I am a US Citizen (rather suddenly)

On Tuesday I had my US naturalization interview. After almost missing the author of the Declaration of Independence and being floored by a mis-read question "What is the current office of the president?" I PASSED. Since it was the eve of Veterans Day they were having a naturalization ceremony that afternoon so, after fetching Mum from the airport (Adelaide, Melbourne, LAX, Seattle!) I dragged her to Homeland Security for the two hour wait and ceremony.



I am now an American and an Australian (I had to renounce my South African citizenship when I moved to Australia).

Preschool today

Wren went to preschool this morning. He loves preschool. He even loves his teacher and he definitely loves his songs. He often asks if it is preschool today.

Here you see Wren on the climbing wall in the large motor area of preschool. I should get Josh to take him some morning because it is lovely to see how happy and attentive he is there. During the two hour session he played climbing (a lot), splashing fish in the sensory table, pounding huge chunks of playdough into a volcano, swinging in a hammock swing and eating snack.

It was fun for both of us.

Mum called from the airport in Adelaide offering to buy me some Uggs. I was afraid they would be the wrong size but now I covet them. She should be on the plane now and will arrive tomorrow after my US Citizenship test and interview. Did I tell you I was freaking out? I had a nightmare last night that driving to the Interview the I90 Floating Bridge became FLOATING at waterlevel and I couldn't see the road so I nearly drove off it during a flurry of leaves. I reached Homeland Security and became lost in a maze of corridors staffed by military personnel. Argh.

Wish me luck. I am going with my study guide, my confidence in spoken english and documents regarding my arrest history and previous marriage.

The Laundromat

This week we visited the laundromat for the first time. Wren loved the laundromat. Not only did it have fabulous big front loader washers which could do all the laundry in one load, but you could watch it go around AND EAT FREE COOKIES. I tried to interview Wren about the laundromat but he was evasive and did not pick up on my prompting. I give you my unedited interview below. Please note that I do not always talk in incomplete sentences. What can I say, lately I am too scattered to use verb forms.

The sad news is that the washer valve has arrived so we shall not visit the laundromat again soon except for its entertainment value (admittedly great).

Extreme Reading

Q: What is Frost doing before breakfast?

A: Reading.

Q: What is Frost doing at breakfast?
A: Reading.

Q: What is Frost doing at the bus-stop?
A: Reading.

One thing about Frost that gives me real pleasure is his love of reading. I grew up 'in a family of booksellers' where reading was highly valued. The bookstore my Dad worked in (and my Grandfather before him) is a large store in my hometown named after our family and everyone who knows that town knows the bookstore (and my Dad). The bookstore was founded a few generations back and my Dad still manages the company which now owns a number of branches so it was and is more than a job. In the old store downtown it felt like a community in which everyone was important.

Growing up around a bookstore means you can read a lot (on 'apro' or loan from the store) but only if you look after the books carefully. That means never folding the corner of a page to mark your place, never opening the book wide enough to mark the spine and certainly having clean hands. I still try and keep to these 'book use' principles, at least enough to feel the guilt when I break them. However Frost is a hard book user and ploughs through them with all the physicality his 8 year old body can muster. Here are some pictures of Frost reading his current obsession: Harry Potter. I bought him the box set of Volumes 1-6, and he is almost finished book 4 and means to read nothing else but Foxtrot until he finishes all 7.

You must do nothing!

When Wren woke up this morning he had a stuffy nose and, despite his best efforts at excavation, he could not fix it. This made him sad&mad, a common state when you are almost 3.

I suggested we play but he lay, defeated, and said "no, you must DO NOTHING."

I lay down next to him and he was more sad&mad about that and said "do not do that you must do nothing."

I told him I thought that lying next to him was doing nothing.

"You are lying down" he observed.

I sat up, producing another paroxysm of complaint.

"You are sitting up. DO NOTHING," he insisted.

I was becoming exasperated. "Ok, I will go away for a bit."

