Gemma not so sick!

Although the medicine tasted like poison, it must be good because she hardly coughed at all last night, thus saving herself a trip to the hospital. Every five hours was torture though; me holding her and pinning her arms, trying to get my finger between her teeth so she couldn't spit it out, trying to somehow get most of the 2ml down her throat and then as quickly as possible using the facecloth to wipe her tongue and teeth. (It's amazing how much 2 mililitres is when you are trying to force it down the throat of a toddler.) She wouldn't drink or eat anything after because everything tastes so bad after that toxic waste in your mouth, but after a few minutes she got over it an carried on. The night time ones were the best, because she is so tired and groggy she can hardly fight and just drifts back off to sleep. My clothes for the day are covered in spots of it, her pyjamas stained...BUT she is better and that is what is the main thing. We'll go for a checkup tomorrow or Tuesday and make sure all is well. (PLease, God, don't let him give us more of that stuff).

It makes my heart just ache for parents of children with something really awful, like cancer. I can't imagine having to send her off in a hospital for chemo, painful to receive and the sickness that goes with it, and side effects, and how long that goes on for. This was only two days, not two months or two years as I'm sure some poor little people suffer for.

Her cough is like a real cough now, not barky. She ate today, too.

In this experience I've spent more nighttime hours awake with her than I have in a long time. She is the cutest sleep mumbler, because her vocabulary is so small and she still speaks only in two or three word phrases, so while she's sleeping she'll just utter single words: cookie, truck, ok, light, etc... Just so random and it that little night voice. It was so cute. Just now she was drifting off to sleep and an ambulance went by and she said, "garbage." Any truck that sings is a garbage truck, something we're working on, but it was so precious.

Also precious, I brought home a kids singalong DVD of Christian classics sung by totally cheesy kids in elastic waistband brightly colored and patterned outfits, bobbing their heads back and forth and moving their mouths so wide (and not with the music) they look ridiculous to anyone over the age of... Well, all the adults thought it was silly. But Gemma LOVES it. And tonight she was in the bath and it was playing in the background, and all of a sudden she starts yelling "No No NO" and I was like 'what the?' but then Chris drew my attention to what the song playing was: This little light of mine. and you know the part Hide it under a bushel? "NO" , well thats what she was yelling. It was so cute. She can also say the "You come down!" part of Zaccheus, pointing up, and Clap your hands, stomp feet and say amen for If you're happy and you know it.

We love to sing!