on a hammock in Porto de Galinhas

We arrived in PdeG yesterday and I confirmed that this is my favorite beach in all of Brazil. It was so spectacular yesterday. Mac and I threw on our swimsuits and headed straight to the beach where we played for a couple hours before heading to one of the hotel's pools (which was right on the beach, so it was almost like being on the beach without the sand).

We went to the village of PdeG last night for dinner and I could not get my bearings in the dark. But I think it's much more developed than 2.5 years ago. There seemed to be more streets and more shops - I couldn't figure out where we were. We ate at a beachfront Italian restaurant where the ambience was much nicer than the food.

This morning Mac and I were supposed to go on a 4-hour beach buggy ride that would take us way down the beach and allow us to enjoy the different beaches, including one where we can swim with seahorses. Very cool, right? Except that when we went down to breakfast, it was very dark and by the time we came back from breakfast, brushed our teeth, and put on sunscreen, it was pouring. I hate putting on sunscreen for nothing. We've postponed the buggy ride until tomorrow morning.

I'm typing this from the hammock on our balcony and it's lightening up now and the rain has stopped. The buggy man told me we had to pray for wind from the SE and not the NW. I keep looking at the palm fronds, but my directional abilities are challenged from the hammock. Any way you cut it, laying on a hammock listening to waves break is better than any day in a highrise Sao Paulo apartment, even in the rain!

the best friends in the world

Today I invited some friends over for a coffee so I could celebrate my good fortune in meeting them during our time in Sao Paulo. I know some of you think this about yourselves, but it's true for me: I really and truly have the best and nicest friends in the world (and I'm talking about the ones here in Sao Paulo right now but the ones elsewhere are included also among the best and nicest!).

Living in Sao Paulo has been great on a number of different levels but one of the things that has been most rewarding for me is the people we've had the oppotunity to meet. At a lot of posts, you're stuck in the rut of just hanging out with other diplomat types and while that's good, being in a huge international city allows you, among other things, to meet people who live outside the consulate or embassy fish bowl and that is GREAT.

I've been so blessed by these incredible women that I've come to know through the diplomatic circle, church, the complex where we live, Mac's school, Mac's swim class, Bible study, etc. These women are PHENOMENAL for a variety of reasons, and my life is forever enriched from having known them here.

When everybody left and the dishes were cleaned and the housekeeper had taken Mac to the park for a few minutes and the apartment was quiet, I sat down on the floor to open the gifts that these dear people brought today. I read their cards and I wept for everything that I feel I'm losing by leaving here. I know good friendships stand the test of time and distance, but I am surely going to miss the close contact with these girls. Did I mention they are phenomenal women? They are beautiful and giving and compassionate, they are strong women of faith, they lead by example, they love their husbands and their children, and when they say call me if you need anything in these next few weeks, I know I can call and they will come. It has been my greatest pleasure here to be allowed into their circle. Now I just wish I could move the circle with me to South Carolina.

pneumonia has left the house

I was a sucker mom today and let Mac stay home from school even though he really was well enough to go back. His teacher assured me they were doing review work now and she sent some work home to do, so he's not missing that much. I mean, it's not like they master rocket science or learn Latin roots in the last 3 weeks of kindergarten, right?

Whether the improvement in Mac is from today's rest or just because it was past time to get better, I have no idea, but he is soooo much better. At our daily visit with Marita, she declared that he's 90% better than he was on Monday when she first saw him.

So we are off to Porto de Galinhas tomorrow morning and I cannot wait. I have packed enough medicine to keep him well should we get stranded there for any length of time, and I've packed enough Tylenol PM for me for the 3 nights we'll be gone. If for some reason we're stranded, I hope I know with some advance notice so I can ration my Tylenol PMs!

day four of pneumonia

Perhaps you heard my singing this morning at 7:40am? Well, it was premature.

