One very happy beneficiary

Of a lovely box of chocolates for my birthday, which was doubly welcome as I originally thought would treat myself to the same but compromised much more cheaply on a mid- to pricey bar from the supermarket.

Arctic winds

But at least there was sunshine so we got out to the playground for a bit.

Izzy approves

Of the ice-cream selection at my birthday lunch.

Yesss!

Geek daddy and daughter play some bubble game on the little laptop.

Izzy in her snazzy new shirt

Why is it, do you think?

A man working from home, who doesn't have time to do any of the dishes from his meals throughout the day, would think his wife, working from home AND taking care of their daughter AND preparing dinner for everyone, would have time to arrange and attend a viewing of a house the same day?

What a week

Straight after Halloween last Friday and Boo's birthday party on Saturday, which knocked me for six in themselves, our young lady picked up a stomach bug and now has the sniffles like 95% of all the children in the country I think. Worse, she gave Alex and I the stomach bug. The full effects hit me Tuesday morning, and Alex Tuesday mid-day.

Poor man. Was quite cross that he came back really late (as usual) on Monday night as I'd started to feel quite tired and achy all over by 7pm, while Izzy was obviously on her way to recovery and quite boisterous in two-hour spurts. The whole night I ached and tossed and turned in sleep. So when I woke up Tuesday morning and spewed, I left him entirely to look after her and slept until 4pm.

Then I came downstairs to find him poleaxed on the floor, shivering under a duvet. He said he'd felt a bit ropey in the morning but it wasn't until lunchtime that he really suddenly felt he couldn't stand up anymore. Izzy behaved quite well, he said, when told Daddy was poorly too, and needed to sleep. Except she would come over every 10 minutes or so, kick him and scold, "Daddy! Stop snoring!"

I was looking up "rotavirus" on Google and came across some health website that said it could cause diarrhoea up to 20 times a day in children, "which is distressing for parents as well as the child". Talk about understatement! It made me laugh out loud. Boo fortunately only had the runs at worse three or four times Sunday - it worried me more that she was emptying her stomach every half hour or so between 1.30 and 4.30am - but at least it then went on to note that as distressing as the diarrhoea was, the laundry that it necessitates "can be very exhausting". Too. Damn. Right. What the heck did people do before washing machines? I shudder to think.

I'm still not sure whether to put down Alex's tentative suggestion on Tuesday - that we perhaps wander out for Bonfire night if she was alright - to ambition, delusion or obviously not doing enough of the housework. Then had a few days of panic wondering if we'd poisoned all of Izzy's little buddies at the party but, fortunately have since found out no other child had a dodgy stomach and so it must be a blinking bug rather than something we ate.

Night before last was another scare as she went to bed complaining of ear-ache; then kept whining to go to the toilet and saying the lights were "too bright, too bright!" everytime we took her there. A 40-minute wait at the GP's office later on Thursday though, the GP confirmed she had a sore throat but no ear infection, thank goodness.

And, all things considered, given that I rather foolishly agreed to have her at home today to keep an eye on her while I tried (partially successfully) to read several documents for work, she's been quite well behaved. Especially since our TV cable box died. Fortunately she hasn't seen her Pocoyo DVDs in a while and children's TV websites have proved quite a lifesaver (see picture below).

Now I am only hoping the sniffles are not the same thing that knocked out two colleagues for four or five days each. They are the kind of colleagues who normally have to be dragged kicking and screaming from their desks.

On the plus side we took some nice pictures and when we get round to installing the (replaced) camera software on our (replaced) laptop, will get round to posting them. Finally! An end to the very blurry pictures our mobile phones produce.

This weekend we'll be seeing Aunty Elaine and Uncle Vik. And I'm really sorry to say the memory of this little elephant is very much intact. On being informed we were visiting people on Sunday, immediately on hearing it was Aunty Elaine, her face clouded over ...

"But not Uncle Vik?" she asked.

"Yes, Uncle Vik too," I said.

"But he pinches..."

Elephant. Memory of.

Jelly for tea

Only three more packets to use up from the party.

Her father's daughter

Some of Izzy's cupcake decorations

I think they have a certain anarchic quality that makes up for the flood of pink.

The invalid

Poor Izzy - don't know what she's eaten but she spent most of last night vomiting and the most of this morning with the runs. I think you can guess how bad it's been when I say we've only staggered out of bed and it's almost 1pm. Fortunately she appears on the mend and has a tonne of presents to amuse her. Am really worried now in case we've poisoned any of her little friends as well with something at the party.

Party time

Izzy is spending her first night at a sleepover which gives us loads me free time - bless the parents who suggested it - to get food ready for her party tomorrow. These are the better looking cupcakes I've made so far. Overloaded the first tray so they came out misshapen but at least now I have enough good looking ones to form their birthday cake stack. Only the fruit salad, sandwiches and chicken drumsticks to go. Alex came back from a training course today and fell asleep on the sofa after insisting he could help. Well there's always the washing up.