Sickies

This week has been hard. Very hard. Markus and I have been unwell. With no breaks, no babysitter, no family close by to latch onto... Oh, woe to us. Oy.

Thankfully, the girls are fine! With the exception of minor coughs (nothing worrisome), they are a-ok, happy as clams...well, if you also make an exception for the fact that their parents are lame ducks. They are themselves, and we are very pleased they have escaped relatively unscathed from whatever bug we have. The only presence of it in Stephanie we detect is trouble going to bed at night, a common thing with her when she doesn't feel good. She wants someone there until she falls asleep, but she doesn't fall asleep well when someone is there. It tends to drag on for quite a while (6:30 bedtime dragged on til close to 9 some nights), but all in all, that's not so bad.

On Sunday, we made our first ever trip out to Rottnest Island. Our fantastic neighbors and friends across the road had arranged a weekend holiday stay over there, and we missed booking on time to join them. We did take them up on the suggestion of a day trip meeting, and it was lovely.

Rottnest is just a 30 minute ferry ride from Fremantle harbor. The explorers who found it discovered its resident quokkas, small marsupials they mistook for large rats, and thus dubbed it a Rat-nest (Rottnest). Quokkas are awfully darned cute, and our little Jungle Jane adored them (as she does any animal).

Rottnest allows no cars (thus the girls' bike helmets), making it a great vacation spot for young families. It has pristine beaches with crystal clear water that is excellent for snorkeling. Not that we'd know. I got so seasick on the ride over that I barely recovered. I was happy to take the early ferry home again, a truly rough ride back, which was fortunate in that the seas got even rougher later in the day. By the time we got home, my body was so out of whack that I was still rocking and rolling while stationary. I also could not get warm. I burned myself with hot water in the shower but still felt cold. I shivered so much for so long that my abs hurt. It felt like the flu. Perhaps it was. Bad timing for the Rotto trip, I guess. I just hadn't felt that coming.

By Tuesday, I was feverish (all day) and fairly miserable. Thanks to an ENT appointment for Ellie*, I had both girls home with me at a time when I really needed to lie down. Markus promised he would try to come home early to help me, and come home early he did...more ill than I was. Miraculously, I woke up yesterday without this bug in my system, but he hasn't been back to work yet. It has knocked him over.

Add onto this a ridiculous house viewing we had to allow today. We will start our move next week. The owners decided not to renew our lease because they had to do major renovations involving asbestos, thus could not have tenants. Ha. The house is listed online. The estate agent called me Monday, all sweet and lovey, trying to get on my good side before asking for a viewing for particular prospective tenants on Thursday, which she then advertised online as an open house. Grr. That d*mn house viewing sent me over the edge. Proverbial straw, as it were. I won't go into details of my not-so-little breakdown today, but let's all agree that next week will be a good time to get a fresh start and finally do this move!

Anyhoo...the girls are fine. We are doing the best we can to keep life normal for them, despite our own funk and stress levels. Of course they notice and behave accordingly ("climbing the walls" is an expression that comes to mind...), but they are little children and are doing the best they can too. Next week will be different. Next week will be very different! Be sure to note the change of address in the previous post. That will be in effect from Monday onwards.

*While my mom was visiting, the school nurse called to express concern about Ellie's ears. She had participated in a routine eye and ear screening at school, and the nurse found her ears to be "full of fluid". After berating me for ignoring my daughter's health (she made me cry), I took Ellie to our friendly GP who assured me the nurse had gotten a bit carried away. He prescribed a nasal spray to strengthen her eustachian tubes to aid in drainage and told us to come back in a month to follow up, which we did. He referred us to an ENT because one ear was still not clear. The school nurse called two days later, demanding to know why I had ignored her referral to the GP, as she had tested Ellie again and found fluid in both ears. Grr. Anyhoo, the wait for the ENT was nearly two months. I called this week to try to reschedule, and the next day had opened up. Fantastic! Ellie went in to see the ENT. He found no infection though there was indeed fluid in both ears. He wants to try to dry it out with antibiotics before he resorts to inserting grommets. We are to go back in mid-December for a full hearing screen and a follow-up visit, at which point he'll decide about grommets. I'll keep you posted on that. The good news is that there is no infection and Ellie doesn't seem to be bothered about this at all. He says this is really common, and we are lucky to be among the few in whom no infection is present.