The Post-Thanksgiving Post

I am thankful we have such nice family and friends to spend Thanksgiving with.

I am thankful for P and C's wonderful hospitality.

I am thankful for all the delicious food we ate.

I am thankful for high-speed trains.

I am thankful for kind German doctors who have Saturday office hours and who speak English.

I am thankful that Geo is finally feeling better.

Wednesday morning, we woke up after a very bad night in a bit of a dilemma. Geo was still coughing and had had a low-grade fever in the night. To go to Germany, or not to go, was the question.

I called Geo's pediatrician and told him what the family practice doctor had told me Tuesday-- no sign of a throat infection, left ear a bit pink but not infected, lungs fine. The doctor, after asking me if I was going to darkest Mongolia, assured me it would be fine to take our trip. The fever was gone, so we packed very quickly and sprinted to the train station.

We made it safely, had a wonderful dinner at P and C's favorite restaurant, Gabriella's, then went to bed. It was a rough night, with lots of coughing. No one got much sleep.

Thursday, we had a very leisurely morning, then dressed and went to Sally and Rick's house for a delicious Thanksgiving dinner, full of food, good company and great conversation. Geo had so much fun playing with the big kids that he did not want to go home. (I'm not sure the big kids felt the same way, but that's another thing I'm grateful for: Sally and Rick's lovely kids, who are so kind to Geo!).

Another bad night, lots of coughing.

Friday we went on base to go to the grocery store and pick up mail. Geo was supposed to get to play on the awesome playground, but right as we arrived it started raining, so he got to go to the commissary instead. I stocked up on peanut butter and salsa and peppermint food extract. We headed home, ate lunch, rested, and watched "40 years of Sesame Street". That night, we went to Gabriella's for dinner. Mmmmmm, so good. As we were getting ready to leave the restaurant, Geo started telling us that his ear was hurting. Not a good sign!

Friday night was bad, Geo was feverish and in pain.

Saturday morning, I decided we needed to see a doctor. We thought briefly about changing our tickets, but we still wouldn't have gotten back to Paris in time to see Geo's pediatrician. And waiting until Sunday night was too long. So P and C called around and found the name of the doctor who held Saturday office hours. C took us and waited patiently 1.5 hours with us to see the doctor. After much checking and examining, the doctor told us that Geo didn't have an ear infection, but that he did have a sinus infection, which was causing the pain in his ear. He gave us antibiotics, but told us not to use them unless the fever got worse or Geo felt much worse. He prescribed nasal sprays, expectorants and pain reducers.

We had a quiet rest of the day-- it was raining out, again, and yes, ate dinner at Gabriella's. What can I say? Her food is awesome.

Saturday night was GREAT. Geo slept soundly, there was no coughing and no fever. He awoke bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and the SUN was out! I was a little sad that we were leaving right as things were looking better, but it was time to lug all that peanut butter home. We packed up, met Sally and Rick and their kids for a yummy lunch (not at Gabriella's which is closed on Sundays), then we went to the train station. It began to rain. Geo started telling us that his ear was hurting. It was time to go home.

Geo slept the whole way home, we unpacked (carefully, as Anna and Granddad had sent a big box of Christmas goodies that someone was not supposed to see!) and put Geo to bed. Despite the 2-hr nap, he fell asleep quickly and slept really soundly and peacefully all night. This morning, he seems much better. No fever, still coughing, but bouncing around cheerfully. I won't call the doctor again unless things seem much worse.

So it was a quiet, rather subdued Thanksgiving weekend, but I am so thankful we had it after all.

One of those days....

It's not 9:30 am yet and it's already been one of those days.

Despite the extreme fatigue, I managed also to have insomnia last night, and decided to just get up and on with the day at 5:45 am.

Then there was a frantic search this morning for a Very Important Piece of Paper that C needed for his appointment this evening for a knee X-ray and ultrasound (did I mention that he wrenched his knee last week and has been in pain ever since?).

Next, right as we got to the door of the school, Geo threw up. I'm 98% sure it was nerves, but yesterday he complained several times of his tummy pinching, so I brought him back home. No need to take chances. Oh, we did go inside to drop off the class notebook that Geo brought home for 2 days, and learned that the first case of swine flu has been detected in the school.

Once home, after getting Geo cleaned up, I went to the kitchen to make coffee, and learned that C had had the same idea, but had forgotten to actually make the coffee. The little Turkish coffee maker was totally empty of water and was radiating heat. It's usually bright red, but had turned a very dark red, almost black on the bottom, from the heat. I'd say we were a few minutes away from an explosion and/or fire.

