the excitement for today was animal terrorising...no, just kidding (i'm sure they give the animals plenty of tranquilisers.)
alright, seriously... percy's day care organised a 'kindi farm' to visit today. we don't go on wednesdays but all those kids not usually there on wednesdays were invited in anyways.
percy had a blast. a small pen was erected in the soft fall play area enclosed therein were goats, lambs, sheep, a calf and a pig. once percy was free of her stroller, had had a minute or two to size up the situation she marched over to the pen and climbed in. okay, joking again. i think she would have been very happy to be in amongst the animals. she was patting and clutching at them, giggling and stomping her feet. the stomping of the feet dance is characteristic of uncontained excitement and happiness.
she had the opportunity to feed them some pellets of food but couldn't get the hang of this very well, i did most of it for her. still she had her fingers down the gullet of a goat at one time.
we proceeded then to sit in a circle while rabbits, a duck and some baby chicks were passed about. here we go, i thought- first death of the morning! apart from nearly choking a rabbit percy was very well behaved, restrained and gentle. we have been reiterating "gentle", "gentle" with percy for weeks. i think it's working.
it was hard to get photos but here's a sample...
having incisor teeth must be pretty critical to eating. i've read that for babies gums are as good for chewing as molar teeth are. however getting chewable pieces of food into one's mouth is dependant on biting larger pieces into smaller pieces- unless someone chops and mushes you food for you. percy got her two bottom incisor teeth a few months ago and then stopped any action in the teeth department. finally two weeks ago her left top incisor started to make an appearance. it's completely thru now; didn't that take it's time?! now i see glimmerings of the right top incisor. i'm hopeful she will eat more, and than just mushes once she can take bites. she had a yummy slice of melon that she was definately trying to take bites out of for dessert after dinner today. she'll fly thru it once she's got four teeth. i'm sure of it. (i need to hold to hope of something!)
i'm informed also that her cousins, my nephews, were also slow to push thru teeth and had mush food for months past their contemporaries.
if there was one day i could set the clock back and have again it would be today. percy woke at 5am and was sooky, tired, grumpy, hard to please and whingey all day long. if we could do it differently i'd be happy to be an extra day older.
having said that there are plenty of days that i would have again to repeat just as they were... days of love and delight with paul and percy. days of sunshine and laughter with friends. days (and nights) of tenderness and breathlessness with lovers. days of comfort and renewal with family. of course would those days be the same if we lived them over again? i suspect we'd be a little disappointed. it's best they stay as fresh and treasured memories. plus we can gloss them as rosy-hued as we like!
perhaps we'll look back at this day with a rosy hue some time in the future -a real long way in the future!
one of the mum's from my parents group recently wrote in her blog (www.smallland.wordpress.com) that their baby rose had slept for more than three hours during her nap. once again i was feeling depressed that little percy is/was a poor sleeper. i long for 11-12 hours straight at night and long, long naps during the day.
we've been having an odd, and frustrating run of sleep these past few weeks. for instance yesterday evening i left to go to the gym at 7:15pm after percy was in bed and we thought asleep. she woke and cried such that paul went to comfort her not long after. she wouldn't settle in bed so he picked her for a cuddle, yet still she cried. he ended up carrying her around the house pointing out that i was not in any room (quick trip in our little place!) when they made it back to her room he said "it's just you and me" to her whereupon she laid her head upon his shoulder and quickly returned to sleep.
she's been waking most nights at odd times seemingly regardless of what sort of day she had, whether she napped well, ate well, was at home or out... i can't pinpoint anything that marks whether we're in for a good nites sleep or not. the difficulty with these awakenings are that she can take up to two and half hours to go back to sleep. at least a couple of months ago, even tho she was waking twice or thrice a nite, she would have a drink of milk and we'd all be back asleep in 15 or 20 minutes. not that i'm wishing for a return to those nites! we do now occasionally get seven to ten hours of sleep into little miss.
and today she napped for three hours.
i've just read about cate blanchett taking her new sprog to canberra and cannes. she's been lauded as "superwoman" to pull this off. bullshit! with the entourage she can afford it means nothing. i'm sure we'd all live a jet set life if we had cleaners, cooks, chauffeurs, nannies, mothers, first class tickets, maids, personal assistants, managers, etc...
good on her for what she has done and i hope she loves her life and children. don't sicken the rest of us with implying she's done it single-handed or that it's hard for her. ha!
