Meelie stayed home sick today with the flu. All kids have different ways of communicating that what went down is about to come back up. It was tough when they were littler because they couldn't verbally express what was going on. I learned early on that Chickie would pace while holding her blanket. Back and forth across the carpeted floor. She would wander aimlessly, giving a bystander the impression that she was terribly worried about where her next meal would come from. After a few missed queues, I learned what to watch for and when she began her inevitable pacing back and forth, clutching her beloved blanket, I would run to get the "bucket."

Meelie really had no identifiable reaction when she was small. It became easier when she was older and had begun to talk. When she was ready to worship the almighty porcelain god, she would cry out "it's stuck!" It came out more like "it tuck!" I quickly realized that this was her signal that the volcano was about to erupt and if I didn't get the "bucket" soon, I would be cleaning up and unholy mess. To this day, she still uses that, albeit she can now speak in what we know as English. "Mama, it's stuck!" And that's what I heard at 1:18 am this morning.

And about every hour afterwards, poor thing. It was my husband's turn to take care of her (stay home from work). I'm fortunate enough to have a partner that will take turns being off of work when the kids are sick. It was still hard because, with all of my being, I wanted to be home taking care of her. Don't get me wrong, he is more than capable of taking care of her himself, but I wasn't there. What my presence would have done couldn't tell you, except perhaps make me feel better.

By evening time, she was doing much better, although she was terribly exhausted. Thankfully, she was able to get some food (popsicle, toast) down, which seemed to help her out a lot. We got her to bed fairly early and before I had even turned of the lights, I heard a faint snore coming from her parted lips. I'm hoping this means we are through the worst of it.

Upadate: Meelie made it through half the day at school today. I go a telephone call from the nurse stating that she was in her office crying because she felt so horrible. Currently, she is sleeping on the recliner with Fergie playing softly in the background.