Nani passes the baton to Granma

Jasmine's diarrhoea persists. Nani cancelled her clinic on Wednesday to stay and look after her. Granma dropped everything and arrived on Wednesday lunchtime to relieve Nani of her shift.

It's Friday today. Jasmine's bottom has only just started to clear up, but we're beginning to suspect it's something other than swine flu. Nani took her to the GP on Wednesday, then walked all the way back again with a stool sample. Bloody impressive for someone with exercise induced asthma.

Felix has been a star amidst all of this, though going to school full time is taking its toll on him. I have to peel him off me crying every morning as I leave him in nursery. It hurts.

Week 1 at work has been full on. Big 6 hour meetings with suppliers for the first three days. Train trip to Lichfield to the fulfilment centre yesterday. Went all the way to Exeter today to the customer services centre. Packed train both ways, not too dissimilar from a Ryanair jet - cramped, uncomfortable, noisy and about the same price.

Roll on the weekend. I am cream crackered.

update: turns out it was shigella (and not swine flu, or maybe swine flu for the first day, and then shigella for the rest of it). have re-drilled the importance of wipe'n'wash to jambeans, just in case that's what caused it.

Jasmine is 3

Our darling little girl is 3 tomorrow. Today was her party complete with frock, cake, candles, party bags, grandma, nani, auntie seema and some of mum and dad's friends and their respective broods. Ok. So it was really a bit of a do for us. But who cares? A great time was had by all. Only downside was that Jasmine's chestiness has returned, as have our suspicions of asthma, so she's been put straight back on the montelukast today after months of going without. We'll just have to see how it all pans out...

Piccies to follow.

Free Sleep

So Jambeans was very mature and went to nursery sans Felix, and most importantly, sans Granma without the screaming fuss we were anticipating. And Squealycops was in tremendously capable and loving hands for the day. We left him in the morning totally grumpy and with some kind of pus oozing from every orifice. Came back in the evening to a happy, energetic and smiling little bub. Phew.

Then this morning bf did the uber-chivalrous thing and cared for Felix when he woke at 5am whilst babymomma coma-slept. Then later in the morning, after we had all got up and when Granma was busy attending to Princess J, babymomma put Felix to bed, just lay down next to him "for 5 minutes" and then got another FREE SLEEP for over an hour. So whilst babymomma has been kipping, bf has been awake since 4.30 and is now knackered.

Time to pay off the TLC debt methinks...

The other joyful matters of today are that Jasmine is really getting musical. She's always singing and is getting the hang of tunes. She and daddy have been playing duets on the guitar and singing Jingle Bells together and we all had a big dance together this evening, putting the Strictly contestants to shame with our nifty footwork and twirls. Bf is totally into superspeedy broadband and Playstation 3 (his recent pressies to himself, because I'm working so much in the evenings and hogging the pooter). He has just introduced me to Little Big Planet, which I think I might quite like, though Jambeans, at the tender age of 2, is already a better player than I am. Felix is still cruising for Britain.

But despite my attempts to stay jolly I'm feeling rather seasonally affected.

Ballet dancing monkeys

Yesterday, nursery called to say Felix had conjunctivitis.

Obviously, we knew he had conjunctivitis (but according to the bf, it's the viral, as opposed to the bacterial sort, which apparently you don't take drops or ointment for and wait for it to clear up. And it is contagious but in the same way a cold is, ie no reason not to go to nursery) but I pretended I didn't.

Since I was on a roll I then lied some more and said I was in the office, as opposed to working from home, and therefore would take a good couple of hours to get back.

Evil mama.

So when I eventually got to nursery Felix was FINE.

But we got on the (old) bat phone anyway, and Granma came to save the day. Driving 200 miles at god knows what speed to get here in the evening.

Jasmine, on the other hand, has been on amazing good form and certainly seems more like her usual (tantrummy) self. She went to bed promising to dream of ballet-dancing monkeys. However, we're going to have to peel her off Granma kicking and screaming today to get her to school.

Felix woke up this morning with snot poring out of every orifice and is really poorly.

It just never ends...

And yet more Kew

Work is just totally manic. And when I get home it's straight into picking up the kids. My evenings are mainly taken up with work, and since none of us have been sleeping too brilliantly these last few weeks, we're all completely shattered and there's simply no time to write. Not a total disaster since there's not too much to write about: I'm too busy running just to stand still and the world at large is totally fucked (economy's trashed, we're in recession, doom & gloom yadda yadda)

BUT... in the short 6 days since Felix first crawled 2 inches, he's now making his way across thresholds, into other rooms, over to boxes and buckets and tables and everywhere. It's amazing. He's totally amazing. And teeth number 3 and 4 are beginning to poke through. And he's getting more and more handsome each day.

Jambeans is currently in 7th Heaven this weekend as Granma is up and she's the best thing since sliced bread.

And as for me, I love Autumn, and there's nothing more invigorating than Kew on a fresh, windy Autumn day.

Our holiday, in brief

So, our 3-week holiday, aargghh. Where to start? So much to cover. So many memories to capture. The short version is that we all had a great time. Spent a night at Nani's, then to Granma's for a week, then to Granpa's for a couple of days, then bf went back to work for a week (boo hoo) and I stayed at Granma's with the kiddisplinks and Nani came down to visit for a couple of days, then bf came back for a week (hurrah) during which we disappeared to Fowey Hall for 3 nights sans grandparents of any description (double hurrah) then we went back to Granma's for a night, back to Nani's for a night and then, breathe, home. Oh, and in between we also managed to do much catching up with Uncle Angus, Auntie Tina and Cousin Abagael as well as Auntie Leon, Uncle Mary and oooh their gorgeous new baby Kate.

