More downs than ups....

It's been a difficult few weeks....and that's really putting it mildly. On any given day I feel like we're all just squeaking by, with complete disaster lurking around the next corner. From youngest to oldest: Little Parker started walking (YAY!) but with that has come even more bumps and bruises to his already over-sized noggin (BOO!). In addition to the growing pains associated with that, he has a billion teeth coming in at once and is constantly damp from all the drool-soaked clothes. So, that seems like a good time to go get some immunizations, right? For his third run-in with the NHS, I took him over to get his MMR shot and Hep A. According to the American immunization schedule he should have been immunized for these things and chicken pox at 12 months, but we missed that date by a long shot as a result of the glacial speed at which it took us to get registered at the local surgery. Side effects of these shots are: irritability (check), fever (check), sleeplessness (check), loss of appetite (check). But WAIT, why does Sadie have all the same symptoms? Sympathy for her brother, perhaps? If only. No, Sadie started sporting a fever last week and didn't really verbalize anything other than a headache until Thursday night when she finally admitted her ear hurt. So for Sadie's first run-in with the NHS she saw an actual doctor (although, I'm not entirely convinced he deserved that title - shouldn't all doctors be older than me?)

As a result of their various maladies we've decided to continue having them sleep in separate rooms. Which means that we now have a dedicated "Parker wing" and a "Sadie wing" of our flat, with Sadie occupying OUR bedroom, Andrew and I in the office/guest room and Parker way down at the other end of the house.

In general though, the kids have been great - especially on a one-on-one basis. Sadie continues to amaze us with her observations and her budding wit, and Parker is starting to develop a very easy-going personality, seemingly not minding very much when Sadie steals his toys, sits on him, or pushes him over. When he's not feeling lousy, he really has fun! Here he is in "Toddler's World" in our local gym:

Together the kids conspire to make life very difficult when there's only one caretaker (usually me). Hopefully this conspiracy will come to an end when Sadie starts nursery school at the Belsize Square Synagogue - the only nursery within a walkable radius that's able to take her before January. I had heard good things about the place and obviously they don't require the child to be of Jewish heritage to attend. In fact when we visited the school - two other families were visitingas well - transplants from Australia and Korea - both of them non-Jewish. Sadie and I attended the school yesterday morning for a visit. She seemed to enjoy it, however she's cognitively more advanced than the other two and a half year olds in what will be her class starting November 2. All the other kids seemed to be potty trained though, so we're starting operation use-the-potty-full-time as of Friday. Sadie also has started taking ballet - more on that later when I can get some good pictures of her in her "yet to be purchased" uniform.

As for me, I've been intermittently very depressed. More so than I can remember in about 10 years. The isolation from family and friends is sometimes more than I can bear in the face of all these challenges. Couple that with my feelings of inadequacy as a mother and the constant pain I have in both feet and I feel quite debilitated. My efforts to carve out my own life are often thwarted by one sickness, tantrum or another. I count my blessings that Andrew is so supportive, willing to leave work, stay up all hours with Parker and back me up when needed.

As I write this, Andrew and Parker are back at the A and E (emergency room) for the third time in two months. Parker's fever just won't quit and the poor thing can't seem to fall and/or stay asleep (which incidentally means, neither can we). The fever has persisted for about three days and now we're really starting to worry. Andrew's just texted me to say that "old faithful has erupted," a reference to the fact that the A and E requires you to "catch" some urine from your baby so that they can run some tests. We experienced this absurdity on our first trip to the A and E with Parker. The nurse very matter-of-factly said, "we'll need a urine sample" and handed us a grapefruit-sized aluminum bowl, which Parker understandably thought to be a hat or chew toy or anything other than a receptacle for his pee-pee. Surprisingly we were able to catch it, but I can't begin to imagine how Andrew has accomplished this ridiculous task on his own. I'm sure one or both of them are now damp with something other than just drool.

So, now I wait for news of little P....