It can.

Tell me I didn't really ask if it could get any worse. I'm imagining that, right?
I suppose it's not worse but it's definitely not better.
Mikayla was fine for all of Saturday and Sunday, but as of Monday morning, had a pretty bad cough, that includes her struggling to breath toward the end. That one is starting to concern me. It was pretty infrequent Monday but she's sleeping a few feet away from me now and is coughing quite a lot and can barely breathe due to congestion.

Aaric, well we'll just say that there are certain conditions which require one to stay near a restroom, and which would scar a kid for life if he had this condition at school. And therefore he has missed 2 more days of school. He's up to 12, now. And I had high hopes of him returning tomorrow. But then I ordered pizza. And either he really does have a stomach bug (the other problem is so mild, I was doubting that it was actual illness, maybe just something he ate) that didn't appreciate rich, greasy pizza, or he ate too much, or it just didn't sit quite right either. Because it came back up, after much groaning about a tummy ache which I was SURE was just an excuse to get out of finishing his spelling words.

Xander is fine. I mean, he keeps calling this stupid toy horse that the kids have, a doggie, and insists that it says "woof, woof" and then bonked me on the head with it, which left a bruise that hurts pretty bad, but he's not sick. The little turkey also crawled up into bed last night, after Aaric and Mikayla were finally both quiet and falling asleep, and he yells out "AAHCK! KAHLA! AAHCK! KAHLA!" Heaven forbid they dare to sleep when he still wants to play.

Oh, he does have a new molar. That's tooth #9 and I can feel that 10, 11, and 12 aren't far behind. In other tooth news, Aaric's 2nd tooth should dislodge itself soon, and a few more won't be too far behind. It's teething season around here.

I'm still healthy, but I'm just certain that one day soon, I'll wake up and all the plagues that have hit my house in the past month will have descended upon me, and I'll be half dead. And the kids will miss a few more days of school because I won't be able to move. And then they'll both fail K and 1st grades this year due to too many absences.