Tutura June 2 - 12, 2006 Having a pet and fevers.

	Tommy putting together a puzzle.

	Lisa began to appreciate her father and stopped being so attached to her mother.

Kids are said to grow up happier when they do so in the company of pets. For us, an animal would be somewhat impractical -- who would care for it during our trips to Europe, for example -- and even during our trips on weekends? Tommy, however, has taken an initiative in this matter, and so now suddenly, we live with a tutura. Actually, tutura lives in the back yard. It is an animal. It's yellow and also green. It walks on the fence. It's got no whiskers (kitties have whiskers, and tutura is no cat). It flies into the clouds. One can not see it. One can hear it.
We could not persuade Tom to give us any more information, yet tutura has been with us for several weeks now. In the end, perhaps it is not a bad solution after all -- we definitely don't have to worry about feeding it, for once. Only, a few days ago Tom informed us that Matylda is going to come by. I wonder whether Matylda could be the owner of the aforementioned tutura. They have one thing in common -- none of us, adults, have ever seen either of them. Nor have we heard them.

Tommy has become incredibly talkative -- sometimes I think that he invented tutura and Matylda just to have something to talk about. The more we must be very careful what we let out of our mouths. The other day I looked for my keys around the house, and laughing I exclaimed that I was crazy. Shortly thereafter we laughed at something with Sid, and Tom came and patted Sid kindly on his stomach and said "daddy is crazy". The next situation was worse, for I lamented during parking how "the cow has parked her car so that on one else would fit there". About three days later we could not enter the grocery store parking lot as a confused Chinese woman has blocked the way, causing a widespread traffic collapse with her mercedes. Tommy clearly evaluated the situation -- "lady is a cow," he said. I have been taking advantage of nobody really understanding our Czech language here, and it is not probable that Tommy's repeating would cause an incident -- but just on the safe side, I stopped swearing behind the wheel.

For some time now the sibling's constellation has worsened. After all, Lisa has begun to show great interest in toys and manages to play with something for a longer while now. This drives Tom crazy and his ugly screaming, "no, my!" peeves me off. I understand his being upset when Lisa pushes into his railroads so vehemently that she upturns both rails and trains. But he occasionally scream even if he spots Lisa even a few yards away and without her taking notice of him whatsoever. I also hate situation when they're both immersed in play (every one for him/herself), but Tom stops playing and he rushes to rip her toy away -- even if it's something that he does not care for -- a half of plastic Easter egg, toilet paper core, or a rattle. He started to show this behavior at his school as well. Alas, larger kids don't give up so easily and so one day Tom brought home a huge bruise on his calf. They almost had to resuscitate me after the teacher said that it was a BITE MARK, though after a lengthy debate I was explained that Tom has received it from a child who, while playing in the yard, refused to surrender a cherished treasure -- a leaf fallen from the tree. On one side I feel sorry for Tom, on the other side I said to myself that he has been asking for it lately. I don't know whether we can attribute it to the bite bruise or to our vigilant follow-up, but in the last few days Tom got better.

	Tommy likes it when we all hold our hands together, especially with other children.

	Fascinated by oceanic critters

It's time that Tom started to interact on a higher social level. He's quite interested in other kids, one can see that he enjoys company. We pulled Sid's colleague Frank out to the ocean, along with his two daughters -- and Tommy right away wanted us all walk hand in hand, and we were forced to form a wide chain. This lasted until we reached tidal pools and kids began to oscillate -- collecting and throwing pebbles into the water, looking for snails and crabs, and splash their rubber boots into the puddles. Alas, it was very windy that day and it made us soon call for a retreat.

Sid has been lately finishing up his work on one project -- as usual, everything must be done in the last moment, and he sometimes comes back home in the wee morning hours. It's interesting how this trend did not escape Lisa -- and she suddenly transformed from mother-attached baby to a father-deprived one. After their father's absence on Saturday, children turned into complete angels -- and instead of insisting on their usual morning walk by nine-thirty, they managed to play with daddy in our living room and quite obviously enjoyed having the whole family together again. All this has been apparently boosted by my own social life. In the last month I got out a few times, without children -- to various get-togethers with neighbors, some climbing (either with own husband, or with our friend Martin) -- and the kids could verify that both their daddy and their granny can supply basic care. This, of course, makes me unbelievably happy -- I can again find moments in my life, when neither of the children is crawling all over me, and I can delve into frivolities like sorting out the kids' cabinets and removing clothes they outgrew.

Our schedule is getting pretty full. There are two nice boys at Tom's school -- twins -- right at his age, who have a Czech nanny named Jana. On some afternoons we go together to a playground. It seems to have helped Tom at school -- he surely appears to enjoy it there now. When he get there, he rushes to meet with the boys, and last time I picked him up, I had to untangle a large and very lively bundle of three boys, and some foam mattresses, to find my offspring and talk him into leaving.

	Our back yard turns into a busy place at times.

	Lisa uses the stroller mostly as support for walking -- and now is outraged by its momentary state of disrepair.

Given the number of baby-equipped neighbors we often organize something together. Lately it's been mostly lying around with kids near our swimming pool. It's best if somebody brings an older friend for Tom -- children can play and turn into angels in the evening. We have also managed to hike at Quicksilver County Park. It begins a short distance from our house and stretches for many miles over relatively big hills. In the times of California Gold Rush, mercury was mined there; they are criss-crossed with roads. With my baby on my back, a morning march is a pleasant exercise. Summer air in the woods is not as heavy as in the city, there are beautiful views, and we all need some physical activity.

Another round of illnesses have complicated our situation. Tom started it by suddenly crying at one in the morning. He incoherently sobbed something about drink. I was not very surprised that he was thirsty -- with over 102°F (39°C) fever. So he spent the rest of the night in our bed, rolling and tossing, falling in and out of sleep, and weeping, until a second dose of acetaminophens took hold of it and we all could sleep a bit. All he could do in the morning was laying in front of our TV. I sent Lisa out for a walk with granny and attempted to get some fluids into Tom (he refused eating completely). After an afternoon sleep our patient picked up his previous life wherever he had misplaced it, and by the next day he was frisky and well.

Actually thanks to Tom's sickness I have collected another neglectful parent point. On Wednesdays, granny takes care of the kids. She had reported that Lisa walks behind the stroller, to which I nodded thoughtlessly -- Lizzy tends to grabs here a stroller, there a push car, makes two steps and collapses onto her knees -- yeah, we know that. On Thursday I took Lisa to Quicksilver -- carrying her on my back -- and we rolled around our pool in the afternoon. On Friday, granny had Lisa again in the morning, and Sid in the afternoon, I cared for Tom. And so only after three days of delay I found out that our baby is able to consistently walk. She still needs a sturdy hand support, though she covers quite a stretch of the road. It seems that granny and daddy know about our child more than I do. Then again it represents a proof that my daughter is no longer 100% attached to my attention and presence -- which is a great deal of relief. I may yet live a normal life again!

Before I managed to conjure this journal entry into life, another illness felled me and Lisa. The situation repeated in which, instead of my husband, I shared my bed with a whimpering, feverish child -- and in the morning I must take care of one sick and one healthy and relatively wild offspring. All this enhanced by my own illness. Besides time I lacked mostly energy to work out anything else beyond bare survival. It's been getting better, and the next journal should not take long..

Copyright © 2006 by Carol & Sid Paral. All rights reserved.