Luca Flu

I was stuck in an Ohio airport last night as the Midwest was pounded by the second snowstorm in as many weeks. 

I called home to talk to the family knowing I wouldn’t see them before bedtime.  And possibly not before breakfast time.  Diana had the phone on speaker.  Luca, in particular, was excited to hear my voice.

“Wick!  Wick!  Wick!  Wick!”

“What?”

“Can you see airplanes?”

“Yep.  Just not mine.”

“Wick!  Wick!  Wick!  Wick!”

“What?”

“Are you at the gate?”

This inane conversation made my heart ache.  I wanted to hold that tiny little Spider Man in my arms so badly.

I arrived home quite late and found Luca sleeping in our bed.  Apparently he instructed Diana to make me tuck him in. to his bed.  Which made my heart ache even more.

Unfortunately, my carrying him jostled the Flu virus that had invaded his body.  Within an hour, he was barfing his face off.  He was burning up and miserable. 

Over the course of the evening, we (Diana) had to strip off layer after layer of puked bedding until all that was left to cover him was his little security blanket.  Which was soon covered in barf.  We had to pry the last bit of comfort from his weak little arms.

And this morning, he was too sick to even come out of his room to watch his beloved cartoons.

Ugh. 

While I was in the shower, Elijah stood at the toilet, peeing on the seat.  I took this opportunity to try some preventative measures.

“Dude.  Luca is super sick.  And you might get sick too.  The only way to keep this from happening is to wash your hands a lot.  And try not to stick your hands in your mouth.”

I looked out from behind the shower curtain and saw Eli had his fingers in his mouth, tasting for Flu germs.

“I’m not going to get sick,” he said.  “I already had a cough.”

“Well, this is worse than your cough…get your hands out of your mouth…so you should really wash your hands.  A lot.”

We went back and forth on this for way too long before he waved his hands near the faucet to shut me up.  He then ran back to the TV, knowing he could watch whatever he wanted with Luca upstairs barfing into the last inch of clean cloth in the house.