"DO NOT GO AWAY." [head into pillow with some kicking] "Do nothing........ " [wailing]

At this point I decide He Is Sick Again and get the thermometer. Ok, I know this is not doing nothing as instructed but I had to check. He hates the ear probe thermometer so of course he screams and yells and says "My BRAIN IS SORE."

He has no temperature but now I fear meningitis, sinusitis or something else vile and 'itissy which I shall be forced to google and find only a Wikipedia stub and sad blogs about dead children.

I ask him to point where his brain hurts. He touches..... his chest - left side first and then right.

Huh - his heart? His lungs?

"When does it hurt?" (I'm thinking respiratory distress, pneumonia)

"It hurts HERE" (touching the middle and then rubbing around and around all over).

This is weird because he has not been coughing much and his chest was clear yesterday. At least we are getting somewhere [or doing SOMEthing].

I ask him to drink water. He refuses. I tell him that the water will make the stuff in his nose slide away (there is no visible snot but yesterday the doctor confirmed my suspicion that Wren is dehydrated. He is eating up a storm but not drinking.) He drinks a bit. He sniffs suspiciously and Hallelujah, his nose is improved.

He sniffs. His nose snorts a bit. He says "A water did go deep inside and it is not in my nose now!" He needs some more. Apparently he has figured that once the water goes deep inside its healing properties are reduced. He drinks A LOT.

I tell him it is Halloween Today and he suggests we read a Halloween book. After various colossal failures on my part (stupid stupid stupid to think that a book about bones is a Halloween Book, or a book about a 'gyptian mummy is a Halloween Book or a book about fuzzy bats is a Halloween Book) we look at I Spy Spooky Night.

Something is done. The day starts, anew.

Wren needs to pee.

Hallelujah. Halloween.

Healed but grumpy

Wren is better. I took him to the doctor to keep the CDC flu-related doctor visit stats rising and 'just in case' his cough was hiding out in his chest. It wasn't. It isn't. He still coughs but its just the lingering part.

Yesterday, I went crazy cooking. I started and it just went on and on with the kids helping. We baked bread then Frost had the idea of pumpkin bread so we baked that too and then I saw the sugar pumpkins from South 47th and decided to prepare my own cooked pumpkin for pie today. Oh, then I realized it was better to bake my own pie shells than buying them and the only reason I didn't finish that project was running out of butter.

Here are Frost and Wren waiting in the rain for the schoolbus yesterday morning.

No Fever, still sick

Wren is still under the weather. He has "a headache" and "want medicine."

Last night he woke around midnight and apparently had trouble getting back to sleep. When I woke at 6.45am (yeah!) I was alone in bed and found Josh and Wren crammed onto the twin on the floor of Wren's room.

Wren woke at 7.30am with Frost. He had no fever this morning but still has swollen lymph nodes in his throat, sounds hoarse (laryngitis?) and coughs occasionally (as if clearing his throat). He was up to 99.1 by the time I dragged him to a showroom to pick faucets. Yes, I know. There were no kids around and I am stir crazy at home.

Of course, there is never a dull moment at home. Our bathroom project is likely to be delayed until the weekend after Thanksgiving due to the contractor's availability and not wanting us to be left for 10 days "holiday" without bathing plumbing. AND the washer in the basement flooded AGAIN. If not for a recently cleaned drain the carpets would be wet again. We have diagnosed the problem as a faulty inlet valve. We shall see what the Sears Service person says.

Things I have learned about Wren this week:

1) He loves Zoboomafoo and Dragon Tales more than Go, Diego Go.

2) He likes the IDEA of bubble baths but hates the bubbles. If I make a really bubbly bath he spends his whole bathtime trying to clear a bubble free zone in which to sit. I have to stand by with a towel to wipe off any bubbles that get on his skin.

3) Wren thinks cookies are a staple and dinner is eaten in "how many bites?" to qualify for desert. Oh cr*p. I have done it again.

4) Everyone in this family loves apples. They like them best sliced.

