Farm Girl in the 'Burbs: Medical Exams & Cabin Fever

Medical exam day came went, relatively uneventfully. The pediatrician was lovely, and fluent in English as well as Bulgarian. I realize just how fluent when, as Fanny was screaming bloody murder well in advance of anyone actually coming within arm's reach of her, I rather dryly remarked that if she screamed before they touched her, no one would believe her. This got a good collective chuckle (oops!) She answered our questions and assured us Fanny has little more than a virus (which is as unsatisfying here as it is at home, I'd just like to point that out.) Penny's check up was a good as could be expected; she's in fragile shape comparatively, but dwelling over that point is pretty much a classic Captain Obvious sort of thing. Getting blood work was zero fun, but in a random bit of divine providence, the clinic is located within a specialty hospital of sorts, and it has a maternity unit with a NICU. So the NICU doctor on call (a lovely older lady) came and got Penny's blood work for us. She was as gentle as possible with her, and with me (I must have looked about ready to keel.)

Fanny's fever & the crummy weather broke by Thursday. Which is good, b/c no eating and no outdoors is enough to make everyone quite batty. Friday we ventured out for a good 4 hours, checking out Roman era ruins, a cool gift shop, what I assume is the capital or parliament building, and traversing steps with strollers. Two important take away lessons: 1-Bulgarian sidewalks are nothing to be trifled with (The 1400 lv stroller that was build like a cross between a Sherman tank & a Land Rover no longer seems so frivolous, after BOTH stupid strollers had wheel breaks :( ) 2-Bulgarian people are wonderful; even helping us lug said quasi worthless strollers up and down the stairs totally unsolicited! As the strollers are/were attempting to die, and need to live through the flight home on Wednesday, we made our ventures out Saturday and today a bit briefer (code for don't walk further than you care to carry children back from!) The weather has been 50-60's, and there was real, actual SUN today. I had no idea how far you could see around the city. It's cooling off now, and finally, the room is not toasty. We got a few crazy looks walking about in short sleeves.

We seem to be settling into a nice routine. Penny has stretched my repertoire of creative feeding/med giving solutions. I have come to the conclusion the one med must be fantastically bad tasting. NOTHING appears to kill it's taste, and just for spite, it doesn't dissolve worth a rip. I can't wait to be back in the states for liquids and FlavoRx to kill the taste :') She's quickly figured out that these crazy people will hold her all.the.time if she so much as squeaks. Or perhaps, like many of my babies, she too can feel that oh-so-slight change in air pressure from my arms to the crib mattress. ^_^ Fanny has settled in nicely. She's recognizing the routine of the day, and she actually was giggly excited to be going to breakfast this morning. Another big fan of the croissants! Not sure what she'll do if someone has the audacity to be sitting in "our" booth-guess we'll cross that bridge when & if we come to it.

Tomorrow is our Article V interview and the visas should be prepared by Tuesday. We'll get packed up & ready too, as our flight out is at 0630 AM (yea to home by 3:30 pm local time, but still, I am not sure where I lost my mind thinking THAT flight time, which necessitates being up and rolling at o'dark thirty was a great plan!) While the focused time has certainly been good, I am more than ready to get home and have our whole family together under one roof.

a bit of bedhead....(and the look that all teenagers give you when you take their photos first thing in the morning-aaaggghhh!!!)