Despite the fact that Alex is the one who's really sick, Katherine had a rough night last night. Her cough turned a little croupy, and I had to give her meds at 10, a steam bath at 11, and repeated trips in throughout the night. Alex slept pretty well, all things considered, and Kara's feeling better. Now we're all up and have finished our chocolate waffles, so things are looking a little better today.

Although I had a miserable flight, I've been home now for a few hours, had dinner, caught up with the family, and things are OK. Alex's medicine has been working fast, so he's not having trouble breathing or anything, but he does have a nasty, nasty cough, a temperature, and gas. I can't imagine how he feels, but it's got to be horrible.

 

Katherine is OK. She has a cough too, but that seems to be the end of her illness.

 

Kara, on the other hand, is getting worse. It looks like she might have the flu. Sore throat, body aches, and now a fever. So it's a good thing I got home early.

 

Everyone was very excited - more so than usual. Alex's face lit up when he saw me, and his eyes followed me around the room while he gurgled. I picked him up, and he was smiling at me, and grabbing my hair, and generally snuggling. Kara told me that they hadn't seem him even smile in about three days, and both her and Alyce (hope I spelled it right) relaxed visibly at the sight.

My father has been in the UK for a few weeks now. He spent some time in London, then tooled around Wales for a bit, walked part of Hadrian's Wall on the Scottish border, nipped through the lakes district, saw Sherwood Forest, and came into London to have dinner with me this evening.

 

It was very nice. We went to my favorite fish and chips restaurant, The Golden Hind, located in Marylebone Village near where I work (thanks JRJ for a great find!). Then we went to a pub for a quick one before he had to run back to Paddington to take the train back out to his B&B. He's staying out near Bath and has a rental car.

 

Then, a few hours later, I talked to Kara, and I found out that Alex is not just sick, he has pneumonia. Now I hear that pneumonia in kids is not that big a deal, but try telling that to Kara. She knows it too, but she's pretty much at the end of her rope. At least we have good meds for him now, so hopefully he'll get better quickly. At any rate, I'm now leaving London early to fly home and help out, because Katherine is also sick, and Kara is starting to get a sore throat.

 

Suddenly I'm the only healthy one, but I'm 3,500 miles away.