Directly contrary to doctor's orders...

I have a lung infection. So today, instead of staying at home and resting, I walked to the library and did singing and actions for mother-and-baby nursery rhymes for half an hour, followed by walking home talking to someone who needed to borrow a book from me.

Is that what asthma is like? Breathing as hard as you can and not getting anywhere? Gasping and gasping and no air going in at all? Because I felt like I think asthma sufferers look when they're mid-attack, if you can follow that.

The singing gorup was lovely though. The librarian has a real thing about kiddiwinks and throws herself into the event with great gusto - she always wears a neat little suit, has very neat curls like all old ladies used to only hers are black, has little gold earrings and a matching chain, not-quite-flat court shoes - she's a very respectable middle-aged lady of my mother's day, only it's easily 10 years since my mother was really middle-aged.

Watching the librarian being a Dingle-Dangle Scarecrow was highly amusing.

Linnea was a bit intimidated at first - there were about 15 or 20 mothers there, most with one child each, all singing and clapping, so it was a pretty big, loud group, and she's a [_] sheltered [_] deprived child [tick one] who does't go to nursery so it took a little while to acclimatise herself. She was fine by the end of it though. We're hoping to go again next week, if I've stopped wheezing by then.

Oh - and the antibiotics? They're having an... effect. I'll be trying a pot of live yoghurt tomorrow morning, I think.

Ask Teh Interweb

(1) Has anyone heard of a couple of children's board books about Belinda and Benjamin? "The sun is shining, it's a very nice day, Belinda and Benjamin (or possibly Benjy) are coming out to play."

(2) Calling all mothers! An infant we know was prescribed antibiotics a couple of months ago, had raging diarrhoea for four days, and since then has been excruciatingly constipated. She has plenty of fibre, water and fruit in her diet - I've seen her diet, this is definitely true - and the poor love screams like a banshee at its own funeral every time she fills her nappy. It's heartrending. Even Linnea stops what she's doing and looks worried, and she's a pretty hard-hearted little brute when she's not asking for cuddles. So any tips would be great. The infant in question has a mother who has no idea what to try, and the family doctor is all out of suggestions.