Kids with no pants...

Yesterday, as is our custom on Fat Tuesday, we took the whole crew out to dinner (you have to fatten up before lent). When we got to Dylan's favorite pizza place, Non Solo Pizza, Toby stood up and dropped his pants in the middle of the restaurant. Pamela was mortified and the customers were amused (he's 3, come on!).

Non Solo is pretty cool because they have the big wood pizza ovens and they have the guys making the pizza behind a plexiglas "wall" in the middle of the restaurant. Occasionally they throw the pizza up in the air, which my kids just love. At one point the pizza maker threw his dough up in the air, and it went over the wall and next to Dylan. So Dylan grabbed it and stood up and was throwing it up in the air (Pamela's still just mortified) and having it land on his face. Then he passed it back to the pizza guys, who were laughing so hard they almost couldn't get the dough back. I think he made their night. Poles don't often act silly.

This morning, I went to Carrefour in Galeria Mokotow because it's closer and less hassle than going all the way out to Auchan. And there's no one there! It's fantastic! I can get in and out in less than an hour, including the time it takes to get the faktura (a form that we get to have our sales tax returned to us). On the way out I noticed that the coffee shop (kawiarnia) had very few sweets, reminding everyone that it's Lent, and I was reminded of the movie Chocolat, which is a very interesting insight into the social pressures that keep everyone doing what they're supposed to do.

Have a great day!

This Week (and it's only Wednesday!)

Gosh, this week has been awful. It actually started last week where Blaise (the baby) was sick with a pretty high fever (I didn't actually take his temp, I just gave him Tylenol...apparently the staff at the Health Unit thinks I'm weird for that, but I'm a mom - of four!). He got better after 4 days, and honestly, I kind of like them when they're sick 'cause they just rest all day and they're pretty easy - pathetic, but easy.

Well Friday, Toby came home from school with a weird pink ring around his eye. It wasn't like pink eye, it was more like someone had drawn the line with a Pepto Bismol colored crayon. Saturday he had a fever, so it was more Tylenol and laying around. Sunday he was still not well, so I stayed with him while Dylan took the other kids to church. Monday - an embassy holiday - he had a fever of 103.5. So more Tylenol and lying around. Tuesday his eye swelled up - the same eye that had the pink ring on Friday - so we took him to the doctor. Now, don't fault me for being a bad mom, I REALLY thought he just had the same thing Blaise had had the previous week. The embassy doc said "He's got periorbital cellulitis and needs to be admitted to the hospital." Dylan and I were like, is this an emergency or urgent? He says "urgent", so we were like, let's take him to the Pediatrician and see what he says. Maybe he'll just give him high dose antibiotics and we can keep him home. I went to pick up a friend's daughter from the preschool, 'cause Seth was going home with his friend and she'd had car trouble. When I arrived, I was met at the door by Seth's teacher. "Seth has pink eye!"...so now I'm taking Seth and Ava home and Nicholas (Seth's friend) was just devastated. Luckily we had the appointment for Toby with the pediatrician.

So the pediatrician says, "He has a bad ear infection, strep throat, and conjunctivitis. He's very ill." He prescribed antibiotics for home, with the first few doses pretty close together. And Seth also has pink eye. Oh, and the pediatrician seemed totally surprised when we said that Toby has never had an ear infection as he found evidence in his left ear of previous ear infections. After this whole ordeal is over we must take him to an ear, nose and throat doctor.

This goes into a whole long problem that I have with the military/embassy system of healthcare for those of us without a MTF (Military Treatment Facility) anywhere close. We were ready to take Toby to the hospital, but changed our minds when Tricare/International SOS would not approve the children's hospital in town - where the State Department sends their kids. They approved another hospital which, come to find out, does not admit children.

My dear friend Lisa asked me how we keep our kids so healthy at one point and I told her I didn't know. Now I think I do, our kids go undiagnosed.

But here's my Poland difference for the month. We went to fill the prescriptions (of which there were many). In the States you would get the prepared antibiotic (it's a liquid) from the pharmacy, but here you get the powder with directions in Polish of how to prepare it yourself! Have fun!

But I did manage to finish two LOs yesterday for LOAD:

I just wanted to use the last of the Disney paper that I bought on the cruise because I can't imagine what else I would use it for...particularly the one with the boat. I don't like either of these LOs, but I threw them together really fast (like less that 30 min per LO) because I just wanted to get them done yesterday. I wasn't in a real creative mood as I was trying to decide what to do with all my other kids when my middle boy was in the hospital. I'm glad he's not there.

Update: I just got a call from Dylan and I mixed the antibiotic incorrectly (SURPRISE, SURPRISE!) so I have been giving Toby too much antibiotic in the last three doses. However, the Health Unit is aware...whatever good that does.

Non Scrapbook post:)

Dylan is picking on me because he still gives out the blog address to people as an insight into our lives overseas, but now it has turned into a scrapbook blog. True, but scrapbooking is a passion of mine, and at this point it's what I do. So anyway, this is a non scrapbook post.

The problem is that when we lived in Africa (look in the archives before June 2007), so many funny things happened because of the extreme cultural difference between North America and Africa. Here in Poland...nothing funny really happens. Most of the things that happen that are cultural differences just make me angry, so they don't usually make it to the blog. There's not much cultural difference between North America and Europe, especially when you're like me and have spent 6 years of the past 12 in Europe.

So my observations today: Poles drive like maniacs the first time it snows. They drive like maniacs most of the time, but I was almost hit twice on the way to Seth's school today and I was nearly run off the road by someone as well. That's not normal. Usually it's only one near accident and I see it coming. When I'm driving here, mostly I just pray that I don't get in an accident because so many people still don't speak English and I just don't know what I'd do.

I guess that's another thing. I spend my entire day in the car and the house, and I don't do much interacting. It's sad, but I just don't really have the time or the energy to be out and about doing things. It takes half an hour to get Blaise bundled to go outside in the cold (even if it's just from the car to the store, he has to be in AT LEAST coat, mittens and hat - if not the babcias (grandmas) will tell you all about it) and where do I have to go? Many of the people who are on their 3rd year here have nannies, but it seems like the people who came in this summer do not. Nannies have gotten pretty expensive here and they can be because they can demand a higher wage if they speak English. I actually think that's pretty awesome. I think if you went to the trouble to learn another language you should be able to demand a higher wage for it. Unfortunately I can't afford to pay it. So I don't go to the art shows and various and assorted other cultural interesting things that are going on around the city. I pretty much live like your average American stay at home mom...with the exception that I have to be able to read and speak (at least some) another language in order to get my shopping and cooking done.

The funniest thing that happened recently with regard to Poland, was that I bought some couscous. I was on the phone with my dad and trying to figure out how to make the couscous. When I bought it, I only looked at the label that said couscous and went on. When I pulled it out of the pantry, I realized the whole package is written in French. Now, I speak NO French and I bought the package in a big grocery store here IN POLAND. So I turn to Pamela, who took French for 4 years in school, and ask her "How much water does it say I need?" She says she has no idea. Finally, I looked it up online "How many parts couscous to parts water?" My dad says, "If I had to live like that, everyone would eat hot dogs all the time." The best part about it is that I can read recipes in German, Spanish, Polish and even some in Arabic...but I CANNOT read recipes in French.

On the French note, Toby goes to school with Timotee, who is French. Every time he sees me he says "le mama d' Toby" which, even with my lack of knowledge of French, is the equivalent of Mrs. Toby's Mom:).

ETA: After all that talk of trying not to get into an accident and several near misses today, I backed into a @#$% wall and broke the taillight on the van!