ever onward

It has been quite a week at Chez Guthrie. I've not been the happiest, or healthiest camper. We have however succeeded in interviewing 5 girls for the baby-sitting job, and there was one very clear leader. I am feeling extremely buoyed by Tunde and her willingness and natural affinity for children. It has been a real weight off my shoulders.

We had the locksmith in this week to replace front-door locks and put Chubb locks on all the sash-windows. A huge job, and an expensive one, but it's a good feeling to know that you've done what's necessary. We registered at a new GP practice and Calvin went for his 2nd round of shots too. I have had a nasty bout of oral thrush (candida albicans) for the last month at least, so it was good to go to the doctor's and get some Nystatin. I haven't had a chance to take it regularly enough, but I'm hoping it'll do the trick. I still have a rotten throat and sinus infection, but I'm guessing it's one of those "viral" ones, that the doctor's can't do anything about. Will go and see one in SA!

Yesterday was our 11th anniversary, and we had the wonderful Tunde here to look after the kids and put them to bed, while Keith and I grabbed some supper and went and saw a show together. It was SUCH a treat... it's been ages since we did something so nice. I think we've just been plodding along since Kelly stopped babysitting, and now I feel like we could get back into the 'regular' thing again.

Lenore has lent us a great book entitled "Getting from NO to YES, without bribing or threatening" - I have started it, but will need to take it with me to SA. It is full of great ideas and suggestions for dealing with child-rearing issues. We are taking a bit of strain with young Zack at the moment.

On Friday we went to Amy's place and saw Ruby, Caitlin, Amy & Trish. Both mums' are almost 39 weeks preggie. Whew! Sadly I didn't have the camera with me, only the vid-cam, so I'll have to upload a little clip of the kids playing together. It was delightful (mostly).

It is now midnight, and Calvin has vomited, and got diarea all in one bang. He hasn't been well since the day of his shots when he started with the upset tummy. Yesterday he vomited a huge amount of milk up, but was fine for the rest. Then again today around noon, he did the same thing again - a huge amount of milk came up (ages after a feed) – and then 'all fine' for the rest of the afternoon. He is looking quite pale, but his breathing is OK and he's still alert. I've decided to put him back to bed and feed him as soon as he wakes up again. Poor little guy - he really isn't well at all :(

V & D

I thought I'd seen pretty much all that a child could 'produce', and then Zack came down with gastro. We suspect it might have been the rota virus, but whatever the diagnosis, it is pretty disgusting. It began with vomiting on Friday night at 10pm and then we had diarrhoea for days on end, which seems to be abating today, finally. Poor little guy has been quite under the weather - subdued and listless. Can you blame him ?

You start getting desperate too. I know that the doctor and hospital will just send us home again because he doesn't have a fever, nor is he dehydrated. They want it to just run its course. So we did that - lots of fluids and monitoring. It isn't easy though. After yesterday I started wondering whether I should slip him an immodium, but the medical profession are dead against that. And then today, it seems to be a improving. He is full of beans and into everything again. Even attempting to walk a bit.

Life goes on tho' : we had a lovely lunch on the Bank Holiday with Frank & Aga, and my friends from the NCT, Amy & Matt, Trish & Shap. Two of Zack's little buddies joined us - Caitlin and Ruby. It was a good afternoon of hanging out without too much stress.

On the upside, Zack has been sleeping through the night over the last week, without waking up. Keith and I are so knackered, we've hardly noticed how much sleep we're getting. It's wonderful ! More of this please.

having a bit of fun on Uncle Frank's shoulders