When Ellis wakes up now, he grabs his clothes and makes a beeline downstairs (we've trained him well in that respect - no fun till dressed). He pounds down the stairs and I wait for the resounding THUD than "WAAAIEEE" as he runs into the door. "I can't open iiiiiiiittttt!" So Cyp usually heads down to open the door so he can run to Granita's room. I'm usually attached to the computer wistfully looking for email and wishing I was still single. I used to think I'm a morning person. I'm not. I try to keep as quiet as a mouse so the kids won't wake up, but of course they do. Rowan almost always wakes up with a sunny attitude - he makes a noise to let us know he's up and we go get him (so he doesn't fall out of our gargantuan bed). There he sits, a big smile lights up his face when he sees us. Then there is Ellis, it is a struggle to get him to do anything in the morning. He wails and flails and is generally horrible. He is also not a morning person. So - the fact that he now runs down to see Granita is like a little respite. Yay. He does Tai Chi with her. It seems to work. Do I have to learn Tai Chi? Do I have to become patient? I probably should try.... It does make me realize that people respond in a much more positive way to someone that is smiling than someone that is not. I keep trying to explain this to Ellis - I will try to keep on it. Granita told me the other day that she was trying to teach him to smile into the mirror. "his mouth has a hard time smiling, but when it does, it's the best smile." He has never been a smiler - remember what we went through when he didn't he didn't start smiling at 6 weeks? Anyway, he was pretty good about heading off to school and I decided that Granita and I could take the bus downtown and do a little tour of the CBD.
We caught the bus - it was easy and right at the foot of our street. We had good timing. We went to the main library where I discovered I had too many kids books out so it was touch and go whether we could take out U is for Undertow (Sue Grafton), but luckily we managed it.
We trekked around downtown and it was too early for lunch so we walked through the City Gardens a bit. Rowan finally fell asleep - it is much easier to walk around these days now that is is cooler. We headed back and went to Little Singapore for lunch. Of course, Rowan woke up almost immediately. I'm still feeding him (what they call nursing here - I was quite confused the first time someone asked me if I was still feeding him - uh, yah) so I nursed him for a bit until our lunch arrived.
He had two bites of rice and then barfed all over himself (phew) and a bit of me. "uh - I guess we'd better go." So I mopped him up a bit, quickly scarfed down the rest of our Hainanese chicken and packed the rest to go. As we looked for our bus stop to get home (bus stops work differently here - they are every block along the main street, but you have to pick the right one - we finally found ours) we did some quick sightseeing. We found our bus stop and luckily we had good timing again and our bus came in 10 minutes. Our driver seemed to be in a bad mood so it was quite the ride home. I agree with her that the drivers in Brizzy are bad, but she was a bit much - slamming on the brakes and horn at the same time and then loudly complaining about the drivers. She had angry issues.
When we got off the bus Rowan spewed all over himself again. Poor guy. Regurgitated cheerios everywhere. Got home, ripped off his clothes, wiped him down and then checked my phone. 5 new messages (I had just checked my phone as we got on the bus). Ellis had thrown up at school. Off I went to get him and Cyp.
There Cyp and Ellis stood - Ellis in his spare school clothes that he has obviously outgrown, holding onto his barf bucket. He seemed quite chipper though - yay, get to leave school early. Cyp decided to come home as it was already 2 and taking the bus would have added an hour to his otherwise 1o minute commute. As we talked about spewing, Ellis spewed some more into his bucket. Sigh. I guess it wasn't food poisoning.
We got home to a Rowan that had progressed to diarrhea, Granita had tried to keep him from moving around but he's a darter these days. Ellis's room smelled like pooh. We threw the kids into the bath (after wiping them down a bit first) and I dealt with the plastic bag full of barfy sheets from school.
Thankfully, Rowan seemed to be done barfing because we had to concentrate on poor Ellis who couldn't seem to stop. Granita sat with him as he watched TV and held the bucket repeatedly. He moved to his bed and looked a horrendous shade of blue and he was a limp noodle. Kinda like our experience at the Great Barfier Reef. I was worried, but was trying to remain calm - I got out the BC Health Book (actually quite handy) which said not to give anything until child has stopped barfing. It was mostly reassuring. Of course, Cyp kept reading and decided Ellis had meningitis. Argh. He did stop barfing around 8 or so and I fell asleep only to wake up at 1 to barf myself. Found Cyp on the couch (also sick) and he then stayed up with Ellis and fed him tablespoons of juice water for the rest of the night while I slept and fed Rowan. When we woke up in the morning we found out Granita had also been up all night. We were a wreck. Actually by morning, the springy kids seemed fine.
Cyp had to take the car in to get assessed (what good timing) and we dragged ourselves around the house waiting for the property managers to come for their quarterly visit (more good timing). When she finally did come at 12:30, Cyp was sleeping in Ellis's bed, Anita was in her bed and the rest of us were in our jammies still and the house looked like a sickhouse. She didn't stay long. The plague, the plague. As soon as the door closed behind her, I was like "ok! nap time." Ellis crawled into his crib (which is sitting unused in the nook off of our room) and Rowan and I crashed into bed where we slept for hours. We woke up for dinner and then crashed again.
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