The flu has made it to our house. Both of my sons have been sick. The older one was sick all weekend. His younger brother came down with it on Sunday. He is still sick and will probably end up missing the whole week of school. We assume its the H1N1, but they do not test for that specifically anymore around us. The schools have been hit really hard. Last week the high school was seeing about 18% absence rate.

My youngest has it worse than his brother. He is miserable. I wish I could report he has been doing puzzles while at home, but he hasn't. He sleeps and coughs. One funny thing he has been doing is with some chalk. One of the puzzles we make is our Chalkboard Floor Puzzle. It is a puzzle that comes with chalk and kids can write on. The pieces are big and chunky. My son has been using one of the pieces and a piece of chalk to communicate. He says his throat hurts and when he talks it makes him cough. So he has been writing on a piece of the puzzle different words. Things like "juice" or "ok" or "yes". Its been pretty funny. And a use for the puzzle I never thought about until now.

Maybe I can have the first puzzle ever sold in the cough medicine aisle at the drugstore.

JP