R Has Pneumonia

R watching TV with a 104 degree fever

I got a diagnosis for R today: mycoplasma, aka walking pneumonia. We all have to take antibiotics, as I probably have it too (though I didn't get the blood test necessary for a definite diagnosis). This explains why I have been feeling so exhausted and generally awful for the last few weeks!

The doctor expects that she will be better by early next week, once the antibiotics start working. I certainly hope so, as life has been really dull around here lately.

R doesn't like it either: she cried and cried yesterday because she wanted to go to school, and couldn't. She also misses seeing other children (she was ecstatic at the doctor's office because there were some there!).

I relaxed the rules about TV, and she has been watching hours of videos (though because I have very strict personal standards about what she can watch, and toddlers tend towards obsessive behavior, it's mostly either Kiki's Delivery Service or My Neighbor Totoro over and over and over).

My Neighbor Totoro (I owned the stuffed Totoro pre-R)

Watching Kiki's Delivery Service, stuffed Jiji in hand (she likes to get him out to tell me what she wants to watch)

Not only have the videos been a lifesaver for hours of feverish house-bound amusement, I think they are developing R's imagination. She acts out scenes from the movies: she likes to take the broom from the kitchen and pretend to fly on it as Kiki does, for example. She has an obsession now with rain and umbrellas (which are important plot elements in both movies). This is all very cute, but it's also a good reason to only allow her access to movies with characters that behave appropriately (modelling moral and considerate behavior): I don't want her influenced in the wrong direction!