Fun with the Flu!

All three of my children have just suffered through the flu.  And of course they didn't have it simultaneously; it was week after week after week.  I'm still suffering from sleep deprivation.  (I don't know how I did it when they were babies.  It was years of a big hazy blur in which my two main thoughts were: 'They're so adorable' and 'I'm so tired!')  Of course you want to be there for them so I would sleep beside them at their request. And then you're up taking temperatures and giving medicine and providing Kleenex and drinks of water.  And making soup and tea and giving crackers.  My daughter would be sitting on the couch, a miserable dripping mess, surrounded by piles of Kleenex higher than her head and still sniffling and looking pathetic.

It's funny how it changes your perspective, though.  I was particularly worried about my son because his cough sounded so horrible, and he didn't look good.  His colour was off and his eyes looked a bit glittery and he wasn't himself at all.  He would lie on the couch wrapped in a blanket.  This is my rough and tumble boy.  The boy who is never, ever, ever tired out.  The one who has so much energy he could power the whole neighbourhood!

One day he started acting out a little.  I was reading to him in bed and he started turning the light off and on even though I told him not to.  He wasn't listening to me.  Hmmm.  I started feeling cautiously hopeful.  Then he was fooling around and he fell off the bed.  Also he started making silly jokes.  It was undeniable.  He was better!  I was SO happy!  Finally he was back to his old self.  It felt fabulous.  Bring on the misbehaviour!

And I knew my four year old daughter was back to her old self when my husband started tickling her, and she responded in a way that just didn't seem to go with her glittery pink dress and her cute little ponytails tied with purple ribbon.  She instantly assumed an MMA fighting stance and yelled, "BRING IT ON, DADDY!"   My husband shot me a surprised look, but he kept tickling her.  Then she yelled even louder: "I'm going to take you DOWN!"

Ah, the joy of having older brothers!