...for percy's passport? paul came home earlier this week with the proposition of spending three months in iceland! how cool would that be?! 'course you'd think i might be over it after the rough trot thru ukraine. i can only point out that iceland is surely nothing like ukraine. for one, iceland ranks first on the UN human development index, plus they speak english.it seems paul's work has a client there that needs someone on site for a while. unfortunately it's not exactly paul's area of work. no-one else has put their hand up to go. seems no-one else wants to. one women that has been before said she didn't like it because there are no trees. well, der- look at the geography and geology of the place! going with the wrong expectations doesn't help. (yes, i know, we went to ukraine with some wrong expectations. so live and learn, hey?) perhaps we'll see...i do think flying there with percy would be a nightmare. and i suppose if we go in summer trying to get her to sleep in broad daylight might prove a challenge. still, these are all manageable in the long run, given the pay off would be residency in a foreign country for three months. we could potentially break up the flights like last time too.the other thing being i'm not on maternity leave at present, and highly unlikely to be for the rest of the year. ha ha. would my work give me three months off? i can only ask.anyways, this is all speculative... quite fun speculation tho!
i've signed percy up for 'kindermusic' music classes each wednesday. today was our first visit. i'm sure she loved it. we sang songs, galloped about the room, shook rattles, hid under a mini parachute, rolled balls and generally made a lot of noise.
it was nice to have a good time after the yucky morning we had. percy woke a little after 4am! paul gave her some milk but she did not go back to sleep. i rocked her for a while, ended up bringing her into our bed, then took her back to her room and tried to sleep on the floor with her- all to no avail. i changed her nappy and got her dressed so she could play. we stayed in her room so paul could sleep more. finally up at 7am for breakfast, a 40 minute nap at 9:30am, then music class and a lovely hour and a half sleep in the afternoon. when i also slept for about an hour!
the teacher at music class was very nice. she remembered all the bubs names, was very approachable and has a lovely voice. i'm glad we are doing this as i'm concerned percy doesn't have enough music and creativity in her life. i'm very un-musical. i think i verge on amusia. only occasionally will i listen to music, and only as a background to the day; i'm very much more a silence and reading person for my pleasure and relaxation. so i suppose in part i've succumbed to 'anxious parent' syndrome (as i'll dub it) and signed up the responsibility for bringing music into percy's life to someone else.
no photos i'm sorry because i was too busy, so too was percy, plus she hasn't figured out how to use the camera.
when percy is happy and smiles, giggles and dances the sun shines on the whole world. she appears to have thrown off her viruses finally. we went out for mothers day breakfast yesterday, then a long walk to the park, a lovely play including lots of laughter, peek-a-boo, tickles and stomping dances. she's still a little low on energy as well as sooky but i think that will improve. paul dropped her at day care today without tears. maybe she missed her little friends there, being pleased to be back?these song words, that we also played at our wedding, seem appropriate..."it's a new day, a new dawn, for you and me..."
little miss is feeling better. she's less grumpy and has a bit more energy. it's very encouraging to see glimpses of her usual effervescent self coming thru. she slept better last nite- no coming into our bed and when paul did go to offer her more milk she went back sleep without us rocking her at all, let alone for hours.
we had a great play in the park too. we played lots of peek-a-boo, rocking horse, see-saw and some swinging. plus we saw two lovely dogs to pat, one was a german shepard up at the erko pub who was so friendly i thought percy was going to lead him home.
she's having her second nap now. we'll probably get back to one nap next week.
it's good she's perking up now; just in time for a visit from her oma. tho the visit isn't prompted by the best of circumstances. my mum is on her way thru to melbourne to bury her sister-in-law, with whom she was very close. train to sydney today, saturday with us and then plane to melbourne on sunday, funeral on monday, plane back to syd on tuesday.
my poor aunt apparently had a heart attack just as she arrived home in her car last thursday afternoon. unfortunately she sat in the car all thru the nite before friends came looking for her on friday. does say something for the importance of friends and people that will look out for you, rather than expiring alone and unmissed, unnoticed for weeks...
because i have been at home all week with percy my work colleagues rang to check all was okay. isn't that sweet? (i have been in touch with my director a few times but that probably didn't filter down to the guys i sit next to.)
