And now, the santa suit is almost done

Miss Karen is still working on the belt and beard and plans to mail them to us this weekend. (She lives near flint - a good hour from here, making it even more amazing that she makes the trip as often as she does!)

I think you can see from the unretouched photo at the top that Jack wasn't feeling well last night, but he sure is excited with his costume. The retouching on the other two only mutes the roughened red mouth but doesn't entirely hide it and I didn't try to remove the circles under his eyes. (I love Picassa's new features!)

But then the poor kid woke up barking this morning and very confused. He came into the bath while I was showering with tears streaming down his face and barely able to talk. I eventually sorted out that he had awakened 'alone in the bed' and gone in search of his Dad, who was not in any of the usually places. Fortunately I was almost done with my shower, so I was able to wrap up in towels and pick his up and carry him off in search of Dad.

We started in the bedroom, and sure enough, there he was, fast asleep. I'm not sure why Jack 'couldn't find him' and neither was Jack. Rod was astonished that Jack didn't hear the CPAP, though since I am rarely aware of it, either, I was less surprised.

I was able to tuck a now much calmer in beside his Dad and go finish getting dressed for work, but it became clear that Jack's loss of ability to speak wasn't from panic. Every time he tried to talk, he started to cough with a deep, barking cough. Once I was dressed, we headed down to the kitchen, where I made my boy-budgie a nice cup of medicine tea!

Jack has taken lots of naps today and was asleep when I got home from work, which is why I can blog in the evening.

Now that Jack has the croup, our holiday long weekend suddenly looks very quiet.

I think I will manage to get the cards done after all -- and maybe even get a good start on the 12 dozen cookies I hope to get made in the next three weeks!

We may hold off on the feast a few days, too, since croup is reputed to reduce a child's appetite and that seems true of Jack, too, if today is any indication. After all, there is no reason we have to stick to the traditional day.

As much as I love our friends and look forward to seeing them all, I have to say that I am delighted to have several quiet days in a row to just hang out with my boys.

Maybe we can even get over to Cafe Luwak for breakfast when they open again, if Jack is feeling better.

(I don't know yet whether Jack has a three day croup or a seven day croup. I am betting on the briefer one, because he usually isn't sick as long as a lot of other kids other kids.)

Time to go wrestle a 17 pound bird into a salt bath...