Overall, it could be worse. Geo could be actively sick. We could have had a fire. So I'm grateful that neither of those things happened. However, it's a rotten way to start the day, and I'm hoping the rest of the day is relatively incident-free.

On a much more positive note, I'm starting a new position as a Content Editor for the Message magazine (Message is a group for Anglophone expats in France: it has about 1600 members + their families.) The magazine is a quarterly, and I'll be able to work from home. It's a volunteer position, but a great experience that I'm very much looking forward to!

And now to get the real business of the day started: cooking, cleaning and entertaining Geo....

The H word

I got my first "I don't love you anymore, mama" today.

It occurred while I was trying to roll up Geo's sleeves to keep them out of his ravioli. He was starving hungry, because he no longer eats breakfast before school. He was annoyed, I was annoyed-- it was a bad scene.

I have no snappy comebacks for this. First I said, "Well, that's too bad." Then he repeated himself, and I told him "Well I still love you. I love you all the time."

Then he hugged me and went back to eating his lunch.

I don't suppose this is the last time I'll hear this sentiment. At least he didn't say he hates me. Maybe he's saving that for later.

Bear with a hormonal, seven-month pregnant woman for a few minutes.

Yesterday I learned that a woman in my anglophone Mother's Support Group died while giving birth to her third child.

I had never met her, although in my four months of membership I had read many of her witty, kind posts on the forum, including the last one, saying she was logging off to go to the hospital to have a C-section. It was a huge shock to see a death announcement instead of the birth announcement we all expected.

She leaves behind her newborn, two other very young children and her partner. This is one of those random events that ripples out, affecting so many people. Obviously her children and her partner most of all, in particular that tiny newborn who will never know her mother. I'm praying for those children, and I'm grateful to be part of such a caring community that is rallying around this little family. But of course it brings up terrible, scary thoughts for everyone, and it hits very close to home for me.

This is what I ask of you who are reading my blog. If you pray, please pray for this family. And I ask this favor of you. If *my* family is ever in the same situation, I count on you, my friends, family, community, to help my husband and children. In particular, I ask you to tell my children how much I love them. If I ever leave behind a newborn, I count on you all to tell that baby that it isn't his/her fault, that I loved him/her and that mothers sacrifice things for their children, even their own lives, and consider it a fair trade.

And thank you for indulging a pregnant woman who cries at ads on TV, rude postal workers and tragedies like this one.

On God and puppets

We went to church on Sunday. It's been awhile since our last visit-- ok. More than awhile. A couple of months, at least.

Anyway, Geo wasn't thrilled. He says church makes him sleepy. He kept asking why we had to go. And I realized that we haven't been doing a good job talking about spiritual stuff with him. We talked briefly about it when my grandmother passed away, but in our daily lives we don't say much about spirituality. I'm going to try to improve on this, for sure. Because what I told him is that we go to church to think about God, and to thank God for all the wonderful things we have in our lives.

"Who's God?"

Uh. Hum. Ok, trying to think of a way to explain God when I don't understand God!

"Well, God is who created us, and who has given us so many things, like our apartment, each other, our health, our friends, the food we eat... God is everywhere."

Looking around... "I don't see him."

"Well, he's invisible. But he's part of us, and surrounds us."

The frown disappears, the face clears. "Oh. He's IMAGINARY."

Well, no. Well, sort of. Well, crap. It's going to be a long road, better get started soon!

But on to puppets. After church, we went to the Luxembourg Gardens, where there's an awesome playground. Geo was having such a great time that we decided to skip the puppet show that they have every Sunday afternoon, since it wasn't raining and he was able to play outside. While this decision was fine with him while he was playing, it was no longer fine when we got ready to go home. He wanted to see the puppets, NOW.

So C told him that we would do a puppet show at home. When we got home they got a curtain, threw it over some chairs, pulled out a bunch of stuffed animals and some musical instruments and were ready to go. We thought Geo wanted to watch the puppet show, but it turned out he was much more interested in helping his dad put it together.

They did a show, with two stories. I think it was Geo's favorite thing ever. Quite honestly. They put on another puppet show last night, when C got home from work. Watching Geo watch C and imitate him is always going to be one of my favorite memories.

Pictures!

First, a few more Disneyland pictures.

The very first picture of the day-- Geo was already asking to buy stuff! He wanted a Mickey Mouse balloon, but we convinced him it would be hard to take on the rides.




Geo and I in London, thanks to the magic of Disney:


Driving a car: as proud as can be!


