Over the last couple of blogamanias, I alluded to the fact that we've had a little bug floating around our house since last week. (Since this is a blog about a bug, would it make this a "blug?") It started with our daughter, Samantha, waking up with a 103 fever and feeling pretty out of it for about three days. Then, Taylor started to feel the effects. He stayed home last Thursday, despite not feeling too bad, in hopes of kicking the malady before Friday so he could go to school on Friday so he would be able to compete in the forensics meet on Saturday. (For my kids, it seems so many things are interconnected and convoluted, that you never quite know why they're doing what they're doing and to what ultimate end. Everyday is like a life-size version of the old board game, Mousetrap. This knocks over that which, then, rolls into this, which ends up causing BOING!) Well, Taylor was knocked out for about three and half days. Again, a fever and general feeling of "icky" and "blah" or "blicky." Thursday night, Harrison got the fever...and it wasn't nearly as much fun as the kind Peggy Lee used to sing about. It was his bug that made that house call on his stomach which resulted in our sofa problem. (Please see "Paul Bunyan Versus Couch-zilla.)

All three of these young people had fevers, aches, pains, stuffiness and that glassy look in their eyes that says "I am not fully comprehending anything you are saying but this time it's because I'm sick and not, as is usually the case, just because you are my father." They watched TV and ate crackers and drank 7UP. The normal routine. Having kids home during the day does tend to cramp my style. It is hard to tell a little, weak and waifish boy who looks like an extra from Oliver, that he can't watch King Kong because daddy must see that episode of The Rockford Files that daddy has seen 400 times before. Meanwhile, their oldest brother, Alex, didn't get sick at all. This has happened before and it is the very definition of ironic.

You see, of all the kids, Alex is the one most likely to worry about getting sick. He is the one who had the "Tully-from-Sesame-Street-induced" fake broken arm. (Please, see "Red, Blue and Furry" from last week.) He doesn't eat more vegetables than the rest. In fact, the two youngest are the best when it comes to a varied and healthy diet. He gets less exercise than the rest...unless you count "mousercise" which is a highly aerobic version of using your computer. He tends to stay up too late. Yet, he rarely picks up whatever is "going around." Maybe the bacteria get a good look at his side of the bedroom and decide they just aren't up to the task. Or, maybe the half-eaten junk food trapped between his bed and the wall, combined with the aroma wafting from clothes that need to visit the laundry, have rendered Alex immune to all types of contaminants. Whatever the reason, he was the only one not knocked over by this latest bug.

Our periods of sickness have gotten fewer and farther between over the years. At first, your kids are like Petri dishes wearing tennies...dragging home every little sniffle, cough or urp. Getting older has meant getting better at fighting this stuff off before it can take a firm grip. The good news is that everyone is back at school now. While there are still some drippy noses and the occasional loud, chest and head clearing cough, everyone is bouncing back. Perhaps most importantly, I get to watch The Rockford Files, again.