The monsoon has stopped, but we are still wet.
August 29th, 2008 by Rae
This little guy came to visit us the other day, landing on my friend’s skirt, and then flitting over to this curtain, where he posed nicely for me. He’s not so little, though. His wing span was almost as long as my hand.
I have sick kids. They’re not too bad, but the weather has changed again and it seems that when the weather changes, flu comes. At least that’s what Jaya told me. But she also told me that snails are poisonous and I shouldn’t let YaYa play with them. (Not true.) Anyways, whatever the reason, the poor Superstar Husband and the three older kids are sick. They don’t let it bother them all that much. They’re just a little more clingy and they don’t want to eat.
YaYa woke up last night to go to the bathroom. Let me say that again. YaYa woke up out of her sleep all by her ownself to go to the bathroom last night. Except she did come to get me. But she WOKE UP. This has never happened. I remember bragging about what a good sleeper she was, back when she was a small toddler, and how someone said dolefully, “Those are the kids who have problems with bedwetting,” (imagine Eeyore’s voice) and how I thought, Well gee, Puddleglum, thanks for bursting my bubble. But then he was right.
I blame Haight St. I blame the room over the street and the room over the alley where we lived when she was a baby, next to Amoeba Records on Haight and Stanyan, where everything sounded as though hundreds of people were yelling outside at all hours of the night, and where the bouncer kicked everyone out of the club across the street at 2:30 every night and then stood on the street yelling, “Go, GO, GO” in a booming voice to get them to disperse, presumably so they wouldn’t bother the neighbors. (!) Where she had to learn to sleep like a sleepy sloth just for self-preservation.
I think this “waking up” speaks well of days ahead, although I am only tentatively thinking this.
Of course, Leafy took his turn and wet the bed last night (he doesn’t usually) and the baby of course was soaking in his cloth diapers, but two out of four isn’t bad, right?! Right.
Let’s just look at that moth again. Mmmmmm. Pretty.
(New post on making chapatti on Fly Fishes Fly!)
Just when I thought you couldn’t be any cooler, you go and use a Puddleglum reference (I have his big monologue from that book hanging in my oldest boy’s room
i used to live on haight and divisadero. it was a little more quiet down there, in between the upper and lower haights. i used to marvel at the different world i would enter just a few blocks up or down the street.
our daughter ended up potty training in india. we arrived during monsoon also, and had brought just one package of disposable diapers and all of our cloth diapers. we used the disposables first, because i was dreading the process of drying cloth diapers in monsoon. but lucky for us, just when we moved on to cloth she decided to start using the toilet, regularly. i think she loved the squat hole. it just seemed natural to her. it was a great day when i could hand over all my cloth diapers to a nice tibetan mama.
i hope that you and the baby stay well and that your family revives soon!
I hope everyone is well soon - we saw some news from India last night and are thankful that you and yours are safe and drying out…
Then there is a little bit about heredity - YaYa has an aunt and uncle who sleep so soundly you cannot wake them up for anything, especially in the middle of the night.
That is a beautiful moth by the way! I love it’s colors. Sorry that all of your family is ill. The last couple of weeks have probably taken it out of everybody. Get better soon!
I don’t know why but most kids I know get sick the days after a brother or sister is born… mine did, too. Could it be their immune system responding to the emotional turmoil of having a new baby “stealing” a little bit of mama? It made me feel pretty guilty at the time, thank god I just didn’t have a lot of time to feel guilty, though
Marta from Lisbon
I have discovered a secret about night wetting.
You ready?
Get them to drink more water during the day, lots more than they are used to. It exercises their bladder muscle and helps it get stronger and have a fuller capacity.
secret number 2
Afternoon naps. The my kids that sleeps so soundly always wets after a late bedtime. He used to wet all teh time until I moved up the bed time by and hour and insisted on an afternoon rest. We’re donw to only one night a week. And it’s always the late night, or the night after the late night when it all starts to catch up to him.
3.Homeopathic remedy. Belladonna. If you can get it. It’s made a huge difference as well.
The confluence of these 3 things has been a big change for us.
Hi Rae,
I am new to commenting! My husband and i visited Amoeba records in July during our honeymoon in the US. It was a paradise! Living there is must have been heaven to explore all that music whenever you fancied.
love to you and your family,
abs x
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