Saturday

We spend every saturday at my inlaws... Did I tell you they have chickens?

The nursery school

I've been taking C to a very nice nursery school for the past 1.5 years. It's a big place, with nice staff, a spacious class, a dining-room, and C's favorite, a playroom with a house in miniature. They all love it, because they can play house with small beds, a tiny kitchen with a fridge, oven, table, and food (plastic, of course), a closet with an assortment of clothing and shoes to dress up and even a couch and a TV that does not work. When it's nap time, they have a separate room with beds, and the best of all, the nursery school has a big playground. Overall, it's a very nice place and not expensive at all. BUT, it's in the worst neighborhood. It's state-run (there are several in our town), and following a policy of creating good equipments in poor areas, they ended up building this nursery school in this neighborhood. I had never been there before enrolling my daughter there. I just knew about it from the news. When I read the newspaper and find something about drug dealers being arrested, it's always there. Over the years, it has become sort of a ghetto. Mostly gipsies live there. There's so much talk about immigrants and integration, but in there, you'd find a good example of a group of people born in the country who don't share the general rules. There are trash containers on the street, but you can find all kinds of rubbish on the ground, just a few meters from where they should be. I just don't understand it. Is it so hard to walk a few more steps and throw it where it belongs? Another puzzling thing: some mothers take their kids to the nursery school and don't bother to change clothes, so you see them in slippers and pajama walking down the street with the kid. Hmmm... I would be embarrassed but they don't seem to bother. And another habit: eating sunflower seeds and spitting the husk on the ground (is husk the right word?).... I remember when we told our families that C would be going to this nursery school... they were shocked. But we think it was a good decision. My daughter has always felt comfortable in the school, she's happy and I guess that's the best indicator... Anyway, next year she'll join her sister in another school (the one A is attending), it's only 4 more months! The worst part about the nursery school is the drive... it's in the farthest part of town... In the beginning, Hubby drove her in the morning and I would pick her up after lunch, but then he was diagnosed with epilepsy, and I took care of the driving....

Dad, according to C

That's my husband, according to Cristina. She likes to draw her father, nonstop, but he always looks like this. What I don't get is, his legs seem to grow from his head up. And that's not hair on the sides of his head. I suggested it was, but C quickly corrected me. Those are his ears.

That's also hubby, and it's always her next step. The first time she did that I asked "why are you scratching it out?" and she said "Noooo.... I'm covering him with a blanket". Ok.
Looks like an alien to me. But I won't tell her.

There's something on your hair...

I don't spend much time in the mornings trying to make myself pretty. I don't use makeup and I hardly ever wear earrings or any other ornament... but yesterday I decided I looked too bad even for my taste so I tried to make my hair look at least ok. And I even put on a hairclip. Hmm... A red one. I arrived at work, said hello and one of my coworkers said "Nuri, there's something on your hair... something red" Something?? I did that on purpose! It was supposed to look good! All that effort...

Random thoughts

WARNING: Grammatical, spelling mistakes ahead (I don't have the time to check)
I've been quite busy, I can only confirm that I am, indeed, a lousy blogger.
Other than that, no bad news in our household. It's been more than 2 months since H had his last seizure, so we're hopeful... However, the results on his sleep deprived EEG showed abnormal waves. The doctor said those waves shouldn't be there since he is on medication, but did not suggest a change. I guess he won't change his medication unless he has another seizure...
Just yesterday, we were having dinner, and Alicia asked out of the blue "Mom, what if you fall down like dad and it's just me and Cristina, what will happen to us?" It was totally unexpected since we had not been talking about it at all, in fact she seemed completely uninterested. I had tried to get her to tell me how she felt in the park when her dad had his seizure, but she refused to talk and I just let it go. But yesterday she gave me a full account of that day, and she seemed worried that it might happen to me or her... I told her it's a condition her father has, not me, and not her (let's not talk about genetics...) and that she should not worry because dad always recovers completely...

And now for something funny... my SIL went to the doctor because she had rash on the back of her neck. The doctor took a good look at her neck and head and then gave her the news: "ma'am, you have headlice!, do you have children?"
She was horrified. She's close to being a clean freak, her house is spotless, and changes his son's clothes if there so much as a tiny stain on them! The doctor actually explained that it does not mean she's dirty, that kids get them quite easily and sometimes pass them to adults, but she was sooo worried! I checked on Cristina, since the children had been playing together on sunday, and bought a special comb, but no lice or nits... Poor SIL

Party...

I'm going to some kind of a farewell party for my boss. He won't be leaving the company, just changing his office, so we'll see him around anyway. My co-workers have prepared some surprises for him, and even wrote a song! I feel uncomfortable with the whole thing. It looks like a cult boss. Do we worship him or what?? We can have lunch, even exchange small presents but actually SING something to him and have some sort of magician perform for him??? Too much.

Childhood story

Alicia: you know, mom, you don't have to take me to school everyday, I know the way, I can go on my own...
Me: Really?... Tell me, what if you're walking to school and someone driving a car tells you he can drive you?
Alicia: I'd go in the car and tell him where the school is!
she says that smiling, believing that her answer made her pass my "test", but I tell her never to do that, that she should never accept a ride from somebody outside the family. She looks confused, in part because she doesn't understand what some bad person might possibly want from her.


