Measerable (the Shoutout Post)

This has been one tough week on Los Mouritsen. It all started last weekend when Lily was pretty lethargic. She was super tired on Saturday, all day Sunday and Monday. We went on a few walks and she just curled up in one of our strollers and rested. This is totally abnormal for her as she is a 100-mph girl from 6 am when she wakes up until she goes to bed. If she had her way, she would climb, play chase, play tag, and run everywhere, so we were appropriately concerned last weekend when she didn't feel like doing anything. Due to a local holiday, there was no school on Monday. On Tuesday morning she posted a fever of 103 (Hot Blooded for sure -- Shout out to Foreigner) and we kept her home from school. On Wednesday, she said she felt better, made it to school and spent the last hour in the nurse's office. Thursday at home. Friday she went to school.

Most sicknesses don't usually remain in one Host (shout out to Stephenie Meyers' non-Twilight book) when there are 3 other rugrats (shoutout to Nickelodeon cartoons) around. Until yesterday, Claire was doing fine but now she is getting the cough. Sam and Caroline have been progressively getting worse since Wednesday. And now the cause for concern: On Thursday we got a medical alert from the American International School that Lily attends that there were two confirmed cases (from the same School family) of the Measles (shoutout to paramyxoviruses everywhere). Hmmm. What do you do with that kind of news? The embassy has a medical officer who consults with Ministry of Health Officials and they determined that they needed to take pre-emptive action to avoid an epidemic in the area. According to the Ministry of Health (shoutout to the doctors in the house), these were the first two confirmed cases of Measles in Buenos Aires in at least 10 years. Lucky us. So the school was providing free vaccinations and boosters to students and all family members Saturday and Sunday. So guess what we did yesterday. Dave, Candace, Lily, Claire and Sam all got shots.

Our kids do not like shots. We don't like telling our kids they have to get shots, but the two days of anticipation were horrible compared to the 1/2-second of actual pain. In Claire's case, we talked her through being brave and that I would hold her tight and that she needed the shot so she could avoid a really bad sickness, but we said she could choose. Through her tears yesterday, she said, "Daddy, it's really hard to decide between the sickness and getting the shot." Well, that was a time where we thought it best to decide for her (shoutout to the old TV show 'Father Knows Best'). When the time came, she was a champ. When it comes to bad sicknesses, our kids love the story of Naaman from the Old Testament who had, in their words, 'the leprosies'... that sickness that makes your nose fall off. Aren't kids great?!??

So needless to say, it's been a tiresome weeks at the Los Mouritsen household. As a final example of the toll it has taken, on Friday night, Sam starting begging to go to bed at 5:30 pm. And he went to bed right after dinner about 6:30. Near the end of dinner, Lily said she was done and went upstairs (like she always does). When we all finished, we found Lily in her pajamas fast asleep in her bed (at 6:35). It was all Claire could do to stay up until about 7:15. At 7:16, Candace and I looked at each other as if to say, "Now what do we do?"

Despite Lily's lethargy on Monday (the local holiday), she got out of the stroller to do this climbing wall. Those who know Lily know that she is not shy about anything, she has tons of energy, and loves to climb. Those are pretty normal characteristics for 5-year olds, but we were introduced to a new level on Monday. There is a little activity place about 1 mile from our house called Peru Beach (shoutout to Lima). There is a roller hockey rink, sailboat rentals, and a climbing wall. We knew that Claire would be scared to death (shoutout to the Grim Reaper) once she passed 2 feet up the wall. But Lily we thought would make it up a little bit. Well, you can see Lily that surpassed what we thought (she wanted to get down when she finally saw how high she was). What a brave soul, that 5 year old girl of ours. You can also see that Claire did what we expected (she trembled every time Candace took her hands off her).

Right next to the climbing wall was a ladder they could climb to the top of and then swing from. Lily was so proud to have made it to the top and so happy to swing. No fear. Claire didn't try, but yelled, "Go, Lily, Go," the whole time. It was really fun.

On the way back from the climbing wall, we stopped at a little cafe that Candace had tried the week before and knew they had an excellent homemade dessert. So we had a wonderful casual lunch and were all excited to have the dessert and.... well, they didn't have it. A group had been in earlier and eaten it all. The message was delivered with such clarity that we were left with open mouths, only wondering (shoutout to internal dialogue) why they wouldn't be making more. Oh well.

We have been doing our best keeping Amazon, Target, and other retailers in the black as we have two different ways to have things shipped to us. We have ordered brown sugar (unavailable here), grains, syrup (unavailable), chocolate chips (which countries don't sell chocolate chips? Argentina), and other assorted goodies. We got our Vonage set up (shoutout to Alexander Graham Bell) and have survived another week.

We're keeping busy and are feeling more and more comfortable here as we learn the ins and outs (shoutout to In-N-Out) of living in another country. There is lots to learn. And check out this picture of Caroline. This is when she is on her worst behavior.