So Millie tried to do me over good and proper this week when she had a bit of a temperature the other night and I gave her some calpol before bed and a glass of water. By the morning she came into the bathroom to greet me getting dressed and she looked like an Egyptian Mummy; voice deep and croaky, eyes gaunt and pale and limbs limp and heavy as she edged her way slowly into the bathroom groaning with the effort. I took one look at her and thought wow this child is barely conscious somebody call an ambulance! I told her there was no way she could go to school like that and she should return to bed whilst I fetch her some more calpol and a cool drink, and by the time I came back up from the kitchen’s medicine cupboard she was bouncing on the bed and talking and looking absolutely fine – all in the space of two minutes! The cheeky so-and-so! And I have to confess I took great pride in Sherlock Holmesing her deception and outing her fakery. The look on her face when I told her to put on her school uniform and hurry downstairs for breakfast was absolutely priceless. At just five years old she gave such an Oscar winning performance, I have no idea how I’m going to call her bluff when she’s a teenager. Over breakfast we had a little chat about the boy who cried wolf and I reminded her how important it was to be truthful and get a good education. It turned out she wanted the day off a school to play Connect4 that we’d bought her at the weekend so she thought she’d pull a sicky but we caught her out. One-nil to Mummy Millie. 🙂
Fast-forward four days and she had to stay home from school as both her and Gabriele have terrible colds, a high temperature and tiredness… Do I still feel like I’ve won? No, my poor babies. But I guess when she first tried to skive off of school she wasn’t bad at all, but after a few more days the bug took hold and took both the children down with it. There’s been snotty noses, sneezing, coughing, groaning, cuddles, snuggles, tears and tantrums and all I can do is be there and try to soothe them both through it. Seeing your babies sick and being entirely helpless to take away their discomfort is awful. I’d give anything to be ill for them so that they don’t have to, and as I’m writing this I’ve had to clear my rasping throat twice already, so I suspect the direct hit with a face-full of baby sneeze that I got the other day is probably taking affect on me right now.
Aside from Gabriele being ill, he is still resisting bedtime and getting himself worked up and over-tired come each evening. His teeth are playing him up, he’s pooing for England despite being on solids, and he’s feeling very poorly and sorry for himself this week bless him. But he loves to get his hands onto anything that we eat, and as we were snuggled on the sofa last night eating fruit whilst sitting him on our lap, Gabriele opened his mouth wide, tilted his head back like a little bird and held his hands out. So I cut him a piece of cool melon and he perched on Luca’s lap and dribbled and chewed and dripped everywhere, like father like son!
Luca And Gabriele Sharing A Melon
As Gabriele will be a year old in just over five weeks I’d really hoped that he would grow out of this unsettled routine by now. I’ve searched for help and advice online and found nothing, if anything it’s shown me that this kind of behaviour can continue well into toddling years which makes my hair threaten to turn grey and fall out just thinking about it. It’s crazy how our two children can be so opposite; Millie did and has always slept beautifully, but Gabriele has always resisted and fought tiredness. Perhaps as he grows he’ll learn to love his bed just like Luca who I have to prize out of it every morning when the alarm goes. Or maybe he will take after me and be a complete insomniac, unable to switch off mentally and relax. I pray that it’s not a hyperactivity disorder that he has, but I guess only time will tell. He’s such a good little boy, he just hates the thought of sleeping. Have you experienced the same with your children?
