Panadol, the park and the kindness of strangers

Our day involved all three. Panadol, because poor Little E's three day respite from the dreaded teething is over, and the latest lot are making her incredibly miserable. I took her to see Mum and Grandma in the morning while I went to the gym, and she was reportedly happy whilst she was there. She was tired and ready for lunch by the time I got back, but refused to eat much of her scrambled egg. It is a bad day when E won't eat scrambled egg! So we loaded her into the car, and she initially looked as though she might fall asleep, which would have been fine, seeing as Mummy is now the master of the car to bed transfer. This lasted for all of about 30 seconds. For the rest of the ride home she screamed. The magic Tchaikovsky CD that usually stops her mid-roar did nothing. She howled, with her little fist jammed in her mouth, for 15 minutes solidly. About two minutes from home she abruptly stopped, and about 30 seconds later she was asleep. We drove around the block to make sure, then the master of the car to bed transfer executed another smooth maneouvre, unloaded a ridiculously enormous load of shopping from the car, and had 90 minutes of peace.

The peace ended at about 2pm when E woke up, still very unhappy. More crying, more finger sucking, more crying. So much crying that she didn't want to take Panadol, which she normally thinks is a pretty good lark. I walked, and patted, and sang, and distracted, and dispensed banana (for which the roaring stopped briefly, then resumed). She stood in the laundry and wobbled and sobbed whilst I went to the toilet. Eventually we sat on the couch, and whilst her head was thrown back and mouth open mid-scream, I squirted Panadol down it.

Then off we went to the park. She wasn't very happy about getting in the pram but once I bribed her with a rice biscuit she let me strap her in; when we started moving she seemed ok, and by the time we got to the park she was calm. At the park she seemed happy enough. Mummy had a pounding headache probably because she forgot to drink any water during or immediately after her first gym session in, oh, about 20 months. Fortunately the magic Panadol had done its thing and whilst Mummy sat there feeling relieved the screaming was done with, E pottered under the play equipment, examined leaves and gumnuts, stared at the big kids and staggered around banging on the slide.

At one point she got into my bag and discovered her absolutely favourite toy, my wallet. I have got into the bad habit of letting her play with it, and she will be quite absorbed for 10 or 15 minutes at a time opening and shutting it and pulling all the cards out. We then went home, but seemingly my wallet stayed at the park for a little holiday.

Which brings me to the third theme of the day, the kindness of strangers, namely the Mum of the big kids who was at the park, found my wallet, and figured out my phone number by calling the physiotherapist whose receipt was amongst the other junk I cart around. I wouldn't normally want health professionals to hand out our unlisted phone number, but this time I am grateful she did!

So there you go. A bit of a crummy day really, but with a hopeful note to end it, particularly given how much hassle it would have been to replace two credit cards, a debit card, a driver's license, and the grand sum of $6 in coins! Here's extending the hope for a good night.