Back to "Normal"

Mac came down with the dreaded strep this weekend. I put on my doctor hat, got out my flashlight which I used to examine the strep-infected throat, and declared my diagnosis.

That pesky, villainous, evil strep.

And this being Bogota, I then went next door and bought a course of Amoxicillin - sans doctor's prescription- so I could get my boy on the road to recovery.

I tried to look up the correct dosage for Mac's weight, but let's be honest. I didn't really know what his exact weight was in the first place. And the equation I found on the Internet used kilograms and even had I known Mac's weight in pounds, I would have had to calculate what that was in kilos to make that equation work and I always have to think hard whether you multiply by 2.2 or divide by 2.2. It seemed like a lot of work so I emailed a friend whose child had recently had strep and just used his dosage.

So Mac got a dose on Saturday afternoon, two on Sunday and one this morning. But he still wasn't where I thought he needed to be after so many doses, so I took him to the health unit this morning. Turns out my skills as a diagnostician are spot-on. But my skills as a prescription writer need some work. After four doses of antibiotic, he still tested positive for strep. I under-medicated him (but at least I didn't get yelled at for giving him antibiotics unnecessarily).

Mac came home after that to be babied by "Ms. Ruth", who made him soup, bought him a 12-pack of BBQ potato chips (because that apparently is a home remedy for curing strep), and let him eat ice cream. Oh, and she gave him that extra dosage of medicine that I neglected to give on Saturday and Sunday. By the time I got home at 4:45, my boy was brand new.

Do you want to know how I knew he was back to normal? He was playing and talking to himself. Or talking to the imaginary person he was playing with, I'm not sure which. But he talks to himself or that imaginary person a lot when he's well and he hadn't done that at all since Saturday, so I knew he back to normal. Or as normal as someone can be who talks a lot when there's nobody else around.

And that makes me very happy.

Teaching Mac to Cook

As many of you know, the Giginator, aka my mother, was a home economics teacher for 20-something years. As part of her teaching responsibilities, she taught what must have been 1000s of Berkeley County middle schoolers how to cook. Let me just tell you right now: after two consecutive nights of Mac insisting he help me cook, I am pretty convinced I would have to be heavily medicated on happy pills to teach children how to cook day in and day out.

The mess.

The extra time it takes.

The incessant questioning of "how much longer till it's ready?"

And did I mention the mess?

Last night we made really quite a delicious baked orzo dish (Mac cooked the bacon, sautéed the onions, chopped the basil and measured out the liquids) and tonight we baked homemade biscuits of which Mac has already eaten 2 and declared delicious (Mac measured the flour, whisked the dry ingredients together, mixed the liquid in, kneaded and cut out the biscuits).

Sweet Lord, grant me patience to continue these lessons.

And sweet Lord, put a bug in Mac's Bubby's ear to teach him some cooking when she comes to see us next week. He will have off two full weeks for Spring Break and that would provide lots of quality cooking time.

And also sweet Lord, put a bug in the Giginator's ear to follow up on these lessons when Mac goes home this summer ahead of Jimmy and me. There could be 3 weeks of good bonding time over a hot stove.

I may not need the extra patience after all if I can get these grandmothers on board....

the poetry festival

Every year Mac's school participates in a poetry festival with two other British schools in town. The students participate by reciting original and already published poetry as well as group poetry presentations and performances supported by multi-media presentations.

A couple weeks ago Mac came home and announced he'd volunteered to participate in the poetry festival. Jimmy was convinced he heard "festival" and not "poetry" and thought there would be carnival rides and elephant ears involved. We asked him repeatedly if he was sure he'd signed up for the right thing.

Sure enough, the permission slip was sent home so I knew he was at least on the list of participants. When I told him I'd completed the form and that I was looking forward to seeing his performance, he asked if I was taking time off from work. I told him that the festival didn't start until 5pm so I'd be able to attend sin problema. He looked puzzled, so I explained that he'd stay after school, eat a snack and then the school would transport the students to the hosting school and I'd meet him there. So then I thought that maybe he'd volunteered in order to skip some school and that's why he was surprised that it was an after-school event.

