The tummy bug

After managing to avoid many of the nasty bugs that has been going around for the last couple of months Emily finally succumbed to a tummy bug yesterday. As hubby was away in Palmerston North overnight and I also have a 8 week old to look after this was not such good timing on Emily's part. Never mind these things happen.

The day began with a 6.30am wake up call from Emily, who had got herself up out of bed and was standing in the kitchen crying for Mummy. I hurl myself out of bed and zip out of my room as fast as I could with the intent to tell her to shhhhh so as to not wake the baby. I open my mouth and before I could utter any sound Emily's mouth also opens and she vomits all over the kitchen floor. Nice! I sprint to the plastic cupboard and pull out the first bowl I lay my hands on and thrust it under her chin in time to catch the next wave. After Emily gives me the all clear signal, I scoop her up and gently deposit her on the couch with a clean bowl, blanket and drink of water while I get the fun task of cleaning up the mess. After 10 minutes and several muttered promises of what hubby will have to do to make up for not being here to help, the kitchen is clean again and I can start to wake up instead of functioning on autopilot. Coffee that's what I need and lots of it, oh yeah I'm breastfeeding can only have two cups a day. Damn it this will be a looooong day!

Emily spends the morning snuggled on the couch watching many children's movies, then round two hits. As I sit feeding the baby, I spy out the corner of my eye Emily sit bolt upright and go pale. I uncermoniously dump (gently) the baby in the rocker and lunge for the bowl just getting there in time. Emily hates the bowl and a struggle ensues with her trying to push the bowl away and me trying to make sure each wave of vomit makes it into the bowl. When the retching subsides again my polite daughter turns to me and says "thank you Mummy". Naw even when she's ill she still has nice manners. It was at this point that I realise that in my haste to get to Emily and the bowl I had not managed to put my breast away and was on complete display. Thank goodness no one decided to pop in at that moment to visit!

The third and final wave occured about 20 minutes after I had risked allowing her to have a lemonade popsicle. We hadn't had any more vomiting for about 5 hours so I decided it was safe enough to try and get something in her wee tummy other than water. Meh wrong idea! As my wee girl sat cuddled into me the next wave hits without warning. Emily manages to get it all over her pjs, all over my trackies and down the couch with one single retch, pretty impressive in my opinion! I scoop her up and lurch over to the bowl (which I had stupidly left on the coffee table far from where we were sitting) and manage to catch the next retch. Again we have a silent battle with the bowl. When it was over I start to peel the pjs off my pale, trembling wee girl, joking with her about how she had managed to get it all over Mummy too. I thought this would lighten the mood and help her cheer up a bit but no, it had the opposite effect in which she starts to sob. I cuddle her to me thinking she was crying because she wasn't feeling well when I hear her say in a quiet voice "I sorry Mummy", I tell her it was okay and she has nothing to be sorry about but she says "I sorry I throwed up on your pants". I wish a hole would open up and swallow me, I feel awful how could I make my wee girl feel guilty about being sick on me! I finally convince her I wasn't upset and she allows me to get her into some new pjs and snuggle her back on the couch.

When bed time rolls around I am so knackered and on edge I thank the stars Emily goes down easily. Mike owes me big time!!

Favourite Things

Emily goes through periods of obssession with certain things. These items become her favourite things and either go EVERWHERE with us or are constantly being asked for. Generally these periods of obssession are short and sweet but sometimes they can span several months until something new and exciting comes along to take it's place in her affections.

The current 'favourite things' are:

#1 Owl
This is a brightly coloured and patterned soft toy owl. Owl goes everywhere with us and mst be in bed with Miss Moo every night. Owl is so well loved that He has already had sugery twice to keep him in prime condition. Owl stole Emily's love away from 'Cat' (a pink lemur soft toy) a few months ago and for now seems safe from replacement in the near future.

#2 Dora Pjs
Emily like's Dora the Explorer so Mummy got suckered into buying Emily a pair of Dora Pjs. These Pjs will often be worn for many nights in a row with me frantically trying to wash and dry them during the day. And some days it is nigh on impossible to get her out of her Dora Pjs and into clothes. It is quite a common occurance to see Emily head off to the supermarket wearing her Dora Pjs, Dora gumboots (Grandy bought the gumboots not Me) and carting her Dora Dolly (a gift from her Aunt and Uncle) under her arm because Daddy couldn't convince her to get dressed first.

3 The Winnie the Pooh Movie
we went through a period of two weeks where Miss Moo would watch The Winnie the Pooh movie (Pooh's Heffalump Movie) at least three times a day. It got to the point where I could recite the movie verbatum and would find myself gently singing the songs while feeding the baby in the middle of the night. Currently we are down to only having to watch it once a day, thank goodness.

4 The Rainbow Top
this is a poypropelyne thermal top that has rainbow coloured stripes and two different coloured sleeve and is currently the bane of my existance. It is a hand me down top and is great for her to wear under her clothes to keep her warm except that Miss Moo likes to wear it over her clothes so she can see the rainbow. This isn't a problem when we are staying home but Emily's deedication to her Rainbow Top is total and there is always a major battle to get her into 'going out clothes'. Maybe the Rainbow top will accidently somehow dissapear very soon...

5 Spotty Shoes
Recently Emily's Grandparents came to stay and they took her shopping at Pumpkin Patch here she found a pair of red canvas shooes with white polka dots. These shoes are very sweet and go with most of her outfits, so what's the problem? Well it is winter still and we live on a farm that is one big mud puddle, not suitable for little red canvas shoes. does that stop Millie from wanting to wear them? NO. It is battle after battle to convince her to take off her spotty shoes and put on gumboots. Emily has taken to wearing her spotty shoes around the house instead of her slippers and if I'm not vigilant she will dart out any open door still wearing them and head straight for the puddles.

6 Mummy's iPad
My darling husband treated me with an iPad for Mother's day, except now it seems more like Emily's iPad than mine. It is loaded with so many kids games and movie that there is barely any room left on it for my apps. Emily is only two and a half and she uses the iPad better than I do lol. I will be sitting on the couch with my iPad resting on my knee, doing a bit of facebook interaction and next thing Miss Moo has waltzed over, pushed the 'end' button, taken it out of my hands and will be walking off with it! I can't believe I am about to type this next sentance.... Emily even has her own 32g iPod touch to use (courtesy of her Grandparents) so she can stop stealing my toy but it hasn't worked. So if she uses mine then can I use hers? No it's mine! she tells me before taking it back.

So those are Miss Moo's favourite things for the time being, I'm sure they will have changed in the next few weeks although a couple of them I'm sure will remain the same like the ipad lol