The flu cycle of '07.

A little tale written a couple years ago....

So, there is a new, almost nightly ritual goin' on in the Struckmeier home. It all begins during the wee hours of the night. It starts with just a simple cough. At the onset of this sound, my husband, leaps forth with enormous zest, untangling himself from our down comforter, and flies down the hallway while simultaneously shaking pretty much the whole upstairs. I think he is halfway down the hallway in pursuit of the cough instigator before he is even awake. He scoops up his victim and has them dangling over the toilet in about 2.2 seconds. I have never experienced anything like it. The speed at which he gets there is incredible. Truly admirable. Being a born and raised San Jose girl, earthquakes are a way of life to me. By the time I wake up from his dramatic exit from the bed, realize I have moved to Sacramento, and am not experiencing an earthquake, he is a million steps ahead of me. I slowly drag my butt out of bed, find the action and take over. You see from the birth of our first son and his first vomit experience with Mountain Mikes Pizza, we quickly discovered that when it comes to illness: Shawn takes the bottom end and I take the top. Anything else can result in one of us joining in the fun.

A slight variation occurred from the normal recently. I heard the usual steps,

but all of sudden heard Emma literally yelling at Shawn, " Daddy I am NOT throwing up". Poor thing. Imagine being yanked out of bed from a deep sleep and hung over toilet just because you coughed! Oops. Although, after a month of this flu, its a very justified behavior from Shawn. Cough and he is on the run. I applaud him. Since vomit clean up is my job, I sure appreciate the many carpets he has saved. My hero.

Tonight this ritual has occurred again. This time with my 9 year old son. I hear the cough, experience the exit from the bed, and take my walk down the hallway wondering which one of my children it is tonight. I was surprised to see Cameron this time. The next victim in our endless cycle of flu this season. As I quicken my steps to get to him I step right in the vomit, as Shawn's scoop and hang method is not so effective with a 3rd grade boy. Cameron has not thrown up in years. Therefore, the hallway carpet became the casualty this time. He almost made it to the bathroom linoleum. Almost. As I sat at 4 a.m cleaning all of this up, all I could think was what a difference 6 more inches would have made.