"I love brother; he loves me!"

(Title sidenote: If you are one of Nancy Bean's kids, you should be humming one of our old favorites right about now.)

Our week didn't start out very promising. I managed to let myself be talked into getting the younger kids immunized against the flu on the previous Friday. We won't be doing this again. We generally have really strong immune systems and seldom get sick. If one of us does start to come down with something, we're usually able to head it off within 24 hours and confine it to one or two of us. Not a big deal. But this time, Banana started running a fever Sunday afternoon and it spiked and dropped in cycles until late Monday night. She slept with me so I wouldn't have to try to hear her from two floors away, and neither of us got much sleep. Tuesday morning, though, she woke up feeling great and started the count down to her first time having a friend sleep over. Yesterday Schmabbers and Banana each had a friend sleep over (two sisters) and the girls had an absolute blast making cookies, playing dress-up, watching movies, and giggling. Banana is proving to be a most formidable control freak (in all caps!!). She spent the week writing and rewriting an "activities map" for the sleep-over, complete with a timeline for each activity. #1-play Princess, #2-makeovers, #3-tea party, #4-picnic,........#24-color. Good grief!! Fortunately, no one tried to override her well-laid plan. We might have had an ugly 360-degree head rotation to deal with!

Sick little Banana being safely guarded by her faithful John and Leah.
On Wednesday "A" started coming down with what promised to be a kick-booty cold. By Friday morning it had settled in his chest. Wet, barking, rattling cough; total congestion with non-stop nose dripping; prickly, goose-bumpy skin; achy joints; splitting headache. I woke up Friday with a splitting headache and a really sore throat, too. So, go ahead and laugh, Dr. Bean, but I started pumping herbal tinctures and lots of water into him and he woke up feeling 100% this morning. I took the same tinctures yesterday and feel terrific today, also. Placebo effect or not, these are the type of quick rebounds we've come to expect, which is why we keep using the hippie stuff! ;)

One of the greatest joys in "A's" life is irritating "K", and his schenanigans are escalating. Several months ago she went to bed one night and came down shrieking about "A" doing something or other to her bed. Once she cooled down, which took a while since he wouldn't stop laughing, she was able to tell us that she'd found a couple of smelly, old milk jugs under her pillow. That would tick me off, too, but Matt has a hard time hiding his amusement, which only serves to spur his son on. (In all honesty, it doesn't take too long before we're all laughing, "K" included. Her big brother's pretty hard to stay mad at.) "A" doesn't pull his little stunts all that often; he manages to space them out enough that "K" lets her guard down, then he strikes again. Paper from the recycling bin between her sheets, random pieces of her clothing tossed out on the lawn, and until we started making soy milk the occassional milk jug was a recurring theme. This afternoon "K" (finally!!) decided to clean out from under her bed and came stomping downstairs with two arms full of dishes! I'd been looking everywhere for my big blue bowl! "A" thought it was just about the funniest thing ever. Apparently, he decided to get another rise of her THREE WEEKS AGO and pulled a bunch of dishes (DIRTY DISHES!) out of the dishwasher and shoved them all under her bed!! He was still laughing at himself as he washed the last of them. By hand, of course!! ;)

"He loves us and so you see; we are a happy family!!"