his head emerged at the other.  Everyone thought it was awesome and crawled through multiple times. 

 We had planned to return, but our wicked illness took its toll and we haven't yet.  Can't say I'm sad about that.  Never have I had so much work cleaning clothes - jackets, gloves, shoes, pants, etc.!! Dirt everywhere! And my car seats!  I won't be reminding them about the tunnel any time soon.

Benjamin just loves doing stuff like that - building forts, digging tunnels, even crafts and similar small things with his hands.  He just loves it.  Whereas I have trouble getting him to sit and practice his writing for more than 5 minutes; he'll work on a fort or project for hours without distraction.  If only everything in school could be so hands-on.