Regardless the blessed festival occurred on Tuesday evening. It was two hours of listening to elementary school-aged children recite and perform poetry. That makes for a bit of a long evening. But Mac and his group did a fun, energetic presentation, and I was very proud of his participation.

But is it wrong to hope he doesn't volunteer for next year's poetry festival????

Tonight's conversation

A conversation between Mac and me a few minutes ago:

Mac: I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 10. Guess.

Me: 8.

Mac: no, it's what I think of you.

Me (daring to hope, especially since I went to the commissary and bought him Twizzlers today): 10?

Mac: yes!

Me: oh Mac, that is so sweet. I think you're a 10, too.

Mac: well you're a 10 except when you burst out.

Me (thinking to myself... "burst out????? Moi???? WHATEVER IS HE TALKING ABOUT????????")

Then Mac, as a consolation prize, told me that his teacher said when she gets mad, "a dragon comes out.". I wonder what number he gives her when the dragon comes out?

to catch you up on our life... as if you were interested

1. We went to Cartagena last weekend. Jimmy had to work a congressional delegation and Mac and I had to work the hotel pool. We had a lovely time in the hot sun and even got to hang out with a school friend of Mac's and her family on Sunday. Do you suppose Mac has any idea how great his life is???


2. The school friend and her family are Brazilian. I love, no, make that LOVE Brazilians.

3. Jimmy got to eat at the Colombian President's house in Cartagena for lunch with the congressional delegation. While we were eating french fries by the pool for our lunch, he was feasting on lobster, steak, ribs and fish and meeting Juan Valdez.


4. Mac and I flew back on Sunday afternoon and found out that there were Colombian soap opera stars on board with us. They were returning from Cartagena where they'd attended the Colombian version of the Oscars on Saturday night. We even saw one of the "Oscars" in the airport being carried around.

5. I returned with a raging sinus problem, thanks to the air conditioning in the hotel. It's been a very long week of sniffling and coughing and hacking.

6. On Tuesday, I left work around midday because I felt so bad. I came home and Ruth sprang into full clucking mother hen mode. She got me in the bed, made me a hot water bottle for my feet, and then made me drink this cure-all orange drink that really did me make feel better. I do love that woman.

7. Jimmy and I hosted a dinner party for friends last night and we hired a chef to do all the work (because we needed to test him out before using him for work entertaining). I have decided this is how I must live from now on. I literally had to do nothing but set the table. He cooked, he served, and he cleaned up afterwards. The meal? Appetizers were phyllo bags stuffed with spinach and cheese served over a fresh tomato salsa. The main course was beef tenderloin with a dill mustard sauce, potato crepes, and sauteed vegetables. Dessert was passionfruit mousse. And it was all as delicious as it sounds. I love this chef and would like to figure out a way for him to live in our apartment with us.

8. Today I had a fashion designer type lady come over to re-do some stuff in my wardrobe. I'm super-excited about what she's doing plus she's making me a suit. My first fitting is a week from Tuesday. Stay tuned.

9. Jimmy's got the sinus funk now and so I had to take Mac to football practice this afternoon. 3 hours of football practice. Watch out girls: I'm back in the running for Mother of the Year.

opinions at the barbershop

This afternoon I took Mac to the barber shop for his quarterly haircut. We were really 3 days too late for the haircut because school pictures were taken on Tuesday. I didn't know that until it was too late on Monday evening to take him to the barbershop. He will be captured forever in this year's school photos as looking like a street urchin.

I miss the days when we went to get his haircut and I could instruct the stylist on exactly what to do. Those days are a distant memory. Today, I instructed the stylist to cut one way and Mac immediately said no. Then I suggested something else and Mac said no. When I suggested that the man cut more off the back, Mac demanded to have the mirror held up behind him so he could see for himself what it looked like and could determine if he wanted more cut.

