Ethan asleep naked in his bed.

It seems as if Ethan is over the worst of it as his wonderful, talkative, happy personality is back. Hope I haven't spoken too soon. In any case, shortly after playing around the house, we went in the car and went to Kirkby Lonsdale playground to run about. He fell asleep on the way there but I was determined to enjoy the nice weather so got him out of the car. He woke and perked up right away as soon as we got to the park. After a while, he asked for mum mum's which is our chinesey word for food. His nanny introduced it when we were in Taiwan. As is "mum mum nay"- "it's food", or another meaning- "come on, eat up." We got some crisps and snacky things and a plastic tool set and set off back home taking the scenic route. Nope wide awake. Got into the house and he was having a blast playing with his tools. Dad came down to join in. Then we went outside for a bit in the yard to bounce on the toddler trampoline and slide and of course fix everything with his new tools. Using plastic pliers to pull leaves off my plants and flowers- he thought they were gardening shears. LOL. Came in after watering all the plants and got him upstairs for a bath. We played in the bathroom while the tub was filling. Then got him undressed. Then he ran into his bedroom naked. I stayed in the bathroom calling him to come back and he replied "I'm sleeping.. haaa...sshhhh...haaaa...sshhhh" repeatedly. The tub filled, I just sat quietly on the floor folding up laundry,waiti ng until he got curious enough and come and find me.

Silence.

After 5 minutes and not a peep, I went to check on him, his bei bei(blanket) over him, he was fast asleep.

Grabbed a nappy and he was insulted and upset that I would dare disturb his slumber so I grabbed a bin liner and shoved it under the bedsheet just incase he wakes up a bit wet. HAHA. Very cute....

Truth be told, an hour later he woke up pretty upset that he and the bed were quite wet with wee. A quick change of sheets and he was back asleep.

4th day of hand, mouth and foot virus!

Ethan has caught Hand, Mouth and Foot virus not to be confused with the super scary Hand and Foot disease. But in our family, its absolutely the most horrible thing. I want it to go away right now! The first two days were filled with intermittent screaming in pain and body thrashing. We didn't know what was wrong except he had a mouth ulcer and wouldn't touch food and drink. He couldn't suck his thumb and was drooling constantly soaking his tops within 10 minutes. Then a couple of small blisters appeared on his thumb and forefinger. The nights were worse with him waking every hour screaming and thrashing. No amount of consoling, hugging or singing helped. We ended up taking him to the Morecambe Health Centre at 2am. The doctor was excellent and very careful and said it was only a really raw throat and told us to alternate between ibuprofen and paracetemol, We hadn't noticed the blisters at that point. Yesterday, he was still suffering but perked up after some ibuprofen but we still took him to Bentham Health Centre. Dr Sullivan took one look at the blisters and said it was Hand, Foot and Mouth and it will take up to 7-8 days to clear up. It's been going around preschool children and the Dr. has seen 4 cases in the last week or so. Later on, he started drinking more juice and even managed to eat some crisps and chocolate buttons. We went to see Mama and Papa Zee and Papazee suggested some herbal drops- valerian- Hops and Passiflora. This worked wonders yesterday afternoon and Ethan got a much needed and solid rest. It was a bit shocking how well it worked as shortly after having some juice with the drops, within seconds, he was in a deep sleep. He had a few sips of the juice before bedtime as well and managed to sleep for more than 4hr periods waking and wanting juice but not the thrashing. This morning he woke to thrashing tho and threw his juice bottle across the room . Maybe he knows something is in it but the drops are flavorless. We gave him "normal' juice and just let it sit beside him while he watch Cbeebies. The first hour after waking was pretty tough and miserable and everything we offered to do or give him to eat was "Not today!" Then he just suddenly came out of it, asked for juice.He guzzled about a 1/4 of his juice in seconds the wanted snacks (Cheese puffs) and by the time he finished it, he had drank 3/4 of his juice. Pretty considerable amount of liquid as the bottle is almost 3/4 of a litre. He's also managed to eat a banana bread muffin too.Yay! Thank goodness for small wonders! He's been showing his happy normal self and is now making something with playdoh and talking up a storm. YAY!!!!!!! I also noticed a couple of a blister on a couple of his toes. The blisters on his hand and feet don't seem to bother him which is a blessing. Going to go play with him now. C ya!

Pot Fest in the Park

Very cool, very arty and very fun!

July 20th Luke's Birthday

Monday was a fun afternoon as we went to Anne's and Luke's for his 2nd birthday party. Fun was had by all and their tummies were full of good food and yummy cake!

July 18th- Catch the Wind Kite Festival in Morecambe Bay

The day started off with Ethan displaying "Builder's butt". LOL.

When we got there and found parking, Papazee was already setting up to play in a band called "Off the Rails" - quite well known and if you notice, Auntie Anna is playing the flute in the band as well!

You will notice below that there are no pics of the amazing kites at the festival as shortly after the performance, they brought them all down.. boo hoo..

This is the link to see all the kites we didn't get on film... absolutely incredible!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq5Fphgz9WQ But we still managed to enjoy ourselves immensely!

We were extremely impressed with the fantastic playgrounds. Really pushes kids to be more creative and imaginative rather than just up and down and run around. The next step would to make these mandatory for all primary schools in the UK!

Then we went for incredible chinese food and waddled back to the car cuz we were so stuffed!