Sickness and Pestilence...

Sorry about that! Wow what a long week! Daniels' eyes got progressively worse, and then he developed a cough. It was ok for a few days, but by Thursday it was horrid and tight. I took him to the doctor and the doc said it was an upper respiratory tract infection and promptly put him on an antibiotic. Luckily for me Melanie at creche was still happy to take him, so I didn't have to do any fast talking to get time off work. Even by Friday evening there was a huge improvement in Daniel, and he is now back to his old self, with a little cough attached. Emma developed the mucky eyes and the cough, but hers didn't seem to get any worse than that. She is also coughing a bit, but nothing serious, and there are no signs of an infection. Unfortunately, I got it, and by Friday last week was sore, had swollen glands and a very gravelly voice. I had a SAMBA meeting to go to on Friday evening and although I didn't say too much, I think that and the lateish night as a result left me with absolutely no voice on Saturday and very little on Sunday!

At least I could speak yesterday, so although I am still not feeling too well, I have been at work. I did however take this pm off, as neither of my managers were there, and I was feeling the strain of being on the phone so much. Steve appeared to have dodged this one, until last night, when he kep shivering and then taking his jersey off! Oh dear, so he spent the day in bed sleeping today, which seems to have done him the world of good as he is looking a whole lot better this evening.

As for the pestilence! We are very confused. Emma has been coming up in series of little bumps in a red area, as if she has been pricked by a catepillar. Over the weekend we put that down to us being outside in the garden, and her playing in the sandpit and on the grass. Well, it kept coming and going, and was back in full force the following morning. Steve searched in and around her cot, and found some bird feathers underneath her cot that our dear cat must have brought in. Can babies be infected by bird lice? And if so, what is the effect? Steve cleaned up the feathers and vacuumed and both matresses went into the sun for the day on Sunday. I washed all the bedding, although I had only changed it 2 days before. And then she got it again that evening! But nothing since. So it is definitely not creche, and it appears as if it is not her cot any more, so I don't know! We are stumped!

Daniel has started taking very little steps alone, but they are few and far between. He has developed a very ugly tantruming technique, that horrifies us. He arches himself backwards, which has resulted in him either almost plummeting off our laps, or if he is on the floor, he almost thumps his head on the floor, then as fast, he jerks forwards until his forehead is touching his legs! We ignored it the other evening as he was quite safe on the floor, and within 2 minutes he had stopped and was playing by himself. We don't know if he has watched Emma tantruming or if there is someone at creche who does it, but wow it is horrific!

They are also both very cute, and begin to comprehend basic tasks, with Emma blowing her nose and sitting down when asked. Daniel has discovered an obstacle course in the lounge, where he climbs onto the coffee table, and then on to the kist. He clambers up the side of the chair and slides off the arm onto the seat shrieking madly. They can both climb off the lounge suite safely, so he then climbs down, and starts all over again! It is probably not a good habit to encourage, but we will leave it for a while longer. He has also started meowing and maaing, as Steve was showing him a book of animals and making the appropriate sounds. He also notices pictures of dogs (or the occasional stuffed teddy), points and goes 'woo-woo'! So there is an understanding of different animals making different noises. There have been so many remarkable little progresses that we have noticed since they started at creche, so we are happy that we have made the right decision.

We have had the most incredible amount of rain recently and the pool is almost overflowing again. For the past few days, since Saturday, all I can think of is demoina when it rains! It has not been all day every day, but the storm on Saturday started about 4:30pm and finished up finally at around 10pm. But the rain was a steady heavy downpour. Yesterday driving home was the same, and it was quite difficult to actually see where I was going. By the time I had done two trips from creche to car and then from car to house, Iwas drenched! Today it also rained for a couple of hours, but it appears as if we can expect a nice day tomorrow.

Will pop some pics up soon...