The end result is that he really has a smashing haircut that we're both happy with. I'm just not so sure about this raising a child who's independent and assertive.

I'm turning into an old parent

Now that I'm working full-time and can't just jet off for the whole of Mac's summer vacation, I had to think about what to do with him for those interminable weeks.

Plans are coming together now but he's going to fly home with visiting friends in early July and spend the next few weeks shuttling between grandmothers (who live 10 minutes apart) before Jimmy and I come home for a couple weeks of vacation.

How did I get old enough to have a child old enough to leave me for a few weeks - to go to another country - and actually be happy about it???

I can see how quickly we're going from the little boy who said he'd never go off to college because he could never leave me to a young man who won't look back when the door closes on his way out. That makes me sad and regretful for all the "hurry and grow up" thoughts I ever entertained these last 9 years.

The idea of putting him in a box so he can't grow more is getting more and more appealing...

Back from the proverbial dead

Last night I spoke with the Giginator, aka my mom, for Valentine's Day. She asked why I hadn't updated the blog lately. No excuses really except that life got in the way. Now that I have this thing called a J-O-B, time is at a premium around the old homestead. How I miss the days when my only time management problem was how to play tennis and have time to shower before meeting the girls for lunch. Boy, do I miss those days.

Now if had to blog about my life, it would read something like "get up at 5:15; shower, dress and wake Mac up by 6; practice drill sergeant routine to get him dressed, fed and out the door by 6:24; go to work; make decisions that could cause a jail sentence; realize that my 2pm headache might be from lack of lunch; tell people who come into my office at 3:47 to speak fast because they have 6 minutes to talk before I have to leave to catch the shuttle; ride home on the shuttle with people who talk incessantly about their pets' bowel movements; get home by 4:45; do battle over homework that results in one of us in tears; figure out what to throw together for dinner; eat; act as drill sergeant so Mac gets into bed at the right time; collapse in chair; move to bed; collapse into fitful sleep. Rinse and repeat and do it all again."

That's the daily drill these days. With that said, all is well - if not a bit tired - on the homestead. Just not a lot of excitement to report. But I shall make a better effort to find something interesting to report, if only to the Giginator.

Now to leave you on a higher note... One of our dinner topics always, always, always revolves around what Mac had for lunch. It starts something like this:

Jimmy or Susan: so what did you have for lunch?
Mac: guess.
J/S: chicken (this is the correct answer 98% of the time)
M: what else?
J/S: carrots? (he's required to have 3 things on his plate and carrots are usually a safe bet.)
M: what else?
J/S: lime slice? (sadly, this counts as his third item more days than not.)
M: no.

(This is where last night's conversation veered from the norm).

J/S: hmmmmmm. Cucumbers?
M: no
J/S: hmmmmmm. Bread?
M: yes. Guess what kind?
J/S: baguette?
M: no
J/S: slice of sandwich bread?
M: no. Do you give?
J/S: yes.
M: croutons!!!

I am so happy that my hard-earned money is going to pay for what amounts to a very expensive school lunch (and mandatory - bagged lunches are not an option) of roasted chicken, carrots and croutons. (For the record, there are other options but my picky child, who has always thought school lunches were the best thing ever, now hates school lunch.)

Tomorrow is a new day. Will it be another Groundhog Day of the same old, same old or will there be something new to report? Stay tuned... If the suspense doesn't kill you first....

My budding metrosexual

I arranged for our manicurist to come to our apartment today after work so I could get a mani-pedi before our trip. Mac decided he wanted a pedicure so he got his first ever and I think he might be hooked. He told me he would like one every month! Fortunately at $7 per in-home pedi, it's affordable and much more pleasant for me to not have to cut his toenails. Worth every penny!!

NYR - one week before Christmas!

What I'm thankful for this week:

12-19-11 - only 8 more work days until we leave for Hawaii.

