So my husband won a trip to the south of Spain. It would be the first time the both of us would be away from the kids since, well, having kids.
My in-laws would watch them for five days. It's more like three I reassured them. Thursday's a holiday, Friday they have school/day care. There's the weekend and then Monday it's back to school/day care. Easy peasy.
About a week before we left the day care informed us that they would "faire le pont". This means they would take the Friday off and make it a long weekend which meant the son/day care option was out.
No problem I told them, it'll just be one child and not two. My daughter still had school on Friday.
Then when my husband introduced my mother in law to my daughter's teacher and informed her she would be dropping my daughter that Friday at school the teacher replied "There's no school. On fait le pont."
But this was a minor point as two other points emerged:
1. My daughter came down with strep with maybe an allergy to antibiotics.
2. There was no hot water in the apartment.
A couple of days before we left I ran into the president of the HOA and casually asked if the hot water would be restored anytime soon. Maybe next week he told me with the tone of a grumpy person who had been taking cold showers for the past week.
Exhausted we bid the kids farewell that Thursday morning and as I gave my son the last farewell hug and kiss I noticed a mark on his check. Was that a pox?
Rewind to two weeks before when the day care informed me that there was a case of chicken pox. I later googled "chicken pox incubation period" and out popped "two weeks".
Maybe it's a mosquito bite I thought. Besides what could I do? Our ride to the airport was here.
"Um, ok we're off." I said to the in-laws hugging them goodbye "Remember everything's noted including the doctor stuff, you know, in case. Bye!"
That night we called them from Spain to see how everything was going. They told us everything was fine and that the weather was lovely so the kids could go outside to depense their energy and not feel so cooped up.
The next day we checked out of the hotel:
Receptionist: Do you need another day of parking?
Husband: No we're parked just in front.
Me: Red car.
Receptionist: Red car???
Me: Yes...
Receptionist: Hurry go! I called police!
Me: [Run outside. Sees two policemen next to car. Put on big niave tourist smile] This is us. Sorry!
Now had this been in France I'm sure I would have gotten a lot of grief and maybe even towed just to teach the stupid tourist a lesson. Instead I got:
Police: It's ok. They called us.
Me: Yeah I'm sorry I know. But we're leaving.
Police: It's ok. No stress. Ok. No problem.
Then the receptionist came out and apologized to us.
I was amazed.
My husband called his parents to tell them of our luck. My mother in law told us she suspected our son had chicken pox.
They went to the doctor that day and it was confirmed that my son did indeed have chicken pox. He was to take two baths a day and was not to go outside. So basically my in-laws would spend their time heating up water for his many baths and finding ways to depense their energy indoors. And it's so nice outside my mother in law lamented.
My husband and I listened to all this while sipping sangrias on the private rooftop pool bar at our hotel. Panoramic view included.
The next day my husband woke up to his phone ringing. It was his parents. Apparently there was no electricity in the apartment.
They're completely panicked he told me. They're obsessed with turning on the t.v. They even said they would take the kids to Normandy.
Now I understood how an elderly couple taking care of two young kids, one which had chicken pox, stuck in an apartment without hot water might find no electricity to be a tensy wensy bit stressful.
Luckily with the help of my husband they got the electricity back on.
Don't worry we reassured them we'll be back tomorrow. And we were, late, around one in the morning. Did I mention they had a two hours drive ahead of them to get back to their own bed? And that my mother in law had to work the next day?
Before they headed out my husband threw out the idea of us heading to Normandy for the long weekend ahead.
And this women of whom I have never seen deny her beloved son anything, said: We're going to need a couple of weekends to ourselves.
I don't blame them. Not. One. Little. Bit.
My in-laws would watch them for five days. It's more like three I reassured them. Thursday's a holiday, Friday they have school/day care. There's the weekend and then Monday it's back to school/day care. Easy peasy.
About a week before we left the day care informed us that they would "faire le pont". This means they would take the Friday off and make it a long weekend which meant the son/day care option was out.
No problem I told them, it'll just be one child and not two. My daughter still had school on Friday.
Then when my husband introduced my mother in law to my daughter's teacher and informed her she would be dropping my daughter that Friday at school the teacher replied "There's no school. On fait le pont."
But this was a minor point as two other points emerged:
1. My daughter came down with strep with maybe an allergy to antibiotics.
2. There was no hot water in the apartment.
A couple of days before we left I ran into the president of the HOA and casually asked if the hot water would be restored anytime soon. Maybe next week he told me with the tone of a grumpy person who had been taking cold showers for the past week.
Exhausted we bid the kids farewell that Thursday morning and as I gave my son the last farewell hug and kiss I noticed a mark on his check. Was that a pox?
Rewind to two weeks before when the day care informed me that there was a case of chicken pox. I later googled "chicken pox incubation period" and out popped "two weeks".
Maybe it's a mosquito bite I thought. Besides what could I do? Our ride to the airport was here.
"Um, ok we're off." I said to the in-laws hugging them goodbye "Remember everything's noted including the doctor stuff, you know, in case. Bye!"
That night we called them from Spain to see how everything was going. They told us everything was fine and that the weather was lovely so the kids could go outside to depense their energy and not feel so cooped up.
The next day we checked out of the hotel:
Receptionist: Do you need another day of parking?
Husband: No we're parked just in front.
Me: Red car.
Receptionist: Red car???
Me: Yes...
Receptionist: Hurry go! I called police!
Me: [Run outside. Sees two policemen next to car. Put on big niave tourist smile] This is us. Sorry!
Now had this been in France I'm sure I would have gotten a lot of grief and maybe even towed just to teach the stupid tourist a lesson. Instead I got:
Police: It's ok. They called us.
Me: Yeah I'm sorry I know. But we're leaving.
Police: It's ok. No stress. Ok. No problem.
Then the receptionist came out and apologized to us.
I was amazed.
My husband called his parents to tell them of our luck. My mother in law told us she suspected our son had chicken pox.
They went to the doctor that day and it was confirmed that my son did indeed have chicken pox. He was to take two baths a day and was not to go outside. So basically my in-laws would spend their time heating up water for his many baths and finding ways to depense their energy indoors. And it's so nice outside my mother in law lamented.
My husband and I listened to all this while sipping sangrias on the private rooftop pool bar at our hotel. Panoramic view included.
The next day my husband woke up to his phone ringing. It was his parents. Apparently there was no electricity in the apartment.
They're completely panicked he told me. They're obsessed with turning on the t.v. They even said they would take the kids to Normandy.
Now I understood how an elderly couple taking care of two young kids, one which had chicken pox, stuck in an apartment without hot water might find no electricity to be a tensy wensy bit stressful.
Luckily with the help of my husband they got the electricity back on.
Don't worry we reassured them we'll be back tomorrow. And we were, late, around one in the morning. Did I mention they had a two hours drive ahead of them to get back to their own bed? And that my mother in law had to work the next day?
Before they headed out my husband threw out the idea of us heading to Normandy for the long weekend ahead.
And this women of whom I have never seen deny her beloved son anything, said: We're going to need a couple of weekends to ourselves.
I don't blame them. Not. One. Little. Bit.
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