When Mac woke up this morning, he said his throat hurt, but I checked it with a flashlight and declared it fine enough for school and so off he went (with a note to his teacher to call me if he needed to come home). The morning was snapping right along - I'm having a coffee tomorrow at my house for about 35 women and needless to say, prep work has been minimal this week - until about 9:45 when my cell phone rang. I looked at the number, recognized it as a Chapel School number and hoped it was the PTA president calling to wish me a happy Wednesday. No such luck.

It was the lovely Mrs. Winkelmann calling to tell me that Mac was acting awfully pathetic and looked sick and it would probably be best if I came to pick him up. I willed some muffins to cook faster - sorry to the ladies coming tomorrow if they're not brown enough on top, but I think they're cooked on the inside - and drove off to get him.

As soon as he came out the classroom door, he seemed a little more cheerful. Was it just that he missed his moma? Highly unlikely. We walked down the ramp to the car and I saw him skip. Sick people do not skip.

We went back to Marita, the consulate nurse, who checked his throat (red but no sign of infection), listened to his complaints of a stomachache (he had very little breakfast because of the aforementioned sore throat), and checked his lungs (left lung continues to improve but now right lung sounds worse than before). Can we just all say "AAAAGGGGHHHH" in unison. When does this end?

I had a list of things to do today before the coffee tomorrow, so I had to drag Mac along to do them. First stop was the bagel shop where he promptly ate 4 mini muffins practically before I got the car cranked back up. Did someone say stomachache? I've chalked that one up to extreme hunger.

We finally got home and I left Mac to his own devices because there was baking and organizing to be done. He's played quietly all afternoon and is now at his friend Michael's house for awhile. Laura rescued me so I could grocery shop for the last few items.

Do I send him to school tomorrow? Do I keep him home to rest another day? I told him if he's too sick to go to school, he's too sick to come to my coffee and get my friends sick and that he'll have to stay in his bedroom. Do you suppose I have any chance of that happening? And of course, we're supposed to fly out first thing Friday morning. Marita still says we can definitely go but I will be a nervous wreck watching him breathe and listening for changes in his cough. I haven't even researched where the nearest good hospital is. So much to worry about. I really think new gray hairs are popping out on my head as I think through these things. This is precisely why I'm not meant to be a single mother. If Jimmy were here, he would tell me to relax, Mac's fine, his breathing is fine and the vacation will be great. Oh. I'm feeling better already just hearing him tell me that...

day three of pneumonia

Listen for my rendition of The Hallelujah Chorus tomorrow morning at 7:40 my time: Mac returns to school!

We visited the consulate nurse this morning and she said he's improving sufficiently to return to school. This news did not come a moment too soon. Yesterday he truly acted sick and pathetic and lethargic, and you couldn't help but feel sorry for him. This afternoon, however, we had a full-blown hissy fit because I wouldn't allow him to ride his scooter at the park. Can you imagine the injustice? I tried to explain that we couldn't have a relapse this close to our trip this weekend, but he was convinced I was just trying to ruin his life forever. I compromised and told him I'd let him ride the scooter in our parking places in the parking garage (he'd be out of the elements that way and we didn't have a long uphill trek back from the park). He informed me there were signs that said you couldn't ride a bike in the garage and that we'd get in trouble. Who did he inherit this total respect for and fear of authority from? Oh yeah, me. We did go downstairs, and I didn't see the aforementioned sign, but he refused to ride the scooter.

He's in bed now - in his own bed after sleeping in mine for the last two nights so I could monitor his breathing - so life is returning to normal. Hallelujah!

day two of pneumonia

I am happy to report that Mac seems to be feeling better today. We went to the consulate this morning to see the nurse and while she said his chest is very, very noisy still, she said she has nothing to compare with since she didn't hear him yesterday. She told him to stay home from school again tomorrow (Lord, help us all!) and we're to go back to her in the morning for another check. Then she'll be able to decide whether he's improving.

I want Mac to get better for the obvious reason: I want him to get better! But in the back of my mind is this fabulous weekend I have planned for us in Porto de Galinhas. There's no way known I'm getting on a airplane if I don't have a 100% vote of confidence from the nurse. So not only do I want him to get better for being better's sake, I want a speedy recovery!! My mom always said salt air and water cure anything. Does that include pneumonia???