12-20-11 - a family dinner out at Sr. Choo (remember our new favorite Chinese restaurant?). Tonight we took Mac (always a gamble with ethnic food that doesn't involve pasta) and he loved it. We got off to a great start because the first item on the appetizer menu was called "Bang Bang Chicken Wraps". Mac's "lovey" from the time he was about 1 until he was about 3 was a plastic hammer from a toolkit my sister and brother-in-law brought him as a gift when he was a baby in Mozambique. He called this hammer "Bang-Bang" and took it everywhere with us. And by "everywhere", I mean "everywhere" (literally). I remember Mac having a meltdown in an airport when a TSA agent made him give up Bang-Bang to go through the x-ray scanner - major drama. I remember leaving Bang-Bang behind in the gift shop in the zoo in Melbourne, Australia and hurriedly buying a replacement to get us through the night before our friend Jenny could go back to retrieve the hammer the next day. We have a great affinity for "Bang-Bang anything" at our house and Bang Bang Chicken Wraps at Sr. Choo did not disappoint.

12-21-11 - my book club's ornament exchange where I enjoyed the most amazing butternut-apple soup topped with fried scallions and a curried yogurt sauce. Yes, it was as delicious as it sounds. And I got an awesome globe ornament too!

12-22-11 - Two years ago, I bought a Lands End Dory jacket that I raved about. You may remember my ravings? I have worn that jacket (and washed it) so many times that I'm really surprised it's still together. I bought a supplemental (as opposed to replacement) Dory jacket a few weeks ago because it was on sale for $26 (including shipping). How can you go wrong with a $26 jacket from Lands End??? I like it a lot, but I have to tell you it's not the same jacket. They have changed the design a lot and I don't like the design or detail nearly as much. But for $26? It's a keeper.

12-23-11 - Today we got early release from the embassy for the holiday weekend. It sounds like a good behavior parole program and maybe that's sort of what it is. Regardless, I was so happy to be out of that building at 2:30. The other thing I'm thankful for is that Mac had a sleepover at our house with 2 friends and they behaved perfectly. No squabbling, no bickering, just happy play and giggling.

12-24-11 - Tonight we hosted a Christmas Eve get-together for friends here in Bogota. It was a really nice, relaxing evening of drinks and nibbles with dear sweet friends who I am so grateful to have in our lives.

NYR 12-7-11 - hot water bottle?

Last night Ruth watched Mac while we went to the Christmas party. When we got home, she said that he was very cold and so she made him a hot water bottle. Now Mac has a true talent for bamboozling Ruth to get more Coca Cola, to stay up later, to avoid a shower, etc. I was sure this "too cold to sleep" was yet another ruse to stay up later than bedtime.

But we don't own a hot water bottle, so I was very confused as to what she meant when she said she "made" him a hot water bottle.

Before I went to bed, I checked around his bed as best I could without waking him up to see if there was some hot water device that needed to be removed. I felt nothing so I went to bed.

This morning when I woke Mac up for school, he had a 2-liter Sprite bottle filled up with what used to be hot water stuck up under his armpit.

Ruth had literally made a hot water bottle.

Which Mac thinks is the most brilliant invention ever.

For sweet Ruth who's so clever, I am truly thankful.

NYR 12-4-11- Mac's 9th Birthday Party

Because of scheduling conflicts and the Thanksgiving holiday, we finally hosted Mac's 9th birthday party today.

And boy, was it an ordeal.

Mac wanted a sleepover (Plan A), but because of all these scheduling conflicts, it would have been impossible to have the sleepover until the Christmas holidays, which seemed a long time away for a November 20th birthday.

So then he thought a movie date (Plan B) would be fun. The problem is that most children's movies here are not English-language, but rather are dubbed in Spanish. We knew that "Arthur Christmas" was coming out on December 2 and we only needed to find out whether it was in English because that's the movie Mac really wanted to see. I called the theater a week ahead of time but they said they wouldn't know if it would play in English until Thursday, December 1. No need for advance planning, ladies and gentlemen.

