Blanket - GO AWAY!

It's been difficult to keep up to date on things the last week. Kids have been ill and cray cray!

Anyone who has had kids will know it's not all bubbles and glitter. More like bollocks and shitter!

No one really asks for pictures or stories of kids. But all you see online are the Instagram-made ready photos of a super kind and polite kids, holding up perfect balloons, wearing either super clean or super messy clothes, depending on the type of photo that mumsy or daddio are trying to show to the masses today. Kids are super cute and funny, behaving, smiling and doing the cutest things imaginable. I know this because these are the type of photos that I usually post on this super shitty blog. (Look at the past 3 years or so and you will see!) I don't have my kid goggles on, I know what I am - a super proud parent of abnormally normal kids, who for some reason (genetics probably) think that their kids are the bestest wittle bunny wunnies in the whole wide wor-urld! 

Well, you do get a little bit of that from me, but I will also tell it as it is

I know that all kids are also fucking morons and little shits who don't listen, don't clean and actively create the most mess they can possibly make. Now take the average little moron and add a dose of illness, a bit of a cough and the fact that in these ultra-careful days you cannot give any kind of medication to a kid, except for gummy bear and banana-flavoured fruit juice, just in case you make a mistake and accidentally 'overdose them and actually cause them to sleep. 

So that's where we found ourselves last week, on July 3rd. Hannahs's 4th birthday (the official one) out at the cabin at 4.30am with a pitiful little Hannah coughing, feeling hot but not feverish and unable to sleep unless one of us shared her bed. I took the hit and spent a quite pleasant couple of hours in her bed, which was surprisingly comfortable. But the next morning she was hot and bothered and even though we did manage to et her to Kenora for a little bit of shopping, some chips from the chip van and a small play in the local park, she wasn't herself. Then we also got Ollie up after his nap and saw that the small rashes on his legs that we discovered yesterday, has bloomed into what could be described as hideous large patches of melting skin - We decided that we should just take the hit and head off home a day early, so Hannah could rest and so that we could get Ollie to a doctor as soon as possible!

This was the beginning of a hard week.  

That night there were tantrums from a very unhappy girl - Hannah screamed and kicked and refused any help for a large part of the night. This went on for nearly every night that week as she not only got more tired but as her cough got worse too. She did stop feeling so hot after Tuesday night, but it would take the rest of the week for her to recover any semblance of normality and all the while, our tiredness and frustrations grew. We know it was mainly down to being ill and being overtired, but she really was being  a shit at times. Stubbornly refusing any help, ignoring is, shouting, screaming, kicking and throwing off blankets, pillows and clothes randomly, Refusing to eat and then screaming that she was hungry. All while refusing to really sleep of even stay in bed more than 2 minutes before screaming that she was cold, or hot or needed a pee, or a teddy or whatever the hell was in her crazy mind at the time. 

Ollie meanwhile was dealing with his problem quite well. We had taken I'm t oa walk in and been diagnosed with some form of bad eczema, but while at eth walk in his doctor had managed to find us a spot for later that same day, so we went for a 2nd opinion and luckily just before had given him a diaper change, at which point his whole bum and ball area had also become enflamed with the same rotting flesh of the rest of his bottom half. The doctor saw this and told us without any doubt it was Hand, foot and mouth. A virus that created the skin lesions we were seeing and although a minor disease, it was one that is quite easily passed on and can cause blistering of the skin and inside the mouth and on the feet and hands too. Lovely. 

So we went into lockdown for a few days - after being told that we needed to stay safe until he showed signs of recovery - which meant waiting. 

Luckily, the only treatment he needed was a good wash and plenty of moisturisers. So as well as trying to do unhappy Hannah's cream for her face we were now also covering Oliver in 2 or 3 different types of cream depending on where the rashes were! 

By Friday we had all probably a whole night's sleep on the week and things didn't look to be getting better any time soon with Hannah, although Oliver's legs looked like there had been some kind of miracle - The skin was literally peeling off with the moisturising and under was lovely and clean and natural-looking. This weekend was folk fest and Buffy who had had her tickets for months decided to take the kids on Friday on eth bus and see if she could get some life into them. It turned out to be a hard day for her as she ended up alone all day there with two kids who switched almost instantly from grumps to angels back to grumps without notice or reasoning. It was during the day that we received a message from Susan and Jon asking how the kids were and we didn't lie. We told them how things were going and they very generously offered to take the kids for a day over the weekend so we could get some rest. I cannot tell you how much we needed that 23 hours of pure joy and relaxation. 

We dropped H and O off at just before 10 on Saturday and picked them up just after 9 the next day. On that day of rest, we went back to Folk fest ourselves and spent a lovely day relaxing on blankets listening to music and being adults again. The only screams we heard were from the crowd as they egged on the crazy danish Indie ban and the Japanese punk band who played alongside them at the first stage we found ourselves at. We enjoyed the freedom to take a beer anywhere on the festival site for the first time ever and we just loved almost snoozing in the little stages in the forests, before heading home early for a shower and a night without a monitor, knowing that there would not be screams or poops or any kind of tantrum from any room in the house that night. 

We slept well. 

We woke refreshed. 

We picked up the kids and took them back to the folk fest  - for a family day out and it seemed that the break did everyone good. Ollie who is a little hyper at the moment was in great form and Hannah had a great day - with only 1 tantrum - we did crafts in the kid's tent, had ice creams and made hats and wrist bands as well as ending up covered in paint from the kids painting tables.  

It wasn't the best day ever - But the circuit breaker of yesterday had certainly helped us lose some of the built-up stress and we all enjoyed a pretty good day. 

We headed home for a late bedtime and had been telling and asking Hannah all day to try to speak to us and to tell us what she needed instead of just screaming at us  But at 1am we woke to hear Hannah screaming 'Mummy'. We thought it might be another tantrum, but when Buffy went in Hannah spoke just 3 words. 'Blanket', which Buffy got and covered Hannah with. Then ' Go away', which Buffy did. Back to our bed, with a wry smile and a sense of amazement that Hannah had taken our hopeful instructions so literally.  

That was last night and today has been good. Hannah and Ollie were looked after by Mckenna - one of our lovely babysitters and these seemed to have a good day. I came home to find the kids and Buffy playing in the front yard and after dinner, I got to put a fun, happy Hannah to bed. She didn't even lose it when I eventually pulled the plug on books and games just after 8pm and left her to sleep. She is still testy at times, but she is 4 years old and discovering how she will deal with herself and authority in this big old world. 

Oliver is also doing great - He just has sooooooo much energy at the moment and is into everything  - It would be hard to look after him on his own with the amount of energy he currently has. Leave home for 2 seconds and he is on a table or up the stairs!

The weekend was great though - We all feel a lot like we are back on track after a hard week. We worried late last week that we were losing control of Hannah, but it seems that she really was just getting over the illness and tiredness and combined with her birthday and just growing up, she also had a hard week. I tell you what though, our kids really are the bestest wittle bunny wunnies in the whole wide wor-urld! So here's some really cutesy photos and stuff of them in the past week or so - including horrid photos of the Ollie miracle virus, which has now gone and one of me and dollie!