The Easter Hols

This January Percy started getting his free term time nursery hours, which has made parenting a lot easier, until the holidays come and you suddenly realised you are not mentally prepared for looking after both of them. On the first day of the holidays I had a lovely moment where me and the boys along with 2 other families were sitting in the sun on the roof of the central library having a picnic. If you didn't know... it's a roof terrace with a lift. When I told Percy we were going on the roof he asked me if I'd brought a ladder. Anyway the point is we had a lot of fun and I was glad that my main job for the moment is parenting.

On Saturday I'd got home from A & E in the very early hours of the morning to then be sicked on by baby Eric in a wedding... Parenting was not my favourite past time that day.

I don't have a picture of Eric puking at the wedding so here's one of him looking adorable in a ball pool instead.

In between the nice day on the rooftop and the puking incident we'd had a few days staying with my parents and a few days staying on the Welsh borders.

We stayed with some of Dan's family in a house that was a shrine to magnolia textured wallpaper, much like my own house. It had NO WI-FI. For the first time in ages I read a book! (It was the autobiography of the Queen of Jordan, she is a actually a really cool lady. If a history of the Middle East would be a bit to academic for you and a love story would be a bit mushy for you, then I would recommend her book, it's a nice half way house.)

We also made use of our National Trust pass and went to visit Chirk Castle. Avid readers of my blog might be thinking "didn't you once say the National Trust was an evil organisation because all their properties are built on slavery, and if you are a member then you support racism and slavery?" ....well yes I did say that, but the National Trust pass was a lovely gift from our very generous friends, so lets not mention the slavery right now.

On the last night Eric got a bit ill, he was really hot in the night and then in the morning one eye looked red, like he'd been punched in the face. He seemed happy enough though. We made an afternoon doctors appointment in Liverpool and took a leisurely drive back. Dan took him to the doctors while I unpacked, and then I got a call from him saying "we have to take him to A & E they've phoned ahead so they will be expecting him." 

Having been to Alder Hey kids hospital a few times before when Percy was at this age, I know to pack well. Maybe this makes me a terrible person, but we didn't rush him in straight away. We had tea and I packed a bag with everything we could possibly need. Having two children makes hospital trips a lot more complicated. Even if our lodger was in to mind Percy, Dan still couldn't have visited because I had the car, and I had to be the one with Eric because he still refuses a bottle.

I got in to Alder Hey sometime before 6pm and then waited over 3 hours in the big waiting room. It was quite nice and sociable at first, like going to a parent and baby group where you're all just having a nice friendly chat. I mainly spoke to a 3 year old girl with a possible head injury, and her parents, who were lovely. After she was discharged she came back because she wanted to say bye to baby Eric. After that Eric got really cranky because it was past his bed time. I wanted to try and get him to sleep but I was worried that if I did that I'd immediately be called through. I finally got through to a different bit that was still A & E but with a cot bed and a curtain, but still didn't see a doctor for another 3 hours. That time was a bit more chilled though. 

I managed to get Eric to sleep

and then I made myself this bed... Later on a healthcare assistant brought me a pillow and blanket

Then finally, a bit before midnight the doctors came to see Eric, and confirm that he did have an eye infection, which everyone knew from the start, and that he didn't need the more aggressive IV antibiotics just some normal medicine antibiotics, which I kind of knew from just looking at Eric and seeing he was fine. I'm sure the GP could have given him this but just wanted to be on the safe side.

12 hours after arriving home Eric was happily sitting in a wedding puking that medicine all over mummy. Oh the joys.

Here's a little happy ending though... I went to the baby group I go to every Monday today and guess who was there? The 3 year old girl from A & E. She goes every week with a childminder and I've never spoken to her or noticed her before, she was really happy to see Eric again and I got to introduce her to Percy too.