how long might it be before your absence is queried? would you know if something was amiss with your neighbours? your siblings? your aged relatives? i know i really need to be a better person and put a lot more effort into actually caring about those i care about. so if you haven't heard from me in a while ring me or send me an email and let me know how you are!! he he, that's the cheats way out. i'll try to do it myself. my problem is i'm fairly isolationist and independant; almost to the point that i don't need you so why do you need me? that's a bit harsh actually, now that i read it again. well, it's hard to get the right words.
anyways, oma arrives in a couple of hours so i've got to scrub the house top to bottom!.... aahhh, who can be bothered? think i'll read the new scientist instead.
little miss is miserable. still. on monday the doctor diagnosed adenovirus and conjunctivitis. on tuesday when we rushed her back because of a spreading rash thankfully that turned out to just be heat rash. in trying to ensure we'd rugged her up good, we seem to have over-rugged her.
she has eaten a little better but it is sporadic. likewise her intake of milk and water is hit and miss.
on the positive side she doesn't appear to have a fever anymore. perhaps we're on the up, if only a little. she gets very tired, having two or even three naps a day- just when we were moving to one. nevermind.
the nites have been dreadful. she refuses her 'good nite' bottle of milk and most attempts to give her any water or milk thru the nite. she wakes often and is nearly impossible to get back to sleep. i'm sure if we could budge the snot out of her head it would make a huge difference. unfortunately no matter how much is expelled she keeps making more! her favourite place to spend the nite is in my arms with her head resting on my shoulder. she doesn't like being in a cradled position. i'm sure because being upright the snot doesn't bother her as much. it's adorable to have her in my arms and her soft, sweet smelling head against me- for about 5 minutes. when it stretches into hours it's actually awfully painful on my arms and back.
last nite, against better wishes paul slept on the lounge while i took percy into bed with me. she woke at 10pm, bed changing arrangements happened at 11pm, i last looked at the clock at 12:15am. then every hour. i listened to her breathe and swallow all nite long. i wonder if swallowing that much snot can be bad? it won't last forever... we got up at 7:45am. uurgghh.
i think we must be tough and not do it again tonite.
days are difficult too because she has so little energy but gets bored easily. i've been carrying her a lot as she wants to do stuff but only if someone does it for her. make sense?
she's really trying hard and she's so lovely but it isn't working. the doctor said adenovirus will take a week to run it's course. a week is tomorrow, i really don't see how she will come good in one day.
poor percy is terribly sick again. again, something from day care. when paul picked her up on friday the staff told him that she had lain down in the playground in the morning and gone to sleep. they picked her up and put her in her cot. she also had a nap in the afternoon.
on saturday and sunday she was very lethargic and sleepy, as well as coughing, snotty and generally miserable. she also got bored with lieing around the house, or more correctly in our arms, and had some screaming sessions too. she hasn't eaten a thing since friday nite. she had some milk, formula, water and juice but very little compared to normal. i feel so sorry for her. i did manage to get about five spoon tips of fruit puree into her last nite.
she vomitted sunday morning which made her feel better for a little while. and in the afternoon we had a short walk around the block and a little play in the park which she smiled about. she woke up a number of times thru the nite, twice i gave her milk and once i changed her nappy. it was actually a relief to see that she'd had a big poo, despite it being 2:30 in the morning, because she hadn't for three days and i wasn't sure she had anything left in her system.
needless to say i am staying home with her today. we are going up to the doctor this morning when she wakes up from her nap that i put her down to at 8:30am. only an hour and a quarter after getting up- that just shows how sick she is. she is snuggled in under her great aunt renate's hand knitted, super lovely blanket.
percy and paul air guitaring and dancing to lenny kravitz...
i dare say it is true for many people, particularly children, that distraction is the key to achievement or happiness. for instance when trying to feed percy a meal often the best way to achieve this is to give her an empty jar and lid and while she manipulates the lid on and off repeatedly, so will her jaw open and close repeatedly to allow me to slip a spoon of food in. achievement!this morning when i took her to her child care centre she was a little unhappy during the time it took me to put her stroller, sleeping bag, bottles, nappies and change of clothes away. i then took her out into the playground to leave her with other children and a teacher. no sooner had her feet touched the ground than she lunged for a little rocking horse toy- don't get in the way of this baby on a mission! i hoisted her into it. i managed to get a kiss planted somewhere on her head as she manically rocked back and forth. my "good byes" and waves were barely noticed. much better than the tears that threatened only minutes before. happiness!
