Observations of a Couch Potato

The good news is that Elaina had a quiet, restful night. Mommy on the other hand, slept only lightly and minimally since I made the decision to leave Elaina in her own room while being sick. My initial thought was to bring her princess pull out bed upstairs, next to my bed so that I could be within reach of her. My second, more practical thought, was to leave Elaina in her crib to guarantee her comfort and security, knowing that if there was to be a vomiting incident overnight, I would surely hear her cry. She's big enough and old enough now that she would be awakened by something such as that. I just know my kid.

By the morning, she seemed obviously better, yet worn out and groggy. Typical flu symptoms. Her temperature ran between 99 and 100 degrees most of the day and her activity level seemed to improve as the day progressed. She enjoyed her first meal in nearly 18 hours of oyster crackers. To her, that was a meal. I wanted to start her back slowly into eating until I was able to gauge how her body would handle food intake. With a successful breakfast under her belt, we moved onto some play time.

Since the temperature was a breezy 60 degrees, I dressed her warmly enough and we even went for a stroller ride! She was eager to get out of the house and I thought the fresh air would do us both some good. Elaina was hilarious! She pointed out every single doggy, kitty, slide, swing, car and truck she saw. Strangely, she pointed to the post office and said, "mail." How does she know that?

These are just a few highlights of my day at home with my sickly, little sweetie.

* Elaina was playing with her babydoll and grabbed the doll's feet to her nose and said, "Boooo. Stinkee feet." Much in the same manner her daddy does to her and she giggles like a loon.

* She has begun to tickle back! I use a single finger to creep under her chin or under her arm and her belly and she eagerly laughs with anticipation when she sees the "Tickler" coming after her. She squeals with laughter once the Tickler is upon her. She has decided that she can now tickle back. She comes up to my legs (since they are her eye level) and squeals, "Tick-cole!" as she moves her fingers about my legs.

* Elaina loves to play games on the computer. We watched blog videos of her and then Colin and then Isaac over and over and over.... (We're waiting for a Wesley video!) We were finally able to move onto Noggin! The child loves Noggin music videos from the website and the games from Sesame Street and Fisher Price (dot com.) They mostly consist of keypad hide and go seek and letter and number counts. So very cute!

* Lastly, it was just interesting for me to watch Elaina play. Just in the manner that she wandered through the living room, scoping out her toys making up her mind as to what activity would suit her for the moment. (i.e.-- From the mind of Elaina: " Would it be more fun to dump my crayons all over the floor or should I just stick with scattering all of my coloring pages on the floor and stomp on and roll in them? Would it be more fun for mommy to clean up splattered water from my sippy cup or should I just press the cracker crumbs into the carpet? Maybe I should scream out loud and pout for a binky for each hand and my mouth, rather than be satisfied with the one I already have.)

God I love that girl!