stay-home sunday
I'm shattered after a night's worth of multiple wakings - several times from Bao and once from The Bun. Bao must be feeling really uncomfortable (teeth? rash?) because she was inconsolable and throwing things out of the crib, like her pacifier and her duck. If I had the audacity to pick them up and return them to her she would scream even more and then throw them out again. Frankly I can't even remember how I comforted her or got her to go back to sleep. I probably sat in bed and waited for her screams to die down. I hope tonight's a better one.
Bao's rash on Day 2 looks pretty bad, especially all over her face. Her skin is sensitive to begin with so even though the roseola rash isn't supposed to be itchy, the skin on her face looks a little inflamed. Poor kid. She's cranky and clingy and for some reason I'm flavour of the moment when it's usually her father. She screeches 'Mummmeeee!' loud and clear and does a koala thing on my shoulder. I hope we can get an appointment to see the doctor tomorrow just to get her rash looked at. Although it does look like roseola, she got a chicken pox vaccine on Wednesday so who knows what sort of reaction that triggered.
La Bise has been howling madly for the last two days and according to my weather app the wind gusts have speeds of 52km/h, which is not that unbelievable if you can hear the glass in the doors rattling and the wind screaming outside. It's also back to being cold - this morning it was abut 3ºC with the windchill and The Bun and I got our fuzzy indoor slippers out to wear again. Bao usually sleeps in a romper with a long-sleeved fleece footed pyjama layered over it, but it was so cold last night that I dug out her sleepsack in the middle of the night and basically forced her into it. She hates being in a sleepsack but there's no way she'd keep a blanket on, the way she rolls around the crib in her sleep.
So with her crankier than usual disposition and her red rash all over her face, I declared today stay-home Sunday for Bao. After breakfast I took The Bun with me to get groceries at two of the small French supermarkets that are open on Sunday mornings. I made moules mariniere with tagliatelle for lunch and then followed that by experimenting with homemade curry puffs in the airfryer. I cheated with the filling since I wasn't too sure how they were going to turn out - it was just diced and boiled potatoes mixed with a store-bought tikka masala sauce wrapped in a pre-made pâte brisée (i.e. shortcrust pastry) dough. They turned out all right in the end; I need to work on my wrapping skills and I haven't quite got the temperature in the airfryer right, but the puffs were decent enough and worth a few more tries.
It was then my turn to babysit Bao while J took The Bun out to a garden centre in St. Genis (also in France - I think we spend at least 50% of our time across the border) to check out the plants and fish. It's one of the few places open on Sundays and J reports that it's worth the short drive over because there's plenty enough to distract the kids while we have a browse around. They came home a small pot of kalanchoe, which is supposedly fuss-free and easy to grow, so hopefully this one lives a long and happy life with us and our brown thumbs.
While they were gone I let Bao experiment with painting (note to self: let toddler paint only when her skin is not rashy and she is reluctant to let you clean her face), prepped for dinner, and sorted the laundry.
So that was my pretty unexciting Sunday, but I was kept well busy enough. There's plenty of work to do when you're cooking and cleaning nonstop, and before you know it the day's almost over. The Bun seemed to enjoy his one-on-one time with each of his parents today - they may have been mundane outings but I guess the point is for him to have some undivided attention for once. I hope Bao gets well soon because I know she's bored at home and it will drive us both up the wall to be stuck indoors for the rest of the week. If it really is roseola then she's not contagious anymore, but with the state of the skin on her face I don't think people would be too friendly towards her.
Bao's rash on Day 2 looks pretty bad, especially all over her face. Her skin is sensitive to begin with so even though the roseola rash isn't supposed to be itchy, the skin on her face looks a little inflamed. Poor kid. She's cranky and clingy and for some reason I'm flavour of the moment when it's usually her father. She screeches 'Mummmeeee!' loud and clear and does a koala thing on my shoulder. I hope we can get an appointment to see the doctor tomorrow just to get her rash looked at. Although it does look like roseola, she got a chicken pox vaccine on Wednesday so who knows what sort of reaction that triggered.
La Bise has been howling madly for the last two days and according to my weather app the wind gusts have speeds of 52km/h, which is not that unbelievable if you can hear the glass in the doors rattling and the wind screaming outside. It's also back to being cold - this morning it was abut 3ºC with the windchill and The Bun and I got our fuzzy indoor slippers out to wear again. Bao usually sleeps in a romper with a long-sleeved fleece footed pyjama layered over it, but it was so cold last night that I dug out her sleepsack in the middle of the night and basically forced her into it. She hates being in a sleepsack but there's no way she'd keep a blanket on, the way she rolls around the crib in her sleep.
So with her crankier than usual disposition and her red rash all over her face, I declared today stay-home Sunday for Bao. After breakfast I took The Bun with me to get groceries at two of the small French supermarkets that are open on Sunday mornings. I made moules mariniere with tagliatelle for lunch and then followed that by experimenting with homemade curry puffs in the airfryer. I cheated with the filling since I wasn't too sure how they were going to turn out - it was just diced and boiled potatoes mixed with a store-bought tikka masala sauce wrapped in a pre-made pâte brisée (i.e. shortcrust pastry) dough. They turned out all right in the end; I need to work on my wrapping skills and I haven't quite got the temperature in the airfryer right, but the puffs were decent enough and worth a few more tries.
It was then my turn to babysit Bao while J took The Bun out to a garden centre in St. Genis (also in France - I think we spend at least 50% of our time across the border) to check out the plants and fish. It's one of the few places open on Sundays and J reports that it's worth the short drive over because there's plenty enough to distract the kids while we have a browse around. They came home a small pot of kalanchoe, which is supposedly fuss-free and easy to grow, so hopefully this one lives a long and happy life with us and our brown thumbs.
While they were gone I let Bao experiment with painting (note to self: let toddler paint only when her skin is not rashy and she is reluctant to let you clean her face), prepped for dinner, and sorted the laundry.
So that was my pretty unexciting Sunday, but I was kept well busy enough. There's plenty of work to do when you're cooking and cleaning nonstop, and before you know it the day's almost over. The Bun seemed to enjoy his one-on-one time with each of his parents today - they may have been mundane outings but I guess the point is for him to have some undivided attention for once. I hope Bao gets well soon because I know she's bored at home and it will drive us both up the wall to be stuck indoors for the rest of the week. If it really is roseola then she's not contagious anymore, but with the state of the skin on her face I don't think people would be too friendly towards her.