Mother's Day a near bust at Casa Story

Mac has had a cough for a couple days, but everybody in Sao Paulo has a cough right now so I haven't been overly worried. The weather's doing that schizophrenic thing where it changes from hot to cold to rainy to dry while you blink your eyes and everybody is suffering from sort sort of sniffles, cough or allergy.

So this morning when Mac woke up coughing at 5:30, I didn't intend to do anything more than give him another dose of cough medicine so we could go back to sleep for a little while longer. I let him get in the bed with me and that's when I heard the really shallow, quick breathing that freaked me out. I asked him to take a deep breath and he said he couldn't because it hurt too bad.

As we lay there trying to go back to sleep, I did the over-anxious mother routine of "do I take him to the ER or not? What if it's nothing and they make me feel like a dolt? What if I don't take him and it is something and then I really am a dolt?" I decided that being made to feel like a dolt is far worse than really being a dolt and I also thought we stood a better chance of getting seen faster really early in the morning than if we waited until the sun came up.

We got dressed and on the road at 6am and nearly set the land speed record to the hospital. I have figured out when traffic in Sao Paulo is light: Sunday morning at 6am is your best shot at having the roads nearly to yourself. I say we "nearly" set the land speed record because I missed the turnoff to the hospital because Mac's stomach chose that pivotal moment in time to void itself entirely of its contents.

We finally got to the hospital and were seen immediately. We never sat down to wait from the moment we entered until we saw the triage nurse until we saw the financial people until we saw the pediatric doctor on call. Brilliant.

The doctor said his chest was very noisy so she said Mac would have two inhalation treatments and a chest x-ray and she'd go from there. After all that, she said he had pneumonia. Now I know in my head that pneumonia is very common and very treatable but that's not what I really expected to hear because I was really prepared to be chastised for bringing him in when it was the common cold. Also, as some of you know, my dad was in the hospital with pneumonia when he died and while it probably wasn't the pneumonia itself that killed him, it definitely weakened his system to the point of death. So a pneumonia diagnosis strikes fear in my heart. And this was my sweet little lethargic baby that we were dealing with on Mother's Day no less.

We finally got out of the ER some 4 hours after entering and after two more vomiting episodes and with a stash of medicine to treat this thing. By then the steroid had kicked in and Mac was feeling better, so he thought we were going to continue our day's plans (which had been to have lunch with friends). But those plans were aborted (although I did stop for Starbucks on the way home, justifiable by going to pharmacy next door to get the antibiotic prescription filled).

We came home "to rest" per the doctor's orders, which extend through tomorrow. Mac's idea of "resting" is a little more active than mine. I thought we'd pile in the bed to watch movies but 10 minutes into the first movie, he was trying to turn somersaults in the bed. It's been a battle but I think he's winding down now. We're waiting for the pizza delivery guy to come and then it's bedtime for all.

In all the activity of the day, Mac never forgot it was Mother's Day. When he was getting dressed this morning in the dark, he suddenly sat up straight and wished me a happy Mother's Day. He also didn't want to go to the doctor (because he thought he'd have to get a shot), but I'm promised him no shots (thank you God for answering that prayer) and on the way home, Mac told me - unsolicited by me - that I was right about going to the doctor and he was wrong. Then we got home and he remembered that he had this packet of homemade stuff from school that he was supposed to give me today. So he made me leave the room and he wrote a note that said "I love you" and he handed the note to me with all these beautiful handicrafts. And finally, he's told me all day that I get to choose what we do because after all, it is Mother's Day. He apparently reserved the right to veto my suggestions which meant that we did nothing that I suggested (like rest, for instance) and did everything he suggested, like play bowling, watch Indiana Jones and Tom and Jerry, play Uno Spin, practice yoga, fold Mac up in the yoga mat and pretend to tape the package shut, etc. And to think we get to do this all over again tomorrow!

I hope that all you mothers out there had a spectacular day celebrating your motherhood. My day might not have been "spectacular", but I did get to celebrate my motherhood!