The Virus that plays together, stays together.

So I explained my momma guilt when Tatum was sick last week.  I ended up taking her back to the doctor on Thursday, no strep, just a virus.  That being said, on antibiotics, during those three days, she developed an ear infection and bronchitis.  So the doctor put her on different antibiotics and she is better.  

I woke up this morning at five to my middle child sitting on the stairs.  His head hurts.  That is how Tatum started.  Added to that, Grant spent about three hours playing in the rain on Saturday.  I know there are those of you that say kids won't get sick from playing in the rain, but I do believe it can hamper their immune system.  It certainly ruined his clothes.

So, with four children, I should be done with this particular virus in about a month.  I have been here before, this is not my first rodeo.  The worst is the stomach flu.  Everybody puking, the laundry alone can kill you.  My mother-in-law has six children.  She remembers falling asleep on the washing machine in the middle of the night during a stomach flu epidemic in her household years ago.  That's the kind of thing that can scar a mom for life.  I remember borrowing an air mattress from a friend so Scott could sleep at night.  I slept right between the twins, on the floor, catching barf all night long.  Yikes.  

I do have a great "trick" for the stomach flu.  If your children are small enough to miss the bowl, lay beach towels under them, at least five.  Then you just scoop and run to the laundry room.  It also gets them back to sleep in a shorter period of time than usual.  Usually, you have to change the sheets, get the child out of bed, get new sheets on, etc.  Then it's off to the laundry room.  I say embrace the beach towel, they are not just for summer anymore.

As I go off to Lysol and bleach everything in sight to kill this virus in my house, I have to wonder.  Why?  If I give my children vitamins, feed them right, do everything I am supposed to do to help them go on their merry ways, why?  This is the rare time when the pity train comes to my house.  Why me?  Why me and the sick kids?  Why me with barf on my shoulder, why?  The answer, of course, is, Why not me?  Every mom goes through this.  Most dads would faint or start barfing themselves at the thought of catching barf in their hands.  We moms are made of stronger stuff, so that' s why.  Still doesn't seem fair, but it is just one more thing that makes us moms.  Spines of steel, hearts of gold and hands full of barf.  

Anything going around your house?  Let me know.

God bless you and yours.