Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Day 31: Don't forget the hanky

Today was my most unusual visit to date. Not in a bad way, just in a "I have no idea what is going on" kind of way.

I made my way to the visitation room and Jacob's nanny brought him too me. This nanny is a wonderfully plump grandmother type with not very many teeth, but the teeth she has managed to hang onto are capped with gold. I like to try to make her smile. She holds Jacob's hands and slowly walks him to me...I think she wants me to see what he can do.

No sooner had I closed the door and settled in with Jacob then the door popped open and one of the more official looking nannies (maybe a doctor or nurse, who knows) pantomimed that I should use the cute little hanky they sent with Jacob to wipe his nose. He is really stuffy and congested so I had a supply of tissues anyway.

She must have had serious doubts about my ability to stay on top of this very important job, because not 5 minutes later, she rushed in, grabbed the hanky, wiped his nose and then left again. I thought to myself, "well that was odd" and then went on to get Jacbo's snack out.

Jacob and I hung out, had his snack, rolled around on the floor, played with his car, played with his spinning penguin top...the normal stuff. What was not normal was that someone stuck their head in the door to check on us every 5 minutes. One time I was in the process of wiping his nose and they were very approving of that!

It was a very good visit in spite of the odd behavior of the nannies. He was very cuddly and was brave enough to look me in the eye for about 10 seconds. I was in heaven!

About 30 minutes early, the nanny who speak about 2 words of English came in and said my time was up. I was a little confused and so was Jacob, but I kissed him and told him I would see him tomorrow. I think they just got tired of checking on me or maybe I wasn't wiping his nose correctly. Who knows. I am just glad I got to hang out with him.

After I left the institution I went to a grocery story...one I didn't even know existed here. It was like a super Walmart except not as many clothes. It was so big I was overwhelmed and couldn't think what I had come in for! My driver took me there because it was closer to my new apartment than the store I am used to and I also needed to change more money. I needed to buy eggs and bread also. The eggs are sold in a giant bin where you just pick them out and carefully place them in a plastic bag. I wasn't certain if I had to weigh them before I got to the check out counter, so I followed some poor lady all over the store to see what she did with her eggs. Apparently you don't have to weigh them first. :) All other produce has to be weighed first at a little weighing station near the produce section. This is odd for most Americans but very common everywhere we have lived overseas.

Hopefully Jacob will be better tomorrow and we can get back to our normal visiting routine. I bought him an apple for snack tomorrow as a treat.


(Almost got him to look at the camera, but not quite!) ;)

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