So much has happened in the past week it's hard to know where to begin. The main thing though is that both Sabine and Brodie have been sick and it's left both me and Kyle completely exhausted. I don't know why, but here in Madrid, family drama feels more acute and attacks the body AND mind. Sabine has had a succession of little ailments that alone aren't serious, but together add up to one cranky baby. This culminated yesterday at our favorite little breakfast cafe, but I'll get to that later. As for Christmas, other than spending Christmas Eve morning in the emergency room with both children, it went nicely. Santa delivered Brodie the exact gift she requested -"princess stuff." She wears it every minute of every day we allow - I really don't know how this fascination with the princess life started. Anyway, as for the onslaught of illness, it peaked on the 23rd when Brodie began complaining that it hurt when she peed. At first we were concerned, but then she said it was better. That night we knew something was wrong when she screamed after going to the bathroom and with the help of our neighbor, Fatima, we called the doctor who recommended Ibuprofren until we could get in to the doctor. First thing Christmas Eve morning we took a taxi to the children's hospital. Again, I have to hand it to the Spanish - if you have to take your baby to the emergency room this is the experience you want to have. We showed our ID card, were asked about 6 basic questions, directed to a sitting room and before I could take my jacket off we were being called in to see the doctor! Amazing. The doctor was a very nice young man who was patient with my Spanish and with Brodie. As we suspected, she had a urinary tract infection. Poor thing! Needless to say, for a few days there we had some accidents due to her reluctance to use the potty, but she's recovered and no longer in fear. So right when we thought we were over the worst of kid ailments, Sabine decided to reenact a scene from the Exorcist...at breakfast...in a cafe. She had been content enough in Kyle's lap and as soon as I sat her in my lap to eat, she vomited and do I mean VOMITED - not that little baby spit up, oh no! get-the-burp-rag kind, it was projectile and it was all over me. Understandably, the Spanish are clean-up-your-own-kid's-vomit kind of people so after doing just that, I went home to change and then because Sabine seemed fine (she even ate) we all headed out for a stroll. So we made trip number FOUR to the doctor only to learn that Sabine probably just had/has a bug. There's more to report on, but after writing all this, I think I need to go to yoga.
So much has happened in the past week it's hard to know where to begin. The main thing though is that both Sabine and Brodie have been sick and it's left both me and Kyle completely exhausted. I don't know why, but here in Madrid, family drama feels more acute and attacks the body AND mind. Sabine has had a succession of little ailments that alone aren't serious, but together add up to one cranky baby. This culminated yesterday at our favorite little breakfast cafe, but I'll get to that later. As for Christmas, other than spending Christmas Eve morning in the emergency room with both children, it went nicely. Santa delivered Brodie the exact gift she requested -"princess stuff." She wears it every minute of every day we allow - I really don't know how this fascination with the princess life started. Anyway, as for the onslaught of illness, it peaked on the 23rd when Brodie began complaining that it hurt when she peed. At first we were concerned, but then she said it was better. That night we knew something was wrong when she screamed after going to the bathroom and with the help of our neighbor, Fatima, we called the doctor who recommended Ibuprofren until we could get in to the doctor. First thing Christmas Eve morning we took a taxi to the children's hospital. Again, I have to hand it to the Spanish - if you have to take your baby to the emergency room this is the experience you want to have. We showed our ID card, were asked about 6 basic questions, directed to a sitting room and before I could take my jacket off we were being called in to see the doctor! Amazing. The doctor was a very nice young man who was patient with my Spanish and with Brodie. As we suspected, she had a urinary tract infection. Poor thing! Needless to say, for a few days there we had some accidents due to her reluctance to use the potty, but she's recovered and no longer in fear. So right when we thought we were over the worst of kid ailments, Sabine decided to reenact a scene from the Exorcist...at breakfast...in a cafe. She had been content enough in Kyle's lap and as soon as I sat her in my lap to eat, she vomited and do I mean VOMITED - not that little baby spit up, oh no! get-the-burp-rag kind, it was projectile and it was all over me. Understandably, the Spanish are clean-up-your-own-kid's-vomit kind of people so after doing just that, I went home to change and then because Sabine seemed fine (she even ate) we all headed out for a stroll. So we made trip number FOUR to the doctor only to learn that Sabine probably just had/has a bug. There's more to report on, but after writing all this, I think I need to go to yoga.
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