I feel that Jasmine stopped being a toddler this holiday, and has really turned into a little girl. Her speech is coming along at a rate - it's now moving into full sentences, with plurals, personal pronouns, possessives and tenses - and she sounds so grown up when she says things like 'I'm feeling ok;' 'Look Daddy, I'm driving!' or, yesterday's new one, 'I don't like it' (gulp). On holiday she also rode a bike for the first time, did the washing up, went to the circus, danced at a birthday party, practically lived in her Wendy House and graduated to a proper bed. She is embracing this new stage of maturity and independence with a lot of giggly excitement and bossy charm.

Felix, quite simply, hit the handsome button this holiday. He is just getting more and more gorgeous each day. Oh yes, he also hit the loud button. One day he realised he could squeal much louder that all the pigs in Pigdom. And so he did, throwing me totally off track as now there are a whole load of new noises to mean, hungry, bored, tired, need a new nappy etc. etc. He has also started mooncrawling (trying to crawl only going backwards), sitting quite beautifully, grabbing for toys and shoving anything in his mouth with a vigour I had quite forgotten about.

Grandma's visit, hot London, poorly toddler

The summer heat must be going to my head, because I really enjoyed Grandma's visit and managed to be a friendly person for the whole weekend. That's twice in a row now. I worry when my irrational dislikes of people start to erode - it means I'm changing into someone who might be described as "nice" (which in my world translates as "one of the most tedious people to walk this planet.")

True to form, Jambeans managed to catch another cold-cum-fever-and-chest-infection to coincide with Grandma's visit and the 31 degree heat outside. It makes it a bit difficult to tell whether she's properly feverish, or just hot'n'sweaty like the rest of us, but she's OK - we've seen worse.

Felix, bless him, is also snuffling. It's his first cold. Aaaaaah. But he's OK too and he ate some veggies for the first time yesterday without a single vomit in sight. The weaning plan is all going smoothly.
Did I mention how hot it is outside? But I'm not going to moan - it sure beats Winter.

Two steps forward, one step back

I was recovering super well from the op, so last Monday, merely one week after Felix was sprung from my tummy, I suggested an outing to the Temple of Carluccio in Brent Cross. So we bundled the F-bean into the car and set off for a potter, some damn fine Italian food and a wee bit of retail therapy. Admittedly I felt tired before I got there, and I was kind of shuffling but I had no other sign to tell me that I was overdoing it...

Until the evening, when my tummy and scar area got really sore. Then, when I tried to stand up I experienced a prickling and intense burning pain that was so severe I couldn't stop myself from crying out. I couldn't move for fear of the sensation returning - it felt really hot and my first thought was that I was bleeding from my scar, and then I thought it must be really bad bruising, but a quick examination from Doctor Boyfried showed me that whatever pain I was experiencing was all on the inside, rather than at the surface of my skin.

So the pain kept coming back intermittently, and I kept crying out, and then I started crying because I was totally bricking myself - fearing all sorts of internal-ER-disaster-type-shennanigans - but even though I was in total agony and could barely move for pain, the fact that I wasn't bleeding was the only thing that stopped me from urging bf to bundle up the kiddiwinks and rush me to A&E.

We rode out the night, and bf helped me out with the bub-feeding duties and I still felt sore on Tuesday but thankfully there no more burning pain. So since then I've been attempting total bed rest, which means my only tasks are to feed Felix and get myself washed and dressed in the morning. Bf has been chief housewife and Jambeans-after-looker and Grandma arrived yesterday to meet the bub and lend a hand, which has been great.

But I am rather bored. And I miss playing with Jambeans. And she only wants Grandma - who she called 'Mamgar' and Daddy (in that order) for cuddles, so I'm feeling guilty for not being able to spend enough time with her, and a bit put out that I am number 3 on the list.

Icky and antsy and anxious

Sunday today. Jazzie seemed better yesterday but today conjunctivitis spread to left eye and fever returned, though not as severe as 2 days ago. Appetite still not as healthy as normal, and she's less enthusiastic about veggie slush than ever. Anxious parents resorted to cooking each meal fresh and still not hesitating to leave said veggie slush to one side at first indication of refusal and ladle out lashings of porridge if it meant the bub would eat and be happy.

Lots and lots and lots of yelping today. Lots and lots and lots of eye goo (or iGoo if you are Steve Jobs). Lots and lots and lots of cuddles and carrying the bub. Arms ache, back aches, neck aches. But I wouldn't have it any other way.

There was quite a bit of unspoken tension between mummy and daddy about what to do tomorrow. She seemed fairly well this morning, so it was all - should we send her to nursery? What if they want to send her home? Who shouldn't go to work? We were both prepared to compromise but that, combined with the bub's generally being quite unwell plus watching Arsenal go 1 goal down at home to premiership laggards Wigan was making me feel very very icky and antsy and anxious.

Then Arsenal clawed back a 2-1 win in the last 10 mins.

And our guardian angel arrived in the form of grandma who had dropped everything and drove about 200 miles in record time (don't want to think how fast) to stay with us for the next couple of days and look after Jazzie so we can both work and know the bub is in good hands.

I said it was like batman answering the bat signal. Dp said "more like old-bat signal".
And despite myself, I nearly wet myself laughing.