1. I am working on getting a new blog-thing up and will share when it is. There is a reason that I’ll share at that time… this blog will stay here, though.
2. Noah has been really sick, the poor little guy. He had no fever and was behaving normally except for drinking more than usual, when he woke up one Monday morning with goopey eyes. We thought perhaps it was pink eye and Carl took him into the doctor to discover that he had an absolutely RAGING throat infection, that had made an ear infection, nose infection, and finally came out his eyes (!!) (or something, the report back was a little garbled). So he had ten days on Suprax, 4 days at home and then back to school the Fri and next week. 3 days after the Suprax ended, he popped a very very mild fever (99 F). So I looked in his throat, and his soft palate was covered in open sores that had not been there 2 days before. After a lot of thought our doctor put him back on the Suprax for another 10 days, and after 2 days at home he went back to school. So we have been juggling a lot of time off work, and trying to get him healthily fed, everything disinfected, blah blah blah.
The doctor laughed a little when I said I had cleaned everything, replaced toothbrushes, etc. He said “we know the source! It’s his throat!”
3. It’s been too nice to be indoors much of the time.
4. I have been recovering from some physical stuff myself.
So now you know.
Despite all this, I took my antibiotic-ridden child downtown on the GO train this morning to go to the St. Lawrence market, which is a Saturday morning “farmer’s” market (too expensive for most farmers, but still the idea of buying direct from some caringfoodproducer somewhere). It’s urban joy – outdoor bands, treats, people, dogs, children, produce, pies, emu, etc. For Noah of course the big deal was getting to go on the train, but he danced his heart out to some drumming that was going on.
For lunch we sat on the patio at Spring Rolls and shared a curry and some rice. THIS kind of Saturday morning, getting up and going down to where things are Happening, discussing trains on the way, and eating yummy food in relative peace, is EXACTLY what I fantasized parenting would be.
Coming home we almost missed the train – I miscalculated a bit and bought my ticket at 12:09 for a 12:13, which was up three flights of stairs. Not a problem if you are not leading/carrying a child and your nifty MacLaren stroller is not carting fresh peas and leftover lunch so not amenable to being snap-folded, AND the train has not just dumped 200 people who are coming down the stairs at you. I looked up the last, narrow staircase full of people coming down and thought we were screwed. (Next train an hr later; we could take the subway home but Noah would not have been able to sleep, so either way we were going to Miss Nap which is not good.)
And then two university-aged young men appeared out of nowhere, sized me and Noah up, and one went ahead bellowing “let these folks catch their train!” while the second carried my stroller up, leaving me to carry Noah up. We made it, with gratitude, and then the young men vanished to a different car.
It was a perfect Toronto morning.
Hey! We made it to St. Lawrence market this morning, too! For the first time in about a year. Asparagus, peppers, mushrooms, fish, sourdough bread. Fish and Chips on the patio.
We heard the drumming but didn’t stop to dance.
Sorry to hear about the endless unpleasant illness. And sending gratefulness into the universe for your strong, thoughtful helpers.
I saw your post in the Moxie website where you mentioned you have put your son’s hair in curlers. I have a little boy with quite long hair and I’d just love to do that. But I’m afraid that someone will find out or make fun of him because of it. Can you tell me how your experience went with that and how’d you get him to let you?
Ann
It is always good to catch up with you – all is well with us and our most exciting news is that we have a 10 week old puppy in our life. Her name is “Wednesday”.
best, always
Polly