33 degrees!

Blimey it's been hot today!

The thermometre hit 33 degrees at about midday and it really has only just started to cool down in the last hour... phew! My sister (in the UK) says it's around 4 degrees, with a wind chill of -2 there at the moment, with occasional snow. That just makes it feel even hotter here!

So, we spent most of today in and around the paddling pool. What a joy. Molly loves it and has started to crawl around in it, rather then try to walk (which is always slightly nerve wracking) and was having the best time. Molly's little friend Eva was here too, much fun was had by all.

Of course, I have to get in with her, she's only little and the pool is very big. It was a Christmas present from Nan (one of far, far too many!), so we were under instruction to buy her one that would grow with her. It's about 2 metres long and 1/2 metre high. Obviously we only fill it a couple of inches, but a teeny tot like her could get scared in there all on her own. Plus, it's just too hard to resist in this kind of heat - and was much appreciated by Eva's heavily pregnant Mum too!

So, let the sun keep on shining, and we'll keep on swimming in the garden. Woo hoo!!

'Just remember...

that you're standing on a planet that's evolving & revolving at 9 hundred miles an hour...'

OK, that should help, I thought if I wrote it down I might be able to get this bloody song out of my head! Since watching 'The Meaning of Life' last weekend it's been stuck there and nothing, not even three days of Molly screaming has shifted it so far, so on the advice of a psychologist friend of mine (very handy!) I'm writing it down and expelling it from my brain.

'Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars. It's a hundred thousand light years side to side...'

So, after reading Domestic Goddesses comments on my last entry, I realised that I seem to have forgotten to inform you all that our little cherub is crawling, and unfortunately seems keen on the whole walking thing too, pulling herself up on anything that isn't moving and taking every opportunity to walk once supported by either myself, Daddy or Nana. Oh My God! I wasn't ready for this, and certainly not as rapidly as she seems to be taking to it!!

'The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding. In all of the directions it can whizz...'

The week before Mum arrived she'd been doing some serious rocking and on one occasion took a couple of 'arm steps' towards the cat but then feel on her face and seemed to put herself off. Then Mum arrived and she started to move her arms and bunny hop her legs up to meet them, which was pretty slow going (excellent, we thought!). And then, seemingly overnight, she was off, legs and arms going in unison, terrifying the cat - and me - and going through the house like a little rocket. Nothing at ground level was safe... and now she's up to knee level already! There's no hiding the remote control on the couch anymore, she's up and grabbing at everything. As a friend of ours so eloquently put it 'they're rooted now!'.

'So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure, How amazingly unlikely is your birth'

So, this weekend we will be mostly child-proofing our house. The saw can no longer live in the cupboard under the sink and the circular saw will really have to go out to the garage (finally!). Next step, new carpets. Woo hoo!

'And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space, 'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth.'

Phew! Thank goodness that's over...

So, it's been an eventful few days at our place, and not always in a good way!

Mum is still here, hooray! and it looks like she's going to extend her visit with us for another couple of weeks until the middle of March, which we couldn't be happier about! My younger sister is available to take care of the family dog and so there is no rush for Mum to get home. Hubby and I are under no delusions that this has very little to do with us and is all about Moomy. But who cares, it's all good, the longer she stays the better! And that's the good bit.

The bad bit is that Molly has been really sick for the first time, and it was bloody awful, terrifying, exhausting and God am I glad it's over now. If possible I would like this to be her last illness until she's a big girl and can tell me what's wrong, rather then the 'hit and miss', guess work that took place this time. I wasn't prepared for the helplessness that comes hand-in-hand with a sick child, when you can't fix the problem for them and you can't explain to them what's happening either.

We went to Hanmer for the weekend, another trip for Molly and she wasn't doing so well this time, a bit grizzly and cross. We put it down to teething, she was (and still is) dribbling like a leaky bucket. Friday night she woke crying every hour on the hour. The next day she tried to be her normal chirpy self but you could see it was an effort, she didn't really eat and was tired, so we gave her paracetamol before bed on Saturday night. She was even worse, and was awake more then she was asleep.

Sunday morning we'd planned to go and do some go-karting or quad biking or something (treat from Mum), but instead I called the shots - over-protective Mummy, I thought at the time - and we came home. She slept most of the way home but when we got here she was burning up. I checked her temperature and she was 38.9 degrees, after calling the Plunket helpline it had shot up to 39.4 degrees and off we went - at high speed ('slow down, darling!' was the most we said to each other) to the After Hours Clinic. Thankfully, the Doctor didn't make me feel like an over anxious first-time Mum, and after a thorough checking over told us that Molly had an inflamed throat and ears, it was probably a viral infection. He prescribed Brufen to bring down the inflammation and lower her temperature quickly.

Excellent, so she's not in fact dying, (stupid I know, but it went through my head!) and once we could persuade her to take the vile tasting medicine - not easy with an already cross little girl! - she almost immediately began to improve. By the time we'd got back to our place she was sleeping peacefully - not the jumpy, whimpery sleep she had been having - and her temperature was dropping. Phew!

She's really on the mend now, her smiles are back and she's tearing round the house like a rocket again. Oh yeah, forgot to mention that she's crawling properly now, in the midst of all this angst she started to really crawl, really, really fast! and climb furniture too, the fun never stops in our house!

Family...

What a joy! My mum is here and its wonderful. I apologise for the lack of entries in my blog just recently, but we're having too much fun, chatting, playing with Molly and generally wasting hours and days just catching up - 7 months is a long time to miss someone, and Molly and I have been missing Mum/Nana big time!

So, she's been here a week and we've been travelling already. Last weekend we went West, to Punakaiki to visit the Pancake Rocks and the gorgeous coastline - fabulous. And then on to the Buller Gorge, so hubby and Mum could 'Superman' over the river. I had to hold the baby (phew!) and the swingbridge was quite enough for me, it's apparently the longest in NZ and it certainly did swing! We had the best time and the weather was great, but oh my God the sandflies... I'm still scratching now, thank goodness they didn't seem too keen on Moomer, she could have been eaten alive and consequently even more grumpy then she is now (still teething).

Molly was wonderful, such a good girl, considering this was really the first time we've taken her away (a weekend in Hanmer when she was tiny doesn't really count, she was still sleeping in her pram and so didn't really know any difference). She coped really well with the travelling, and even managed to sleep for a couple of 2 hours stretches on Sunday, which would amaze me at home, let alone in the car (with Nana in the back with her, which is just too exciting for her most of the time!).

And a good time was had by all. The pic is of us at the Pancake Rocks in Punakaiki, what an awesome place!