Frost's Halloween Vignettes

These are pictures Frost took of a Halloween Decoration Skeleton (with one leg broken off). I will let him describe them in his own words.

1. Skeleton Stealing Snack.

He is stealing snacks out of our cupboard in the kitchen.

2. Skeleton Works Out.

Skeleton is hanging onto the handle of our exercise machine for dear life. Note://All of the lighting in darkness around is presented by me putting flashlights in selected places to make them give a circle of light just for Mr Skeleton. Note #2//Wren helped me do these in some ways by shining a different flashlight around the place which you cannot see in these pictures.

3. Say Yes To Drugs.

Mr Skeleton is putting on a "Say Yes to Drugs" campaign. Note://To do this picture I took all the pill [note by mum: naturopathics] and Vitamin bottles off the shelf. The sign says SAY YES TO DRUGS. I got the idea for this from the "SAY NO TO DRUGS" campaign. I kind of know people don't like drugs because I have seen it on TV and I have seen it in the newspaper and I have seen it on selected store things.

4. Skeleton Watches Football.

I think that he is watching the Cardinals versus ????. I got this idea from my Dad who watches football like every night. Mr Skeleton is leaning on his favorite pillow.

5. Mr Skeleton Meets His End

Mr Skeleton was last seen walking along my countertop when suddenly he was found with a butter-knife through his heart (I wanted to use a real sharp knife but my babysitter wouldn't let me). Wren is peaking over a chair in the background and just to tell you that a Starbucks coffee is in Skellie's other hand because my babysitter's coffee was there and I thought to put it to good use. I thought it Skeleton was just walking around he might have an ipod and a coffee and be drinking and listening to it so I just used it.

6. On the Ground

Skeleton lies on the ground with an eerie electricky light around him. We did this by adding greenish tint to it in the photo editor.

Photographer's note:

I do not know why I chose to do this photo campaign but I thought it was fun. I am going to take more and you are going to see them on this blog. PS. There WERE five more days till Halloween when I too these pictures.

Rough Night

Wren seems to have regressed today. He is sad, temperamental and woke at 4am with a fever which recorded as moderate (101.8) but felt much hotter. I think the reading was wrong because of the yelling and wrestling to get the ear thermometer in place. He also complained of a headache. I gave him Tylenol and we chatted for 45 minutes about the moon and how it was night and why Daddy was snoring before he fell asleep and we woke at 7.45am.

We were late for breakfast and Frost would have missed his school bus but for a lady in a SUV who chased it with her children on board. Apparently the bus was running a bit early.

Wren has had 3 doses of Tylenol today as well as his Tamiflu. Besides a mild fever in the 100s - 101s as doses wear off he complains of headache and a sore tummy. He has a mild intermittent cough, nothing I would comment on without the fever, and says his ears hurt when I use the thermometer. Josh thinks we should try one of the forehead ones. Its always a debate about taking a young child's temperature. They are unreliable with oral thermometers, ear and underarm have high variability when parents use them and I don't know if I trust the forehead ones. I end up taking it repeatedly to confirm my results.

I spoke with Dr L who would like to see him on Friday if his fever continues. That's due to the risk of endocarditis with unexplained fever. She is also asking about worker breathing (No, no respiratory symptoms but some faster breathing with higher fever), lethargy (only with high fever but still responsive) and appetite (good). He is not drinking enough liquids so the nurse suggested pedialyte. I will stick with water because he is getting enough food.

I hope he improves overnight.

Eating Cheese

Wren seems to be feeling better this morning. His fever was almost gone - down to 99.5 - although he was still noticeably warm. I have given him Tylenol because he was still complaining about the headache. He tells me it has now gone because of the medicine.

The clear signs of feeling much better right now are that he is eating like a horse (he has just eaten two whole Babybelle cheeses on top of his scrambled eggie) and is sitting up to watch Dragon Tales rather than lying down wrapped up in a pile of blankets.

I hope he continues to feel better and the fever doesn't recur this afternoon.

Still no cough or cold so this may be Some Other Virus.