I had planned to take them grocery shopping with me after the Y, but I decided we'd better just go home. Good choice because she threw up all over herself before we got there.

It's amazing how fast a kid goes downhill when they have the flu. It was a long night for poor little Lauren who laid, listless, on the couch with a bucket by her side.

But, as quickly as it came, it was gone. Sunday afternoon (almost precisely 24 hours later) she came bounding downstairs, yammering nonstop (now, that's the Lauren we know and love) and asking for something to eat.

I wondered if I should feed her, considering everything (and I mean everything...even water) I'd given her in the last 24 hours had come up, but, somehow, I just knew it was over.

A mother just knows.

Tonight -- ding, ding, ding, -- round 2 -- older daughter has come down with it, of course.

Funny, yesterday she was jealous of the attention and extra coddling heaped on her little sister. She said she wished she were sick, too.

Something tells me that after this is over, she won't be wishing the flu on herself again.