When I called the theater on Thursday, they said the moving wasn't playing in English but we could certainly come to see "Operacion Regalo" dubbed in Spanish. We didn't want to see "Operacion Regalo". We wanted "Arthur Christmas", lady.

On to Plan C. Mac decided that riding go-carts at an amusement park near his school would be fun. So I called the amusement park on Friday, and the lady assured me they were open on Sunday from 9am-3pm. So we arranged for the 4 other boys to be here by 12:30 after church so we could take off for the park.

On Sunday morning, I decided to check the park's website for more information and there was a big notice that said the park was closed on Sunday for private parties.

Really?

Moving on to Plan D, we decided to order in KFC for lunch and have an old-fashioned playdate birthday party. Long gone are the days of my micro-planning every game, craft project, cake, etc decorated according to the party theme.

And for that, I am truly thankful.

(For the record, the cake had "Cars"-themed sprinkles to go with Plan C's go-"car"t theme. Too bad that didn't make a whole lot of sense with the in-house playdate party....)

NYR 12-2-11 - epic failure as a working mom

Today was Mac's Christmas concert which took place as part of the school's Christmas festivities in the afternoon. Jimmy was traveling so I took off part of the afternoon so I could get out to the school by the concert's 3:30pm start time.

Normally the commute from the embassy to the school is around 45 minutes if things are moving.

Normally events at school never start on time.

Nothing worked according to "normal" today.

It was raining and it took me 75 minutes to get from the embassy to school. In the parking lot that was the highway out to school, I texted a friend to ask her if they were running on time. And they were.

It was not a good day. Sigh.

After I screeched down the school's street and parked illegally, I ran in past the school guard and into the auditorium to hear applause. Now there were a lot of performances in the concert (for two grades), so it could have been some other group but in in my heart of hearts, I knew that applause was Mac's group (a performance of "stomp" since we've given up the violin). I stood through the violins and the cellos before asking a teacher if Stomp had already occurred.

They were first.

Of course.

I was devastated. So I left the auditorium before I started crying in front of all these parents. I went to find Mac and decided I had to 'fess up. Thankfully, he wasn't upset at all with me which was great because I was plenty of upset enough for both of us.

It's days like these when I'm ready to quit work and just devote myself to full-time parenting. The old me would have been there with an hour to spare, with a fully charged videocamera and still camera. The new me can't even get there in time to find a free seat in the auditorium.

For surviving my first epic failure as a working mom - and so soon after I stated - WOW! - and for having a child gracious enough to offer forgiveness, I am truly thankful.

NYR 11-28-11 - tae kwon do

Mac practices tae kwon do after school one day a week. He took it for one term last year and is now on his second term this year. He seems to be embracing it much more this year than last.

Today he moved up to another belt AND he broke a board in half. Pretty much a banner day all the way around.

As a side note, he and Jimmy practice their moves a lot around the house. Jimmy has never had any training in the discipline of tae kwon do or any martial art as far as I know. He practices a self-taught, Berkeley-County style of "martial art" which involves a lot of "hi-yah" utterances and redneck fighting.

Apparently Mac tried one of his father's moves at tae kwon do today and he was informed that particular maneuver was not allowed. Yet another example where the teaching should really be left to the experts. Thank goodness Mac had already gotten the new belt before the Kung Fu Panda struck.

For new belts and broken boards, I am truly thankful.

NYR 11-20-11 - the boy turns 9

Today Mac turned 9.


9.



Nine.



N.I.N.E.!


How did that happen?

When he was born, I was sure I could never love him or want to protect him more than I did that first night in the hospital when I refused to let myself sleep so I could stare at him and make sure he was still breathing.

I no longer stare at his chest all through the night to make sure it's rising and falling with his breaths, but I do still check on his sleeping body just before I go to bed. I stand still by his bed long enough to make sure I can see his chest rising and falling.

I've learned in 9 years that a mother's love on the birth date of her child is just a drop in the bucket compared to the love that swells with each passing minute that child is in her life.