I'm writing this because Buffalo has a post that made me think about something that happened in my childhood. My sister (she was 7 or 8 at the time) once accepted a ride from a man we knew. Not that he was a friend, but he was a familiar face. She started to get scared when she noticed he wasn't driving towards our house. At some point he stopped and kissed her on the lips, saying they could pretend they were boyfriend and girlfriend. My sister was too scared to react. He continued driving and when he stopped again (a traffic light I suppose) she opened the door, jumped out and started running. When she told my mother, she didn't go to the police. Instead, she found out where the man lived and paid a visit. His wife opened the door and my mother demanded to see him. something in my mom's face told her this was serious, and she invited her in but she just told her to get her husband. When he came at the door he barely had time to say anything. My mother slapped him hard in the face, told his wife what he had done and told him she was going to the police. He begged her not to do it and swore he'd never do that to her daughters or any other kid. God knows if he kept his word... but I remember my sister was proud of her mom that night. We all were, even though that's not the type of behavior my dad approves. He would have followed the rational, legal way and gone to the police, but my mom's always been the temperamental one. Do you think she did the right thing? I believe she should have slapped him AND gone to the police, but that was about 34 years ago...

Per molts anys!

3 years ago...

Today:

Waiting

I'm angry. My husband is in France again with his father to see Dr Mystery. He had an appointment (I'm beginning to realise appointments mean nothing to this man) at 1pm and at 6pm he was still in the waiting room. This is just unbelievable. Could it be just a strategy? I mean, if he keeps people waiting in a small room maybe everyone believe he is really worth it... I'm wondering if he is, in fact, a quack after all. Even if he's a physiotherapist, he's still so unreliable when it comes to hours.

Exhausted

I'm exhausted. I feel I've been on a marathon for the last two days. Yesterday we went to see the three kings (the wise men) arrive, and this morning the children opened up their presents. I've been either assembling things, putting batteries in toys or picking wrapping paper and carton boxes... I'll post some pictures tomorrow.

My MIL told me today that Alicia said to her "I like the other grandma better than you, she is nicer to me, gives us kisses and buys things". I don't like her saying any of that, but should I let this be a warning to MIL that she should be softer? Maybe hug the kids spontaneously??

I finally could upload two videos of the tió, so if you want to see them, you can click on these two links:
video 1
video 2
For some strange reason, I can't post them directly on the blog!
By the way, the song and voices are Catalan...

Bubbles and paint

Sometimes we tend to buy sophisticated toys, but among the gifts from the tió, the simplest entertainment proved to be one of the kids' favorites: this thing to make bubbles. They're always amazed!

Cristina was also fascinated with paint, as you can see. But this painting box turned out to be a bit of a nightmare. See what 3 minutes of unattended painting frenzy will get you...

That strange tradition from Catalonia

I couldn't upload a video of the tió, so I'll post pictures. This is how it works:1-the kids go to another room to pray or say a christmas verse2-they come back and take a stick and chant while hitting the log3-when the song is over they check under the tió for presents4-they repeat the same thing until there's only chocolate which means the tió is done, and won't give anymore presents...Don't ask me how kids believe this! they want to believe is my guess! (Is religion as easy as that? Just wanting to believe and not asking logical questions??)

Would you believe this is a Christmas tree?

It is. And I can't help but associate it with it's owner's temperament, my MIL. It's dry, austere, gloomy... I can tell the colorful lightbulbs are there because, after all, it is Christmas, and doing something festive is a must, a chore, but one must never be too happy about it. Just the bare minimum of Christmas spirit.

Our tió...

We have set the tió again, "he" needs to be stuffed with food so that on the 24th, he'll... release lots of presents for the children!

happiness

Is this pill going to make me happy?

Is it going to bring back my motivation to do things?

Is it going to change the grouchy me into a sugarcoated mom?

Will it actually make me want to iron clothes, pick up the kids happily and do all my daily chores as if I were a character in The Sound of Music??

If it is, so be it...

Pic of the day: daughters playing at high speed

nice....

My co-workers again... but this time it's nice. They decided I need some time off and arranged for us to go have dinner someplace and go to see a movie. I need to get a babysitter for tomorrow!
It was actually so nice of them... I've been a bit down lately.

"Friends" at work

Remember I was mad at one of my co-workers (there's two actually working in the same department I am) because she had made an insensitive comment about the lunatic doctor in France?. Ok, things are quite good since I talked to them both. I explained I had been through difficult times, even a bit depressed, and didn't feel much like sharing our experience of epilepsy with anyone (or them, at least, but I didn't say that). They said they felt I was shutting them out. After the talking, everything returned to normal, but I just don't see them under the same light. I still don't understand why they would feel so angry because I didn't share everything with them. It sounds a bit childish to me. And I remember a sentence they both used when I talked to them SEPARATELY. "We just didn't understand why you were so distant, when we had been so supportive..." I just don't feel that's ok. If you choose to be supportive you just don't brag about it, in my opinion. You don't remind your friend how much you've helped. That's kind of... low. And they actually said they wouldn't ask me again how my husband was doing, because I was being so "touchy". Great. I don't mind their not asking, in fact I appreciate, but I still think they're being... childish. They have kept their word, and have never asked me again how he's doing, or how I'm doing. And honestly, I prefer that. I prefer keeping my distance. We're civil, we're polite to each other and even friendly at times, but it's different now. They used to be a bit too "helpful". They always seemed to know what to do, and they insisted I should talk to my husband and make him understand he just can't be working on the same schedule, because that probably puts too much stress on him. It doesnt. He's happy at work, in fact he loves it. And he's an adult, let him decide. My two co-workers are the kind of people who not only listen to your problems, but also have a "solution". "Their" solution. And that can be annoying when all you want is somebody to listen without judging...