Now, to more recent things. Yesterday was rainy (it's been raining a lot here, recently. Pretty much at least once per day) and Geo needed something fun to do. There's a big lack of fun, affordable, close-by, indoor things to do, so we get creative. C decided to help him build a house out of empty Kleenex boxes. Here's the during picture:



And here's the final project. It's also a post-haircut picture. Geo wasn't thrilled about getting his haircut, but he definitely likes the results. He keeps asking me to admire his haircut.



We're off to church in a bit, we'll hopefully find something fun and indoors to do this afternoon.... because yes, it's raining.

Back to School

After a lovely, ten-day break, Geo went back to school this morning.

We had a rough start. After a kerfluffle (I thought it was 7am, it was actually only six, and it took a long time to get Geo back to sleep), we were up and facing the day. I tried getting him up a bit earlier than in the past, hoping that he'll have more of an appetite for breakfast.

No such luck. In fact, he was so anxious, he actually threw up, poor thing.

We talked about some things and agreed on two items: one, I would talk to his teacher about one of the little boys who causes Geo a lot of stress and anxiety, and two, if he could get through the morning without crying, I'd bring him a special treat.

He assured me he could do it, and the drop-off went beautifully. I spent the morning at the lab, doing a really fun gestational diabetes test.... then picked up a little book at the bookstore as his special treat.

When I picked him up, he skipped out, happy as can be, and told me he'd had a great morning. His teacher confirmed that things went really well (yay!!!!!!) and he was very excited about his new book.

Maybe we've turned the corner. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

What a weekend!

It was full of firsts for Geo: first invitation to a birthday party from a school friend, first time going to the movies, first time going to Disneyland, first sword and... yes, first gun. I know. Another hard-and-fast parenting rule bites the dust. So much for "No son of mine will EVER own a gun." What can I say? We were seized with Disney-madness. More on that later, though.

Saturday was a busy day. We were preparing for an evening Halloween party, and getting ready for a birthday party. First came the birthday party, which had a fun pirate theme. The kids hunted for treasure, got swords and eyepatches, danced, ate apricot tart (ah, love France!), and, being three, said caca a lot. Like, constantly.

Straight after that party, we headed over to our friend's place where Geo and his two buddies got to trick or treat. One of his friends has some serious food allergies, so the candy was all vetted and prepared beforehand. After that house, we went to house number two, where the kids cut out Halloween cookies (also carefully prepared to meet allergy issues) and played, while the non-pregnant adults drank wine. The kids trick-or-treated there, too, before we all packed up and headed to our apartment for the last stop of the evening: jack-o-lantern carving. (And more wine.) The kids got a little more candy, the adults managed the combination of wine and sharp knives admirably and everyone had a blast.

The next day, we slept until nine (that's right, NINE!), and woke up to a rainy Sunday. We hung out, had a nice lunch, and took Geo to his first movie-theater movie, a funny little Japanese flick for the young set called "Panda, Little Panda". I won't bother describing the plot, since for all intents and purposes it was plot-free. But fun, and sweet and funny. Did I mention that it rained all day? All day AND all night. I kept waking up in the night, worried because we had planned our Disney visit for Monday.

But by some miracle (thank you, weather gods) we awoke to sun shine and blue skies. We left early, got to Disney right as it opened and went almost non-stop for eight hours. We rode on: Buzz Lightyear ride (this was the very first ride and where Geo saw the laser gun he spent the whole day begging for), Peter Pan's magic flight, Dumbo, the spinning tea-cups. Then we took a lunch break, and afterwards the boys rode the cars in Autopia, we took the steam train to Adventureland, rode the Pirates of the Caribbean (everyone's favorite ride), went to the Haunted House and took a break for coffee and hot cocoa. After snack, we went back to Fantasyland where we rode It's a Small World, the Casey Jr circus train, went through the Fairy-Tale land and finished off the day with the Pinocchio ride. Whew! And in all that time Geo had NOT forgotten the laser gun, and as we had promised one toy, we went back and bought it.

We made it home, had a quick dinner and collapsed into bed. Today, it's raining. I'm so glad we had good weather for our Disney adventure! Geo loved it, but Chady and I agreed that it's going to remain a once-a-year, truly special occasion. As we were coming home, we were reflecting on the fact that at age three and a half, Geo has done more, seen more, and traveled more than Chady and I did in our first twenty-some-odd years....

And, here are a few pictures for your viewing pleasure. First, some with the grandparents:

Pirates of the Caribbean be damned, this is Geo's all-time favorite ride!


Geo took one nap while his grandparents were visiting:


And now some of the Disney pictures:

In the teacup:


Driving a car with Baba:


The pirate ship!


Tune in again, hopefully I'll get some more posted soon.