What happened, October?

Sick and Cruzes...simply meant to be. The flu has finished raging through all of the rest of us except for Afton (whew! but not a lot of whew, because she had a nasty bout with croup instead). We were all good for about a day or two before Ben came home from school early wheezing like crazy and coughing a lung up...actually all of us except for Emma are currently coughing to one degree or another. This is looking to be a long and arduous winter. I'm sick of it (literally). In the face of all this wheezing, coughing, congestion etc, we've postponed our biking trip to the Virginia Creeper, are second guessing our commitment to the Race for the Cure, and have already missed or put off a variety of other fun events. Come on immune systems!! Get with it!!
Okay, I'm done now. Thank you for your patient listening.
The upside of the past few weeks is that Afton has started walking, just three or four timid steps at a time. Right about the same time she finally learned to put her hands together and so claps for herself when she does her new trick. It's super-cute.