Saturday, February 03, 2007

Make-Believe Virus


Apparently, my son and I had an imaginary virus for the better part of a week. Yes, the high fever, chills, and intense abdominal pain, seems to have been a figment of our imagination. The doctor sent his stool to a laboratory to be tested, and they couldn't find any traces of a virus (at least the ones that they test for. For some reason I find it frustrating knowing that we had a very unpleasant virus, and having no clue what it was that infected us for 5 days. Medicine in this country is a little different than in Germany and America. They seem to prescribe antibiotics for just about anything, because it takes them at least 48 hours to get any tests back from the lab. Oh well, the most important thing is that we're both feeling better... finally!

In other news, Tobi's parents left on Tuesday, then came back on Thursday night for dinner. They fly back to Germany early tomorrow morning (out of Cape Town). They really enjoyed their time here, and I think Rita and I are both very pleased with ourselves for getting along so well for the full 10 days!

On Wednesday, which was my first day alone with Lukas in quite some time, we had fun. When I asked him if he would like a juice, he repeated "juice". Then we put on some classical music and went into his little wooden play box for learning time. One of our favorite things to do in there is to match stuffed animals to the pictures we see in books. Later, he fed himself with imaginary food, then crawled into his room from the living room, searching for something to play with (how crazy is that?). Lastly, he proved how clever he was by pushing the lid of a cooler up, up, up, until it was to the point that it no longer fell on his fingers while he was splashing in the water. There was one other thing he did that I thought was cute, but alas, I cannot remember everything (unfortunately!). I also found some time to book "Grandma's" trip over here! She'll be here in 4 weeks! Yay! On Wednesday evening we went to Madeleine & Emil's for a brai. It was fun, up until the point that Lukas got really cranky (I think his stomach was bothering him). It was nearly a full moon, and we enjoyed watching the moon as it rose over the Bay.

On Thursday Lukas and I were both feeling yucky, so we spent most of the morning in bed. We also went to a homeopathic doctor, to see if they might have something to help us feel better. Unfortunately, they didn't have anything for pain... just to help with diarrhea and dehydration. That afternoon, Tobi's parents arrived, and they took Lukas and Felix on a walk to see the antelope (that roam around the neighborhood and golf course). I was so happy to have some time to sleep (Lukas didn't sleep well during the week, thanks to the non-virus). Dinner was

Friday I was pretty productive. In the morning, I went grocery shopping quickly before picking up Christina, our "domestic helper" from the taxi area. Then I helped clean for a little while. Once she left, I took the dog and baby on a one hour walk (on which we spotted the antelope, too!), called my Grandmother, and took Lukas swimming. Then I got dinner ready, we ate, and I put Lukas to bed. Afterwards, we did a bit of packing. We're going on a road trip today (so I have to hurry!). We're going to Tsitsikamma National Park, where we've found a pet-friendly "chalet" to stay in for the night (www.dolphinview.co.za). On the way we'll stop at the Sedgefield market, to see what all the fuss is about. It will take us about 3 hours total, so I better run! I'll write more on Sunday!

Ciao!

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