Level 2 Chi Kung.
Katie has had a persistent, and slowly worsening, cough all week. Leading up to the day of the party, I had some anxious moments wondering what the hell I would do if she was too ill to go to school on Wednesday, given that seven sets of parents were expecting me to pick their kids up from school. No matter how clear one is in the invitation about the need to RSVP by email or text, there are always one or two who just say ‘Oh yeah’ at the school gate, leaving you with no way to contact them. In the end, I think Katie stayed on top of it by sheer will but, after a long exciting party and then several hours tearing around the house with Elias (his mum’s flight was delayed), I wasn’t surprised when, having toddled off to bed quite happily, she reappeared an hour later to say that she felt dreadful, oh and by the way, ‘the family bathroom is COVERED in vomit’.
I took the latter with a grain of salt which, in hindsight, turned out to be a mistake. By the time I comforted Katie and got her back into bed, at least an hour must have passed before I investigated the bathroom. This turned out to be enough time for the ’emissions’, which had sprayed all over the door and the outside of the toilet bowl, to set like concrete. Oh joy. Nick, with the perfect timing shared by all members of his gender, came upstairs just as I finished cleaning up.
On account of the 24 hour rule, it was clear that Katie wouldn’t be going to school today, so I let her sleep in and then ran her a nice warm bath. Once she was ensconced in a onesie and warm robe, we decided to make the best of having a day together by trying out some of her presents. First up was a neat game where you have a few seconds to look at a card depicting a scene from a Roald Dahl story, then your opponent rolls a die to determine which question to ask you about the card. Very good for visual memory. We played that for a while, then Katie was keen to try out a painting kit based on Egyptian wall art, which looked like great fun. She seemed to be flagging a bit after that, so I snuggled her up on the sofa and we spent the rest of the afternoon making pom poms. A nice cosy day.