Germs

A few years ago, Lucy, Evie, Toby and I went through six stomach viruses in one winter. The next winter we suffered through five. One of them was so terrible and contagious that it seemed we passed it on to everyone we even came near, including my friend's relatives from Europe, who had to fly all the way back to Finland in a miserable state. During that particularly awful stomach flu, my dad called to say a package would be delivered to us the next day. I was hoping to somehow find a box full of warm chicken noodle soup, but what arrived was even better because it made us laugh.

He sent us a box full of "germs", or giant plush toy microbes. Cold was round but with jagged edges, stomach virus was long with a fuzzy trim. Flu, cough and and sore throat also came in the box. The girls loved them and swore they would help fight off any viruses.

We kept them, though they have been sitting in the bottom of the toy box for the last year. Then, last night, we needed them again. When Lucy began throwing up, she panicked that she couldn't breathe. She asked me what was happening. I thought about the stomach virus toy (named "Parkle" in our house, since we always call the stomach flu "the parkle bug". When I was little, for some reason I thought throw up looked like sparkles - apparently my parents fed me glitter - but couldn't say "s". The word "parkle" stuck.) and I asked Lucy if she remembered what he looked like. She nodded yes, still miserable. I explained that lots of mini versions of him were all in her belly and her body was just trying to get them out. This simple explanation made her feel a lot better. Today she dug Parkle out of the toy box to sleep with tonight. (And, as you can tell by the photo above, she is in much better spirits.)

In the past week, Toby has had the flu, Evie had a sore throat, Noni had a cough and cold, and then Lucy had the stomach flu. Hopefully, the stuffed germs will work as good luck charms in our household again. I'm wondering if I get this guy, if we can avoid H1N1 as well:

http://www.giantmicrobes.com/us/products/swineflu.html