Santa's Little Helper

Over the last few weeks, Eric has been getting so much better at doing everything. I read that 15 months is considered to be the milestone month for that very reason. It is also notorious around here as the time when babies will get the “bad vaccine;” (The MMR which supposedly almost always gives some sort of bad reaction during the following 10-15 days. Eric seems OK, though, for now.)

For that very reason, Eric and I went to see his doctor on Tuesday. As usual, it was a very fun adventure. I originally had an appointment for the 21^st of December, but since his doctor wasn’t going to be around at that time, they called Mauri and left him a message that our appointment was changed to the 20^th at 8:45 AM.

Lately Eric has been going to bed much later than before. It’s easier for Mauri to be able to spend time with him that way, and Eric can eat dinner with us. As soon as Mauri gets home, we eat dinner, and then we put Eric to bed. The only problem with doing things that way, though, is that he also sleeps much later each morning.

So, of course, I had to specifically wake Eric up, something that makes him very fussy, to make it to his new early appointment. When I got there, though, (surprise, surprise) I found out our appointment wasn’t on the list of appointments. That was after arriving to find the huge line of people waiting to get their blood drawn in that hall, and after waiting for 20 minutes until the doctor arrived since the appointments didn’t actually start until 9AM.

Luckily a friend of a friend was working there that morning, and when she asked me how I was doing, I explained what had happened. She went to check on when his new appointment was supposed to be for me and told me there was a note in his file that there was an opening at 11:50, but that we would be there at ten to 9. She stayed around and pointed it out to the nurse, so they ended up letting us go in for our (8:45) appointment, the first appointment of the day (at around 9:10AM). I was already on the defensive, and was prepared for them to not see us. I was ready to say that after specifically waking up early to get there for the appointment they chose for us, if they didn’t want to see us, they could just give us the 18 month appointment because I had no plans of coming back again for the 15 month one!!!!!

I had gone with good intentions, and had a Christmas card, with Eric and the dogs’ pictures, to give to her. I was so annoyed by the whole appointment, though, that I ended up saving it and later giving it to our vet.

As usual, they weighed and measured Eric, who was screaming and wouldn’t stop moving as they were trying to measure his height and the circumference of his head. The nurse decided to wait until the doctor arrived to try to re-measure him because we couldn’t keep him still enough between the two of us. When they measured him, though, the doctor seemed upset, and said they should re-measure because he didn’t seem as tall as he should nor did his head grow much since last time.

After re-measuring several times, she told me that although his measurements were still following the curve, that she wanted to see him again in a few weeks to make sure he is growing well. The last reading had been above the curve, and she admitted that the measurements last time were likely elevated, but wants me to come back in around six weeks just to be sure.

In reality, I’m a bit annoyed by that. I looked at the curve, and for his age, the cranial circumference should only grow by about half a centimeter in three months time. So, I’m not exactly sure what she thinks she’s going to see in 6 weeks time. Only tilting the tape measure by the slightest angle, or taking the measurement at a slightly different place, would affect the measurement by at least a quarter of a centimeter.

I found these crackers on the shelf and decided to help myself!! Yum!!!!

So, I’m debating whether I’m going to actually make an appointment in 6 weeks. I could be measuring his head myself without wasting the at least an hour wait that I always have whenever I go to one of her regular appointments. (I was assured that I would have no wait today because the vaccine visits are supposedly different.) I keep remembering how the other doctor commented on how obsessive this doctor has become ever since she has become a mother herself, and how she had me going in every couple of weeks to obsessively weigh Eric only months ago. She, herself, admitted that his growth was still within the curve, and I probably should have commented on how I just had to buy new pajamas because his 12 month pajamas are starting to get too small, height-wise, for him. I also just let out the pants that I had hemmed for him only around three months ago. So, I know he has grown more than the half a centimeter that they said he had grown in the last 3 months.

Elle came to visit us again too!! (She makes a good pillow.)

Anyway, as usual I left from the appointment a bit annoyed by the whole experience, and wishing I had a different doctor. I decided that I was going to take advantage of being parked in town, and I would walk to the pharmacy to get Eric some more diaper cream, but when I arrived I found it was closed. It turns out that the pharmacies are on strike because the Spanish government hasn’t been paying them the money that they should for the medicines. That also kept me from getting Molly, our 14 year old golden retriever, her vitamins.

The last couple of days, Molly has had a much harder time getting up than she was already having, and she slips and slides on our laminate flooring. She has a harder time getting up and down the stairs to get outside too; plus, on Tuesday, she hadn’t been eating. We brought her to the vet the next day, but by then, she was luckily eating again. The vet commented that a lot of older dogs had come in this week with the same problem due to the cold winter weather finally arriving. He decided to do a blood test on her, though, and found her to be anemic and to have low red blood cell proteins indicating a reduced functioning of her liver and kidneys. So, he doesn’t want to give her any real arthritis medicines, apart from the food that we give her that specifically is formulated for arthritic joints, because they will only worsen the functioning of her internal organs. He did give us a prescription for B vitamins for her anemia, some herbal medicines for improved liver functioning, and some pills to help improve her circulation. Hopefully she will at least feel a little better.

