Where's the lamb?

At the beginning of the month I posted about the fact that March was not off to a good start, but I hoped that the old adage of March coming in like a lion and going out like a lamb would hold true. So far, I see no sign of any lamb. Ok lamb, you have two more days to show yourself.

This last week has been awful. Over Easter weekend, Anna seemed a little under the weather but not too bad. Then on Easter Sunday night, Elsa developed a really high fever that wouldn't come down. The fever broke for a little bit on Monday, but then it was back on Monday night (hovering around 104) and on Tuesday I took Elsa to the doctor. He thought it might be viral, so said let's wait it out a little while longer to see what whether she doesn't get better. Tuesday night the high fever was back, and on Wednesday I was about to take Elsa to the emergency room. I decided to go back to the doctor one more time, and he said that it may be better to try a strong dose of antibiotics because he saw some infection in her ear. Thankfully, the antibiotics seem to have solved the problem of her fever, but she still has a bad cough. Looking back, I think the ear infection may have been caused by Elsa's mischeviousness. A few days before she got ill, she stuck a pencil in her ear and called me over to show me how clever she was. Lordy! I think she may have stuck the pencil in far enough to traumatize her eardrum and cause an infection. So, I've had a week of no sleep because Elsa is a mischevious monkey!

Elsa had been ear infection-free until this month, and then she has gotten two in one month. Unbelievable.

I'm getting ready to go to DC for about 3 weeks next Tuesday. I'm really really looking forward to it. It will be wonderful to see family and friends and to enjoy the lovely spring weather in DC. We have seen almost no signs of spring here -- the wind, rain and general dreariness of the weather is starting to get to me.

Spam stinks

One thing that drives me completely bonkers is spam email. My dislike for this unsolicited crap which clogs up my email account has strayed into the realm of the irrational. I really resent having to waste my time wading through this garbage to get to my legitimate email messages.

Ever since my work email was posted on our website, I have been getting, on average, 100 spam emails a day. And, because I work for a small charitable organization, we don't have any dedicated IT person to develop effective filters for this junk. I'm relying on the junk filters that come with Microsoft Outlook -- not very effective. So, every day, when I open up Outlook to check my work email, I'm confronted with scores of messages about how to increase the length of my willy, messages offering me all forms of pharmaceutical happiness, and messages promising me pictures of various naked celebrities. I wish that the creativity and effort that goes into developing this garbage could be channeled into something more useful.

A Difficult Choice

I just got the results of the "lottery" for Anna's schools. She got into the state (aka public) school that was our first choice. Fantastic! But, now we're faced with a difficult choice. Anna's teachers have been pretty unanimous in telling us that they think the private, all girls school where we've got a place for her would be the better fit (because of much smaller class size, greater attention to the students, etc.). However, I am not sure that socially this is the right fit for us -- I find some aspects of the school's atmosphere rather snooty. On the flip side, the state school is new (it was built 6 years ago and has gorgeous, modern facilities) and is also an excellent school.

This is going to be a tough decision.

Elsa Lind - Part Deux

Little Miss Elsa turned two years old yesterday. Two years since this little one rushed into the world! We had a lovely day together with friends over for lunch to celebrate. Elsa had a fantastic time playing with Sesame Street dolls that Amma and Afi sent her (when she could wrestle them away from Anna). Now we're gearing up for a big old party for Sunday afternoon. I think I may have been overly ambitious when I planned the party because I think I'm going to have 20 children (and their parents) here -- wow!!!

Here's some video from yesterday -- Elsa with Cookie Monster. The quality of the video isn't great; I'm still learning how to upload, edit and fix the quality of the video. Hopefully, there will be better ones to come.

Why would you do a thing like that?

Why on earth would anyone ever make banana flavored medicine?? Ick. Poor Elsa, her antibiotics are flavored with artifical, neon-yellow banana flavor. This doesn't help my job much when it comes to cajoling/forcing her to take her medicine.

In like a lion

Phew! March has definitely come in like a lion in my household. Isn't that the expression?? March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb - or something like that?

At the moment, my family is split between the UK and continental Europe. Guess where I am?? I am still in London with Elsa, and Carlos is in Barcelona with Anna. We were all supposed to fly out together today, but Elsa was feeling awful yesterday. I took her to the doctor and found out that she has an ear infection. I told Carlos that means flying today was out of the question, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that flying tomorrow will be ok. It feels very strange to be here alone with just Elsa. And poor little Elsa. She cried her heart out when Carlos and Anna left, yelling "I want Anna!!" This went on for almost an hour.

I am determined to get to bed at a decent hour this evening. So, I'll leave you with this little tidbit. I don't know if everyone has already seen this, but the NY Times reported about a memoir that had been written by a half-white, half-Native American woman who has escaped life in LA gangland for Eugene, Oregon. The article that I saw was from the Home & Garden section, but it included an excerpt from the book. Well, it turns out to be a total fake!! You can read about it here. And, what I think is the kicker -- guess who turned her in?? Her sister! That is harsh.