For the best gift of my life, I am truly thankful.

NYR 11-2-11 - this makes me happy

Mac really better like football because he got all his gear in the mail today. (Jimmy had to order a facemask. Who knew that helmets didn't come with facemasks?)

Receiving this photo made my day. For that sweet boy (even with that mean football player face he's sporting), I am so thankful.

NYR 10-22-11 - Mac playing football

There's a guy at the embassy who played college football and who now coaches a little group of boys in football. Mac hasn't wanted to go up until his football-filled trip to SC a couple weeks ago. Jimmy took him to "play" today and he loved it.

They practiced and played for over 2.5 hours, and he still loved it even after all that exercise.

So now we've ordered all the gear so he doesn't have to use the sweaty, borrowed, smelly stuff, which means he'll probably hate it by next Saturday.

For a Saturday afternoon of football, I am truly thankful.

NYR 10-12-11 - a lost tooth

Mac lost a tooth today.

And I wasn't there.

Sigh.

This is the first tooth that he's lost for which I was not present and/or could not ensure the Tooth Fairy was present.

Sigh.

I really hope the Tooth Fairy comes tonight. I really, really hope for that.

For boys who grow up and don't need their moms so much anymore, I am truly thankful. I guess.

NYR 10-10-11 - and reality sets in

This afternoon I came home to a very sad, very quiet, very empty house. Jimmy and Mac have been gone for 4 days and that was fine when I was away with friends to keep me occupied. But coming home to an empty house that's normally loud and occupied stinks. Realizing that I still have 5.5 days to go does not make it any better.

I may have had a mini-meltdown. Or it may have been a quite large meltdown.

The thing that makes this all stink even worse is that this separation is a trial run for the month-long training I'm going to have to go to in Washington, DC in a couple weeks. I'm pretty sure I will not survive a month on my own. Jimmy's one thing, but we've gotten used to long separations with his travel and Afghanistan schedule. Mac is a different beast altogether. The longest I've been away from him is 4 or 5 days. I honestly feel like the lifeblood has been sucked out of me.

Sigh.

For my boys having some long overdue boys-only time, I am truly thankful. I guess.

NYR 10-2-11 - homework

Let me start by telling you that I really hate homework. I used to love homework when I was in school, but I've done 12 years plus 4 college years' worth of homework. And I think that's enough.

Mac doesn't seem to have the same love of homework that I once had. He doesn't want to just buckle down and get it down. He's easily distracted and can come up with 72 things he'd rather be doing. All of this, of course, means that I feel like I have to sit there, breathing down his neck to keep him focused on the task at hand. Which, of course, makes me feel like I'm doing the homework myself. Which I hate because, you see, I already know the 8 times table and I don't care if I don't know anything about the Tudors (God bless the British and their history).

Because we knew (hoped!) that I was going to start work, a few weeks ago we instituted a rule where the weekly homework assignments (that come out on Friday and are due the following Friday) have to be pretty well executed over the weekend so the weekday afternoons aren't so chaotic and fraught with histrionics.

Jimmy also decided that Mac needed a desk of his own instead of doing his homework on the dining room table. So I cleaned out our multi-purpose room that held this ridiculous piece of exercise equipment that was primarily used for a coat rack and jungle gym for Mac and his visiting friends, the Wii tv, the filing cabinet, a desk that you couldn't see because it was covered in stuff that needed to go in the filing cabinet, a catch-all bookshelf and keyboard.

Now the room has the filing cabinet (because it's really ugly and that's the only good hiding spot in the house for it), the keyboard, the bookshelf which now has all Mac's art supplies on it, and the uncovered desk.

And I have to hand it to Jimmy - it is really nice for Mac to have a dedicated study area with all his supplies close at hand. He's still easily distracted, but at least he's not eating Doritos at the dining table while running around trying to find the colored pencils while trying to work on his learning log entry for the week.

For better study habits and such a smart husband, I am truly thankful.