Under the Weather

We've spent the past week up to our eyeballs in used kleenex and bottles of infant tylenol. A nasty virus that caused four straight days of fever for Penelope and several days of missed work for her parents made for not such an enjoyable week for this little family.

Fortunately, Penelope is quite a good little patient when she's sick. Her desire to be held and snuggled and doze on our chest took us back to those precious days of her early infancy which now seem so long ago. Penelope was even good for her visit to the doctor. She proudly sported her Dora sticker (which I referred to as "the girl" since I'm still not ready to embrace all those kiddie cartoons which I find quite annoying). I caught her patting it periodically throughout the day just to make sure it was still there.

Penelope also used this weak moment to convince me to buy her a couple of new toys. Sick children must have some special power over me, because somehow I came home with this singing farm animal toy--this after swearing that I'd never purchase a tacky plastic music-blaring toy. But we were all thankful for the entertainment qualities of this toy after a long week cooped up inside the house. One press of the button, and Penelope was instantly hosting a hoe-down in our kitchen--fever or not.

Penelope didn't have much of an appetite while she was sick, but she did show quite an interest in gnawing on her new set of pretend food.

Being sick didn't keep Penelope from learning some new things. After I got out my doll from when I was little, wrapped her in a blanket and said "Ssh! The baby is sleeping," Penelope started telling anything that resembled a baby "SSSSHHH!

The only problem is that she doesn't have very good control over where her finger lands. Most of the time, it went straight up her snot-filled nose. A few times, she got really off track.

"Whoops!"

"Go to sleep baby!"

Thankfully, Penelope was fever-free and mostly back to normal today. So we took off for our weekly trip to the Durham Farmer's Market. After picking out some of our favorite fresh veggies, we enjoyed a breakfast picnic on the grass close to a group of local musicians. While we munched on blueberry muffins, Penelope made a bee-line for the music. After eyeing the toy piano for several minutes, Penelope made a lunge for it.

Then Penelope used her new-found instrument to round up a few more kids and really got the party going.

 She even organized a drum line.

And preformed a drum solo.

That is when we knew that Penelope had truly bounced back from her illness.