This week

This week has been crazy busy. Andrew was sick at the beginning of the week, then Miriam got sick, which meant that I was spending all day and all night nursing them back to health. Literally nursing Miriam almost every hour both night and day; only figuratively nursing Andrew—mostly by nagging him about getting enough fluids.

“I want you to drink this whole water bottle by the time I get home.”

“But I had fluids today.”

“Yeah, what?”

“Ummm…I had oatmeal…and I had to pour water on it.”

“Okay, and what happened to that water? Oatmeal doesn’t give your body fluids, it takes fluids.”

“Good point.”

“Drink your water.”

The two of them, Miriam and Andrew, have been volleying this sickness back and forth for a few weeks now. I’m glad they are both feeling better.

We don’t have a car, which means that we walk a lot. We walk a lot because taxi rides add up fast. It’s anywhere between 50 and 80 cents to get anywhere in Maadi but if you take a taxi both ways, that’s over a dollar for one trip. Since our grocery budget is around one hundred dollars a month (usually less) we can’t really afford to take taxis many places, and certainly not on a daily basis, since we don’t have taxi rides budgeted; we simply can’t afford it. We’re kind of in a walk or starve situation, which we’re fine with. We chose food over transportation and that was our choice.

Anything within two miles of our house is walked. For anything further than that we usually take the metro (We love the metro; 20 cents for a ride to virtually anywhere in the city? Yes, please). And then walk from the metro to our destination.

We do a lot of walking. And since our schedules don’t line up all that well, that means that I do a lot of walking with the girls, by myself, while Andrew does a lot of walking by himself. We have a single jogging stroller that Rachel rides in. Miriam rides in the wrap. I never knew how ridiculous I looked pushing a huge stroller with a baby strapped to my front until I came across another young mother, pushing a stroller and packing a baby.

We walked past each other, smiled, and burst out laughing. Now I know why people chuckle quietly when I walk past them.

I don’t mind walking everywhere. I don’t have to find time to work out because I walk everywhere packing half my body weight in children. I also get a lot of good conversation time in with Rachel.

Yesterday when we were walking, Rachel looked up at me and boasted, “My daddy can build a fire. He lets me throw sticks on it and I don’t even get burned. If I throw rocks on, though, I will get burned.”

“Oh, really?” I said.

I’m a great conversationalist.

“Yup,” she affirmed, then asked skeptically, “So, Mommy, can your dad build a fire?”

“He can.”

“Oh, wow! Who’s your dad?”

“Grandpa, remember?”

“Oh, right…Bumpa Boose.”

She’s a funny girl. She chatters away all day long, making her toys talk, talking to us, talking to Miriam. She has full-on conversations with Miriam. The other day Rachel was playing with Miriam and Miriam started cooing.

“Are you think so, Miriam,” Rachel crooned at her, “I think so, too!”

Miriam cooed some more.

“Is that so? Tell me some more!” Rachel said, mimicking the little conversations Andrew and I have with Miriam.

Miriam cooed some more.

“Are you think so?” Rachel asked, running off, “That’s a good idea!”

I immediately got worried and positioned myself so that I could intercept this “good idea” quickly if it was something that wasn’t actually a good idea, but so that I didn’t have to get involved if it really was a good idea. I never know how these little conspiracies that Rachel and Miriam have will turn out.

This one turned out alright. Apparently Miriam had told Rachel that it was a little cold inside the house today and suggested that Rachel get a blanket for her, so that’s just what Rachel did. She brought out a pink, fleecy blanket (from Grandma Sharon) and kindly wrapped Miriam up.

I love it when my girls get along. It makes my days so much better when I don’t have to deal with whiny, fussy children, especially when Daddy doesn’t get home from school until 10 PM.