Oh hell. Sick, sick, sick.

Easter was mostly a write-off.  With Alex catching the chicken pox and E reviving his cold... We spent the time thinking mostly medically.

We drove to my in-laws place in central France, stopping halfway (in Baune) for one night. We toured Hotel Dieu (Alex's first time there) and it was nice.  It was the calm before the storm.  I was happy when the worst of it was a couple of chicken pox on my son, a sniffle from my hubby and of course, starring mostly my woes: I was constantly sitting to rest after... nothing (ahhh preggers...).  The positive side of constantly resting is that I used the time to listen to the audio guide. In the meantime E took Alex repeatedly into the apothocary (he really enjoyed it!!). I don't know if his interest is recent due to the chicken pox - or if it's been around longer due to repeated ear infections, colds, hospital visits for allergic reactions to mosquito bites or what, but it seems to have struck a chord with him. Maybe we'll have a little pharmacist in the future. Hopefully, the legal kind. ;)

Unbeknownst to us, our few hours out revived E's nasty cold (which I initially gave him - I thought I had allergies...). But he took it and mutated it into something quite ugly. So yet again, we arrived on my In-Laws' front step in need of care. Yep, it's become a joke: they rarely see their grandson healthy. Which is weird because he's generally, quite healthy. Anyway, we had a separate room for E and another for me and Alex who insisted on sharing my bed.  I have to admit, although 2 doctors and everything I read about contagions promises that if I've had chicken pox once, I can't catch it again. I've had my doubts. I sure put it to the test!

The potty training went to the crapper.  And silly us, we had mostly pull-ups in-tow so putting a new diaper on (once we got past the 30 minute fear factor / temper tantrum) was like walking tentatively in a mine field (surely, not literally speaking but...) getting that pull-up up the spotty legs was a tactical endeavor: stretching and pinching the diaper the whole way up so that not a single bit of the it touched a little nasty bomb causing an explosion of pain.

Thanks goodness we had the odd visit from Alex's grandmother or grandfather during these times. It helped pacify the worn-out patience of giving medicine and applying creams and lotions.  After one particular diaper changing / medicine interval E's dad commented how it seemed like a hospital in the room. Well, I tell you, I was proud! We had finally perfected our stealth diaper, the secret lotion and the convincing of eye-cream application: "First we will put it on, then we will take it off".  While smudging it in as quickly as possible. What ever works right? 

I'm happy to say now that we have the worst behind us.  Surprisingly and fortunately, my in-laws welcomed us back for another visit. 

Just as we were leaving the in-laws' Alex's mood and appetite were improving and he lasted the whole way home without any problems. He was a bit jet-lagged from his sick-sleep schedule but after a few days at home we're approaching a proper schedule again. 

We have a vacation planned to Portugual now, leaving on Friday. Our biggest worry is if they'll let Alex on the flight with his still visible spots. Hummmm.... He's looking much better (it's all relative of course...) and of course and is not contagious anymore but still... I hope we won't have any problems. 

Now I can go be a proper whale, the prima Donna of my own production, close to a beach where a proper whale belongs and enjoy relaxing with my healthier and growing family.

Rant

I am feeling blah, hampered by unsuccessful potty training.

What's worse? The kid who has repeated accidents? Or the kid who never lets it go? 

Well, I'll tell you my perspective on never letting go:

My son is 3 1/4. We tried potty training when his curiosity first became apparent but that fizzled away. Probably our own fault for being ... Undiligent. Is that a word? 

So here we are again: trying. At first he would sit on the potty every 5 minutes for a few seconds. Then to a crazy every few seconds for about 2 seconds. Just standing and sitting. Nothing produced. We stopped the rewards for sitting only. Then he took to sitting AND peeing! "Great! We thought "we've got this in the bag. I wonder what all the fuss is about?" So we graduated to underwear all day at school too with a diaper for sleeping (nap and nights).  Well, well, well... Then Mr. Smarty Pants decided to be efficient and wait for diaper time to do his business: only peeing at those times he was wearing the diapers - forget the potty!!

So we restricted it to underwear all day (including nap time) and only a diaper at night. 

And so now, he screames bloody murder to sit on the potty, holds everything in from 8am to 8pm when all is lost. Which means he's a brat who cries in agony most of the afternoon, pacing in endless circles holding his peepee eventually becomes so completely distracted and uncomfortable that he can't eat dinner for want of going to bed (a diaper). Brutal. 

We've tried a smattering of rewards, entertainment and distraction. A sweet hand, a firm hand, total frustration (that last one was not an intentional technique) it failed too...

The morning after the second missed dinner the first words uttered out of his mouth at an ungodly early hour for breakfast were: "Can I have some rice and chicken for breakfast?" Poor thing!!

We intensified the daytime potty sittings. He still held it all in. Yep, pretty sure being too diligent on making him sit is wrong too. Today we caved around 7pm and gave him a diaper.  Within 30 minutes he was back to his sweet-tempered self and scarfed down dinner. 

Now what the hell do we do? Back to researching the freaking internet. *sigh...

House Progress - February 5

Well, with bigger things out of the way we are now we are becoming increasingly annoyed that we still have no lights.  Well that's not entirely true. We are annoyed yes, but we actually have about half of them. The house has lots of built-in pot lights and we had the movers install our nicer fixtures from the apartment, however, we are still dining in the dark, by candle light or the beacon light from the patio for our dining ambiance.  We are s.l.o.w.l.y doing our field research. Did I mention slowly? :) Good thing spring is nearing and every evening we have a teensy bit more light. (Hehe).

We still have a ton of unpacked of boxes all squeezed in our dirty, overly hot and humid house.  We are figuring out the balance of heating zones.  And of course, we have some hang-over mover glitches (damages are not covered beyond 3 days... "buyer beware"!).  And we just discovered some some plumber problems with the laundry room modifications (we were charged about 3x too much) and me with no leg to stand on to fight it.  I was stupid and assumed it was rolled into the carpentry price (I got a verbal - nothing written. What a rookie)*. And still no utilities like tv, phone, internet. 

Without mentioning the daunting cash flow stuff, not having internet banking is really hampering my style. Need I mention the bills we had to pay?? So I end up paying them at the bank via an automated teller. 1 of 2.  Talk about ancient!!! It was oh so slow and painful with people waiting in line behind me huffing and puffing their frustration in my direction as I slowly chiseled through through my massive pile...  Truth be told I stopped two bills short of being finished (the later dated ones) hoping to spare the poor people in the line-up and my agony too of course.  Actually, I think now: "weird how many people were waiting in line for an antiquated way of paying bills..." 

*Sigh... Nothing an University education and a 10+ year career in the business could drill into my brain apparently... "Put it in writing!" My excuse(s): I was tired of the back-and-forth and felt like an ass writing yet another email to back-up verbal agreements that the carpenter so patiently entertained. That and "mommy brain". I'm such an idiot.  

Footnote: Mid-March, I negotiated a 15% reduction on my 300% overcharged bill. Win-win I suppose.