Painting, picnics and just a teensy bit of puke...

Sorry! Couldn't resist the alliteration, and it really does describe what we've been up to these past few days.

Rudy is getting better i think.  His temperature is back to normal anyhow and we haven't had any more random nocturnal vomiting, which is a relief.  I'm still none the wiser as to what exactly was wrong with him, just a random collection of symptoms including fever, rash, vomiting, lethargy and with an add-on of oral thrush. Anyway he seems to be on the mend, although still not 100% he's brighter than he was and just as mischievous as ever.


We had a couple of days cooped up indoors on account of not knowing what mystery illness we were dealing with i didn't want to go pootling around Manchester passing it about (plus, i don't know how other folk feel about it, but the idea of my children projectile vomiting out and about makes me nervous) so we stayed home/in the garden and found stuff to do to pass the time, including painting:

It turns out, a highchair may seem like a good idea for painting, being secure and wipe-clean and all, but it also leads the baby to assume he should eat whatever is in front of him...

Toby's "Rainbow" that he painted entirely unprompted, although i have a feeling it may have been inspired by Mr Tumble painting a rainbow on a shed in an episode of "Something Special" we'd watched earlier in the day.  I was very impressed with it nonetheless

I asked him what this one was and he said "Red car and blue car" in a way that suggested it should be obvious

This is his painting of "Night time" :D

Rudy's first ever painting! To recreate this at home you'll need some yellow and blue finger paint and a roller and a whole lot of drool!

I was also provoked (by desperation and whining!) in to actually making toys:

Ok, so i didn't really make toys but it's probably as close as i'll ever get. Pouring some pasta and rice into some empty juice bottles to put a temporary hold on the pre-dinner-whinge that Rudy likes to emit, as if he thinks that whining will actually hurry the process along...like maybe i cook faster to a soundtrack of wailing baby. They've proved very popular though, even Toby was quite taken by them, although my attempts to make them educational totally bombed.  We experimented shaking them..."Which is louder?" i asked, "The pasta?" (Shakes the pasta bottle) "Or the rice?" (shakes the rice bottle).  "Errrm...RICE!" Toby replied.  He also chose rice for "Which is fuller?"and "Which has bigger pieces?" so i'm either aiming way above his understanding or he was being deliberately obstinate or he's obsessed with rice?!

And i finally got a snapshot of Rudy taking some solo steps:

Exciting times. He took about four across the rug earlier in the week and then face-planted on to the edge of the glass TV stand...awesome.  So he has yet another bruise. Sigh.  I'm looking forward to him being a bit more proficient with it so that my poor frazzled nerves get a rest and his beautiful little face can be unblemished/bumped/brusied for a bit (until he discovers climbing maybe?!)

Today we went for a picnic

Taken mere milliseconds before Rudy fell under the bench...

Haha

We had a really nice afternoon.  It was a spur of the moment thing, in reaction to the cooped-up-ness.  Almost as soon as i uttered the word "picnic" the clouds came out but it was warm and dry still and nice to get some fresh air and a little vitamin D ;)

Tonight i'm home alone with the boys as Chris is on a nightshift, and of course, in keeping with Sod's Law Rudy is restless and there's all kinds of strange creakings and rustlings making me jumpy...the house still feels quite new in that regard, i haven't quite got the natural noises of the floorboards etc worked out although with Rudy being such a light sleeper and such a grump when woken, it's pretty paramount that i learn asap so i know which to avoid on my way across the hall!

Speaking of which, bedtime for me now i reckon, not that i ever sleep much when Chris isn't home but it's worth a try...