What's the Bucket For?

Last two weeks have been rough. The first week- the week of July 4th, Suhaana's day care lady was out on vacation for the entire week. (I found a new home based montessori for the little girl after her -and my favorite daycare lady moved out of state). 

Raj and I took turns taking some time off from work that week. One of the days when I had a few meetings to attend, the little girl came with me to work, played with my co-workers, made new friends, doodled at meetings, watched Barney on my work computer (that had never known YouTube before), played ball, watched battery operated dinosaurs and monkeys and when she was done, climbed on to her stroller to indicate she was done for the day! 

The week after, just as the weekend was wrapping up, my little baby fell sick. She had some cough, trouble swallowing and  fever. And not to say this wasn't bad already, but the cough made her throat particularly scratchy, which in turn made her particularly likely to throw up. 

The onset of the illness itself was sudden. We had gone with a few friends of ours' and Suhaana's to a children's museum where these kids were having a great time. Suhaana finally ran out of her battery life and decided to recharge with a nap in the stroller. She'd been asleep awhile when suddenly she got up with an itch in her throat. I offered water. Declined. Offered milk. Declined. And then came an enormous fountain of puke! By the time I washed her up and we came back home, the poor baby had fever.

Doctor said its a virus that is affecting the throat. Like tonsillitis. So, treat fever and wait it out. That week Raj and I took turns being at home (he spending more time with her than I). 

Meanwhile the throw up bouts continued. And I've not done that much laundry in a long while. Twice a day all pillow covers, bed sheets, blankets, clothes, towels. We were so tired of it! We were finally began to get wiser when we kept a bucket next to the bed when putting her to sleep, to be used to "catch" the throw-up fountain and save us the trouble and work of another round of laundry. 

So the next night while putting her to bed, Suhaana must have thought it mighty strange when on her slightest hiccup Papa pulled out a bucket from behind the bed and placed it right in front of her with lightening speed. At one moment she was being put to bed, cozy bed sheets tucking her in. In the next second, she's made to sit up, blankets, sheets and pillow thrown away, a bucket staring in front of her! 

I bet, as she was blinking her eyes sleepily she wondered what is the bucket doing here on the bed, and why she's staring into it!!