The Sweetest Sound

Nothing like the flu to ring in the Christmas season.

Inevitably, at about this time every year one or all of our kids come down with some kind of Monster Cold or Flu and this week it was Mischief's turn. He had been coughing for a week or so but on Wednesday morning we awoke to find him curled up on the bathroom floor, asleep. He spent the day sleeping and watching snippets of movies but not really eating or talking - two of his favourite things. Thursday was more of the same.

For two days our Little Buddy had a fever and coughed until he threw up, but he was a trooper. Unlike Dude (who shakes his head as he vomits) or Crafty (who becomes like Velcro to us when she is sick) Mischief is a fairly low maintenance patient. He still sleeps in his own bed, can handle the 'barf bucket' and prefers to be left alone for the most part. And when he does have to throw up he does it calmly and usually chats between heaves. Its kind of remarkable...and kind of gross.

Last night Mr. Awesome and I were on the brink of taking Mischief to the hospital because his fever was quite high and the little guy just wasn't doing well but in the wee hours of the morning the fever broke. Mischief finally fell into a peaceful sleep and I woke up this morning to find him chatting away to his siblings at the breakfast table. The usual chatter and goofiness that typically irritates me at that time of the morning was the sweetest sound in the world today. It was the sound of my Little Buddy returning to normal.

After the hustle and bustle of getting the older kids off to school and saying good-bye to the visiting grandparents I sat down with Mischief to watch a little TV. After a couple of minutes he said,

"Mom, I've been thinking. First I'll have some cheesy noodles, then some soup with fishy crackers, then a fruit cup then maybe some toast and eggs. I'll also have some orange juice and maybe some eggnog. Then can I have some Christmas cookies and some jello. I'd also like a bagel and maybe some Timbits. After that I'll have a snack, too."

"When are you having all this?"

"As soon as you make it for me. And you know in this movie, those guys there, they work for the bad guy and they..." talk, talk, talk.

The boy is on the mend!