14 June 2010

The rainy season is upon us, or so the weather pundits have announced. Certainly, the day was very miserable, with light but persistent rain falling throughout; I used my cape while taking Emily out but ended up wet on the inside too, which must have been down to sweat as it did feel somewhat humid though not particularly warm.


We met Lydia and Mia in the morning and returned to the playroom in Akabanebashi. As it was wet there were quite a few kids in there this time. After a while a lady came in to announce that they were holding a crafts session in the next room. Everyone else trooped off there but Emily got quite upset at the thought of leaving the toys and said 'I don't want to do it' so we stayed on our own. Lydia and Mia came in after ten minutes to show us what they were making, and then Emily showed willing so we went too. We had great fun putting beads into bendy plastic piping to make rattles, and also made a pretty hanging plaque that involved using felt pens: something Emily is not usually allowed to get her hands on!


After lunch we went over to Julia's. Emily played with Charlize and a couple of other toddlers who had also called round. I felt a bit fed up as the other two mums there had both also had second babies at the same time as Julia, so there was lots of discussion about juggling babies and toddlers.


We had a bit of a crisis in the night. As Nick and I were preparing to turn in at 11.30 Emily began screaming. She sounded like she was in pain, though at first I had thought she might have had a nightmare. Cuddling her did not stem the tide so eventually we took her out of her room and once in the lights of the living room she calmed down straight away. We went out onto the balcony and she was commenting on the red flashing lights on tall buildings and talking about planes. After a while I took her back and tried to settle her with a few lullabies but then she said that she wanted to go back into the living room and started squealing all over again. We decided to take her into our room and that seemed to appease her, but she refused to lie down and got upset when I said that we were all going to sleep. We asked her if something hurt and she said 'yes' but would not elucidate further. I gave her a dose of Calpol and she quietened down then, but still refused to consider going to sleep. In the end we decided that we had better get her checked out and at one o'clock went out to the main road and flagged down a taxi to the hospital. There were a few people there so we had to wait a short while, then saw a doctor followed soon after by a paediatrician. Neither could find anything of any concern and Emily had been behaving normally ever since the medicine, though groggy with tiredness, so we got a taxi back home and finally all went to bed together at 2.30.