At least I have a reason now for having such a bad week, see above photo for proof of painful blisters, she has them around her mouth, on her hands, soles of her feet and around her sore bum. Once again we have been visited by the lovely Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease. In case you can’t remember the last time we had an outbreak, go and remind yourselves. I had a week from hell with Amy and then nearly a week after that I got horrible ulcers on my tongue and realised that in fact my child had been infected with a very unpleasant virus rather than just behaving like a rabid ape!

Stella’s behaviour all makes sense now, her dribbling, irritability, lack of appetite and general demeanour. Sigh. Hopefully this time I will escape the plague of painful blisters. I went to the Dr this morning just to confirm my google diagnosis and was advised to keep her and other children at home for a few days. Yes, right, that will work out well. Poor Amy. Mummy is just not enough company for her anymore, she craves other children and craft and scheduled times for activities and fun stuff. I laugh now when I thought that being at home full time with a 2yr9mth old and a new baby would be the hardest six months of my life. Little did I know that that seems like a restful spa holiday in comparison to having Amy at preschool two days a week and the other three days are a riot of trying to find ways to entertain a 1 yr old who wants to jump off things and run away and a nearly 4 yr old who wants to play princesses and pretend to be a fairy.

Its at times like this that I talk to Ron and examine whats going wrong. Ron has been away for three nights in the last two weeks which has meant I have done the breakfast/dinner/bath/bedtime combo on my own for many more nights than I am used to. This combined with not being able to get to my boxing class and just feeling overwhelmed with the amount of parenting I have to do has made me feel a bit depressed. Parenting is relentless, I have said it before and I am sure I will say it again many more times but I guess because I don’t have that “me” thing to balance it against, it becomes overwhelming and unmanageable sometimes. Part of me knows that its only for a few years and then before I know it Amy will be off to school and suddenly I will have way more me-time than I have had in years, which is why I want to try and establish my business sooner rather than later. But that doesn’t help me now when I have a head full of ideas and two children who need me to be present and engaged rather than sitting in front of the laptop. Its all about the balance. Ron is very understanding and so is going to take some flex time off work so we can do some fun stuff as a family starting next week with my birthday.

Any suggestions for cheap and fun days out in Sydney? I was thinking we might go orange picking at one of the farms, then I can make loads of marmalade which makes me happy!