Madeleine has been home with a fever these past two days — and as much as we’ve tried, we cannot get Emerson to heat up a bottle or change diapers, so when one of the girls is sick it really means that either Richard or I have to be home as well. While staying home from work is often desirable it seems, for whatever reason, that when we’re forced to stay home we want to be at work. Perhaps this just falls in line with the argument that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.
When you’re home with a sick child things can go in the extreme in one direction or another: baby sleeps all day; baby stays awake all day (and cries). Fortunately for me yesterday Madeleine fell into the former. She slept for 1 1/2 hours in the sling in the morning, so I knit. Then she slept for 1 hour in the stroller during a walk, and then for 2 hours in her crib in the afternoon during which time I made dinner and did the laundry. All in all it was a fairly relaxing day.
Today Richard and I split the day with me staying home in the morning. Madeleine was not as sleepy as yesterday, indicating to me that she’s feeling better. She was still pretty cranky and clingy, there were many tears. On the plus side, the weather is gorgeous today… and since her temp. was normal we did a little gardening and then headed to the playground for a bit. It feels strange being at the playground on a weekday morning for a number of reasons:
1. I hardly know anyone there — a lot of new parents & families; the usual crew comes in the afternoons
2. It feels weird being there without Maja. I get the sense that the parents look at me as a ‘newbie’ when in fact this is all old hat to me. I felt like saying to everyone: this is my second. I know what I’m doing!
3. Because I practically lived at the playground the past 2 summers I feel like all these new people are infringing on MY territory. Totally ridiculous, I know, but still I use toddler logic: I HAD IT FIRST!
Madeleine hanging out in the backyard in the morning sunlight. The picnic blanket was made by my mom!
I’ve been fascinated lately about the general proclivity for people to use “even” numbers. It’s all so arbitrary — heating up a cup of coffee for 50 seconds. Why 50? Why not 52? I was thinking about this other day while I was heating up Maja’s milk for 44 seconds. Why 44? Because then I just have to push one button twice, and not move my hand around on the number pad. I know it sounds dumb — but really, who says I have to use 40 or 45?
This brings me to another number related topic that I was talking to Richard about the other day — birthdays. I am a “prime number” baby — I was born on a prime # day in a prime # month in a prime # year. Richard, on the other hand, is a totally even numbered baby in day, month & year. Our children, interestingly, are a mix: Maja has 2 evens and 1 prime; Madeleine has 2 primes and 1 dividable odd.
I wonder if anyone has ever done a study on this with regards to personality types?
I’m feeling exceptionally tired today. I think it’s the sudden onset of warm weather (forecasting 28C today) … and the fact that I was roused at 4:30am by a small child in need of her mama and I never got back to sleep.
Anyway, I am happy to say that my order from Ichibankan arrived yesterday! I totally know I don’t NEED any of this stuff… but it’s so damn cute. The little character bentos (monkey, rabbit, bear) are for Maja & (eventually) Madeleine’s snacks.
At this point I will do anything to get Maja to eat. You don’t believe me that she doesn’t eat? Well, let me say that she had 2 bites of her birthday cake and then decided she didn’t want anymore. This is CAKE we’re talking about!!!
For her birthday Maja also got this bento, the Cinnamaroll character from Hello Kitty! This is the only bento thing I could find in Chinatown (in a store that was dedicated to Hello Kitty gear — it was surreal). We packed her morning snack in this yesterday and she loved it. So, today Richard packed her morning snack in the Monkey bento from above and I packed her afternoon snack in Cinnamaroll. Hopefully she eats it!
My bug turned 3 today. It’s hard to believe that it’s ONLY been 3 years, as she seems like she’s been in our lives for much longer. I couldn’t imagine life without her.
You can see all the photos of the big day HERE.
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