Invasion of the body snatchers...

...would be nicer than this damn influenza that the kids and I are dealing with.

Yes, the evil flu has invaded our house, which resulted in David getting croup again. Of course, Gwen is a few days behind on the actual illness, as usual. I woke up next to a furnace last night at around 3 AM (we co-sleep), so I got up, gave her medicine (which I hate doing-- we aren't much of a medicationy [it's a word] family), let her drink as much water as she wanted, stripped her out of her fleece jammies and put her in a cotton outfit without socks. I made sure she was only covered with the sheet once we got back to bed, and when I felt her an hour later, she felt pleasantly "normal" for a sleeping baby. She was a little warm again this morning, and here and there she has a little bit of a bark in her cough, but I think that is because she's forcing out some coughs and not because she's developing croup.

I'm a little sad that David has had two illnesses in a row result in croup, since it means he has a pretty reactive airway. It makes it much harder for him to fight off illnesses that a typical kid could get through in a few days. I have had asthma my whole life and I know how much it interferes with immunity and the regular progression of the flu and colds, and it sucks. I will be asking his ped if she can refer us to an asthma specialist to get him checked out. Best to be proactive!

Anyway, we've been sick since Thursday. I'm getting a little grumpy that it is still hanging around, though I am not sure if mine is still kicking my butt because of my asthma or because this is the normal progression for this particular flu. I have been drinking copious amounts of this tea:

Oh. My. Word. Phil bought a couple boxes of this at Whole Foods (heaven on Earth) and I was really weary about trying it, since I'm not a fan of chamomile, but the "apple notes" that are described on the box really stand out in this tea. It tastes ridiculously good. We are going to have to go back and buy quite a few boxes. Yeah, I could just order them, but then I would be cheating myself out of a Whole Foods trip (and a very un-vegan Jeni's visit...). Heck no!

As far as dietary discussion goes, I finally finished my last bottle of hazelnut creamer, so that's a personal goal met. I have powdered hazelnut creamer (that is not vegan) that I am going to use less and less of each day until I am only using my sweetzfree and vanilla soy milk in my coffee. Baby steps, I suppose. I know I'm not the only one to have troubles with some of the more loved non-vegan parts of my diet. I'm open to any delicious ways to prepare a nice vegan cup of dressed-up coffee :)

That's it for today-- hopefully I will get back in to regularly blogging soon, if this flu ever leaves our house! Sheesh! I'm going to go drink more tea while dinner cooks.