Today she seemed to be a little more herself, and she walked around the yard with me all morning. It was a beautiful morning. It breaks my heart to come to the realization, though, that she is starting to really show the signs of aging, and that she won’t be around with us forever. Mauri and I adopted Molly soon after being together, and it seems like we’ve all been together forever now.

Eric loves Sheena and Molly

At around the same time, it has been confirmed this week that the boats here will have another biological stop from January 15 to February 15^th. It had been my intention to look for tickets to go to the US if that happened, not having been there since 2008, but now with Molly’s condition, I’m not sure what to do anymore. She really needs us now more than ever, and if something happened to her while I was gone, I would have a hard time forgiving myself. I have to admit that the thought of such a long trip with Eric also scares me. I guess I still have a little time to decide for sure what to do.

For now, I prefer to focus on Christmas time. I have to admit that around here it never seems like Christmas to me. I had often wondered why that was, but realized it isn’t just the absence of snow, but it has to do with the general ambiance. I was talking to my friend from the north of Spain, who cuts my hair, and she told me that where she is from, people sing in the streets at Christmas. In this region, apart from the occasional (tacky) Santa Claus hanging from the balconies, it’s hard to tell that Christmas will be coming any time soon. If anything, all you hear is people complaining about the holidays. It’s a bit depressing. I was hoping that having a little boy in the house would add some excitement to the holidays, but he’s still too young to know what is happening, so this year it really hasn’t helped. In fact, because of how mischievous he is, and how he loves to take things apart and leave them all over the house, I decided not to put up my Christmas tree this year.

He has brought a little bit of Christmas my way, though, through his visits to the Escoleta. They had a little Christmas pageant for the kids, and Eric’s class was going to be dressed up as angels. I couldn’t find any white pants this time of year, so I ended up making some from some old t-shirts that were lying around the house, just like I showed you several months ago. It is very easy to do, and took me about 15-20 minutes to make them. It would have been even quicker, but I was using scraps of t-shirts that I had cut apart for a t-shirt quilt, and couldn’t get enough fabric from any one t-shirt, and ended up using two different shirts; one for each leg. For his gown, I used a white t-shirt that was sized for a 3-4 year old over his long-sleeved white onesie. I already had the wings that I bought for my Christmas cards, and was surprised that he let me put them on him since he hadn’t let me do it for the picture for my cards. He looked very cute, of course. When I arrived at the UNED, the place where they held the pageant, I found that most of the other parents had gone out and bought angel costumes. Eric was still the cutest little angel, though. We visited the secretaries while we were there, and Eric was soon running around their office, pulling at their drawers, and playing with their calculator.

The UNED office is lots of fun!

Apart from the pageant, we also went to the Escoleta to see Santa Claus. Santa came in an antique convertible, and gave each of the kids presents. Some of the kids were scared by him, but Eric didn’t seem to be. Sadly, my camera battery went out after taking a few pictures of Santa arriving, so I could only get pictures with my cell phone. Luckily they didn’t turn out too bad. They also took some with Eric and me, using the camera from the Escoleta.

Santa Claus, Eric and Mommy, right before Mommy got her hair cut!

These next couple of days, I’m getting together some presents for Eric. We ordered a slide/house from ToysRUs.es as his main gift since he loves the slide at the playground where we occasionally bring him. It happens to have a door, something that I know he will love since he is obsessed with opening and closing things all of the time. In fact, the other day, we were at the Escoleta, and Eric wouldn’t let any of the other kids in the playhouse there because he wanted control of opening and closing the door. He behaved well while I was gone getting my hair cut, but I heard he threw a tantrum when another kid wanted to go in “his” house. He also was so intent upon closing the gate there, that he practically slammed it on another poor little girl’s head!!! Luckily she was OK.

We've made numerous other visits to the Escoleta lately, and Eric helped make pastisets de boniato there. While there, he was at his usual antics and kept trying to take glasses of water and toys from other kids!! (Who is that bad little boy??? I sure don't know him!!!!)

That's my water.

He went through a phase of screaming every time I left the room. It was worst around the time that his lower left lateral incisor was coming in. He seems to still have a few teeth that are on their way, though. Since my friend hasn't been coming to help me clean the house anymore, I've been staying with Eric when we visit the school, rather than leave him there while I clean the house, so it wasn't too much of a problem. Luckily he was much better this week when I left him there to get my hair cut.

Making pastisets with Maite

Now, I have to wrap a few more gifts for him to give him throughout the twelve days of Christmas. Having a longer Christmas season with both Christmas and “Reyes” to celebrate makes things a little more complicated here. I’m not quite sure how I’m going to divide up the presents, but I am looking forward to giving him the slide as soon as possible because it will give him something fun to play with at home.

If I don’t write again before Christmas, I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year. I will let you know how our Christmas went soon.