(Un)familiar Territory

I’m blogging so that I can stop composing a blog post in my head, and just go to bed.  Yes, that’s supposed to sort of rhyme.  The current family  status is that I’m pretty darn sick (flu-virus probably), Bjarki is sleeping soundly in his bed, and Anna and Finnur are in California.  Whhhhaaaaat?  CALIFORNIA?!?!  Yes, California.  (Also, so far I’m the only sick one, and I desperately hope it stays that way).

Yes, we’ve known for some time that Finnur would be traveling to his Mothership in Mountain View in May (I’m so poetic when I’m feverish.  Don’t worry though, I’ve just taken some ibuprofen so it won’t last ), but we’d never actually got round to buying him tickets, seeing how there wasn’t really any rush since the Mothership would be picking up the tab.  Then a little over a week ago, the Mothership sent out a message that a three-day-workshop was to be held in Finnur’s area (or something) so all of a sudden we had concrete dates to work with.

In conjunction with this, we’ve had to deal with Anna becoming ever more negative towards everything as spring has trundled along.  She kept talking about her CA friends, and school was boring, and gymnastics was boring (new teachers, less good than the old one), and piano was boring (well, that’s almost always been boring).  So, taking that into consideration, and the fact that her English could really do with a brush-up, I twisted Finnur’s arm into taking her with him.

This was of course only possible because Sarah agreed to babysit Anna while school’s in session, so Thank You Sarah!  We’re hoping that the remainder of the time will be filled with playdates  (There are still some slots available!) so Sarah (who’s pregnant!!  Whooo!) can get some much deserved rest from our energy-ball of a seven year old.

Yes, so anyway.  Anna and Finnur left this past Friday, and will be away for almost two weeks.  No sooner had I kissed them goodbye at the airport than I fell ill, became feverish, woozy and lethargic.  Oh, no.  Not good!  So on the Saturday I enlisted my Glorious Mom to babysit Bjarki by walking all over the west town and trying out a multitude of playgrounds.  After lunch, Saint Holla swooped in and took Bjarki for the remainder of the day, and even brought dinner leftovers with her at the end of the day.  My heart is still a-flutter with joy and gratitude.

Seeing how I wasn’t really getting any better, further reenforcement were called out on Sunday.  Finnur’s sister, Hallowed Be Her Name Inga , lives literally around the corner from us, and she took Bjarki on this morning.  Then the dynamic duo, my I Love You Mom! and her sister,  Hulda the Holy, entertained Bjarki at Hulda’s place.  (There were no doubt other family members involved, I Thank You All!)  I hope I will at some point be able to repay all this wonderful help.

Tomorrow morning, Inga has furthermore offered to take Bjarki to daycare, which is a huge relief, because, gosh darnit, this looks like it might drag on for a few days.  Hrumph!

Anyway, this is all a long-winded (when am I not long-winded?) way of saying that single parenthood must suck to high heaven if you have no support structure.  I seriously would be in a much worse state if I’d had to entertain Bjarki this weekend.   Actually, he would have just watched TV the entire time, which would have been a terrible shame because the weather has been GORGEOUS!  So gorgeous indeed that at around lunchtime I spotted a news-item on a local website that swimming pools were overrun with people, and they were letting them in in groups (i.e. people had to wait!!)

Meanwhile I think Finnur and Anna have been having a pretty good time (aside from later this afternoon probably, when Finnur has decided to go clothes-shopping.  On Mother’s Day.  He’ll be crushed!)  I’ll leave you with an adorable picture of the Three Amigos at Lulu’s birthday party.