Boo Wedding and Pooh bedding

We were up in Lincoln for the weekend, to attend a party to celebrate the wedding of Anne's sister Boo (Rebecca) to Dez. They got married a while ago, but they live in Sri Lanka so they have come back to the UK for a party.

 

ThingOne and ThingTwo wore dresses. Due to the lack of hair, ThingOne looked fairly silly in dresses until recently. Now she's got some hair she can pull it off, and looked very sweet. Unfortunatley ThingTwo was still not 100% following fevers and chicken pox but she coped with a busy party well, even if she looked blotchy in the photos.

 

 

We stayed at Anne's mum's in nearby Woodhall Spa that night, and ThingOne got to try out her new Winnie the Pooh inflatable travel bed, which proved to be a hit. It's good that she's quite a heavy sleeper as ThingTwo is up a lot at the moment and ThingOne manages to sleep through all the crying.

However, ThingOne was up very early on Wednesday morning and was very sad with a poorly tummy. I lay with her an held her hand until it was time to get up, and she felt much better in the day. Anne was trying to figure out what ThingOne had eaten the previous day that might have made her ill. Eventually, Anne remembered that while they'd been blowing bubbles on Tuesday ThingOne had tried to drink the bubble mixture. Anne thought she'd just got some in her mouth, but it seems likely ThingOne swallowed more than Anne had realised.

ThingTwo seems much happier now, and is looking much more like herself again. For over a week while she was ill she'd stopped rolling over and wasn't giving us her big open-mouthed smiles when she saw us. We call her Fozzie because of these big smiles. Like a Muppet, she seems unable to smile without opening her mouth wide.

 

Painful pox and Sunday docs

ThingTwo is having a very hard time of it. Following her big sister, she has now got chicken pox. It's heartbreaking to see her covered in spots and in real pain. To top that she also has a throat infection and Anne had to rush her to an emergency Sunday surgery today to get some antibiotics as she had a temp of 102. And then find a pharmacy able to dispense at 4.45pm on a Sunday. It's going to be a long night...

I'd taken ThingOne out into Cambridge on the bike for the day, partly to get her away from her little sister howling in pain. In contrast to the little one, ThingOne had a great time. We had a picnic by the Cam. It's odd that she's not done this yet at two and a half (well, not since we could talk to her about punts and geese and have her understand). She also got to go on a carousel at a fair on Parker's Piece. Such a shame that ThingTwo and Anne weren't able to come. I felt bad when I got home to find Anne had had to rush to the doctors.

 

 

There goes the neighbourhood

I noticed the other day that the Heffers book shop in the Grafton Centre, one of the shopping centres in Cambridge, has been replaced by a Poundland. This is a sure sign of an economic slowdown.

But if there was an economic slowdown surely the papers would have mentioned it?

The house that dad built

We bought a wooden Wendy House for ThingOne and ThingTwo (though it'll be a while before ThingTwo usues it). It arrived in pieces. I'd hoped to put it together in an evening, since Anne was stuck at home with a chicken poxed ThingOne, but alas there was much to do and it took me until the weekend. I'm used to Ikea spoon-feeding me, and making it hard to put things in the wrong slot. This wasn't a very easy task. And to be honest the product was a bit shoddy. Coupled with my second-rate DIY skills, it made for slow work.

 

I got it done though and am proud of it. Needs a bit of finishing off, but my priority was to get it weather proof and usable. I initially told ThingOne I was building a shed, as I didn't want to get her over excited. Later, it became clear what it was. ThingOne still thought it was a shed. I felt bed that I'd lied to her, since she clearly believed her dad over her own eyes (why would her dad lie to her?)

 

Once it was made we also got a toy kitchen from the Early Learning Centre. ThingOne was very impressed. I spent an hour in there on Sunday with her as she made me cups of tea and snacks (pretend ones) and bossed me around. After some time her careful play degenerated into her throwing things onto the floor and finding it hilarious. I tried to regulate the play but quickly realised it was a pointless exercise.

"Now now ThingOne, instead of throwing the pan on the floor, why not cook me some chips in it? Oh, can you pick those plates up from the floor please? No, don't throw the cutlery about! Leave that there. I know, why don't we throw EVERYTHING on the floor!"

Our poxy daughter

 

ThingOne is getting over the chicken pox. She's still very spotty all over, but the no new blisters are appearing and this should mean that she's no longer contagios and so can (much to Anne's joy) go back to nursery.

Another reason we can tell she's getting better is that she's very grumpy and is throwing tantrums. When she's ill she tends to get very sleepy and cuddly. When she's on the mend she gets up and down, leading to horrible mood swings. We do sympathise as it must be horrible for her having chicken pox. She seems to find it a bit more bearable when I tell her she's now like Bottomly Potts.

At least we hope the current tantrums are part of her recovery. Please don't let it be a new stage. She's been screaming at the top of her voice and had to be shut in her bedroom today until she calmed down and apologised. (The naughty step didn't work as she just kept running after Anne thinking it was hilarious.)

In contrast, ThingTwo's entering a really cheerful stage. She's coming alive nicely, and starting to interact more. Apparently she's rolling over a fair bit, but I've yet to see that.