I pretty much ran out of sites to show my parents in this town after the first week so this week was going to be more about relaxing and spending quality time together.
Swimming was a popular one but it turned very exciting when Evelyn's tooth got knocked out while rough housing with Grandad. She was so proud. 
She lost her first tooth!
We played and enjoyed walks in the park
My Mom and I tried to go shopping again but the heat was just too uncomfortable. I can't imagine trying to peel my damp clothes off to try on new clothes. Or for that matter, trying on clothes that other people have stretched over their damp, sweaty, non-deodarized bodies. No thanks.
My Mom continued with Gabrielle's reading program, trying to establish a routine for her. My father continued on his quest to clean up Roman. He moved out of the gates and cut the grass on the boulevard and pulled all the weeds lining the gates. It looked a whole lot better I must say. We also decided as a team that we would clean the gym together. This gym is not what many people would picture. It's no Goodlife for sure. It is essentially a large storage area that they have carpeted in one area and placed a number of workout machines. Half of which don't work. The room next to the machine room hosts a huge kickboxing bag. This is my favorite room by far. It is where I go to release all my frustrations out. It turns out I have some serious agression issues. My Mom was watching me punch the hell out of this bag and yell at my Dad to punch harder like I was a seargent in the Army. I could see her think, "What is happening to my daughter?" Truth is I have always been like this and only now have realized I could have made a pretty good boxer. That said, I do like the fact that my nose is still in one place so... que sera!
We got a phone call from David's cousin Simon earlier in the week asking us what we were doing for the weekend. He explained that he was actually going to be in Bucharest (capitol of Romania) for business and thought her would come early for a visit. We tossed around the idea of bringing him to our house for the weekend but realized quickly when you factor in the 5 hour drive to Bucharest and back, it didn't leave much time to relax. Instead David and I decided we would all go to Bucharest for the weekend and tour the capitol city together. The only trouble now was how to get there.
We rented a full sized van to carry us all to the big city. It promised to get us there with lots of room to spare. A nice large van.. comfortable? ... not so much.
Friday came with the weather man promising one of our hotest days yet. They were saying at least 40 degrees in the shade making the sunshine feel like flames hitting your face. This hasn't ever been a problem for us except for the fact that today we were travelling in a van that has NO AIR CONDITIONING!!! That's not even the best part. Only the 2 windows at the front of the van open, the rest is an enclosed hot box. Great. I ask myself why in the world people would even consider buying a vehicle without AC in this climate and then I remember I'm in Romania. The place where people are terrified of getting a chill.
The big girls got stuck in the very back of this hot box which evoked enormous guilt on my behalf. I knew though, that they would be distracted enough from the heat by their DVD player which would definately be playing all the way there. As I sat in the middle row beside Ruby and my Mom I could feel drips of sweat running down my neck. I watched Ruby in discomfort as she napped. The bridge of her nose was glistening and her cheeks ruby red. Her car seat, which is typically comfortable and lined with soft velour like fabric was proving to be far too hot for her little body. She ended up sitting in my lap for half of the drive. Not too pleasant for either of us I must say. Not to mention incredibly unsafe. I fight the constant inner voice that rings in my brain when life gets really hard or uncomfortable here. "Why are you here? Get me out of here!" I fight that voice with another, telling my subconscious mind that I will look back on this with some great memories and that it will soon be over before I know it. If I don't end up a schizo by the end of this it will be a miracle!
My Mom did fabulously well to my surprise, keeping herself quiet and busying herself with nurishing us all. My father, who hates the heat, dozed unconsciously in his Gravol coma making his trip to Bucharest feel very short! David, who had just had a hum dinger of a day at work which had made him 3 hours late was not fareing so well. I knew he was fighting an inner voice in his head too but his included many curses with teeth grinding and deep breathing. The fact that we were 3 hours behind schedule meant that his cousin would be waiting for us for 3 more hours in a foreign country which I'm sure made David uneasy. Turns out Simon, on the advice of David, got sent on a wild goose chase in Bucharest that found him walking in 44 degree heat for 3 hours straight. He sweat so much that his socks chaffed his ankles so that they looked red raw. He had just come from England of course and was wearing jeans, socks and running shoes. Poor guy! Welcome to Romania!:)
We arrived late but were re-energized by the night life of Bucharest. It reminds me of the old distrisct in Paris. Many of the old buildings in the capitol having been designed by French architects. Again you get the sense that you have left Romania and entered a new country.
The weekend was spent doing a bit of touring of the monuments and buildings. Romanians hate the large Parliment Building built by the Communist Dictator Ceausescu but to foreigners it is an unbelievable site. This building is only 30 years old which reminds me that the people walking down the street may have been involved with the Revolution.
We enjoyed some delicious cuisine and treated ourselves to dessert whenever possible. We were sweating off most of the calories we were consuming by walking around the city. We had a terrific lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe where they, like their North American counterparts, subscribed fully to ice cold AC. It felt like someone had just doused me with cool water the moment I stepped into the resturant. My inner voice cried "Alleluhia!" as I drank a real Strawberry Daquari. Paradise in Romania! I had found it. So did the kids! A face painter with talent, dressed as a pirate, came around offering. They were pretty thrilled!
We also found that Bucharest had many beautiful parks in which they work very hard on to keep colourful and clean.
In one of the parks, a man had set up 4 trampolines and was charging people 3 lei or 1$ for 15 minutes of jumping. Not caring much that it was at least 40 degrees outside the girls pleaded to give it a try. 
Gabrielle was getting a lot more height than she was comfortable with. 
They came off needing a big drink.
And this is what happens when you have walked your kids all over the city.
In one of the parks is found an outdoor museum. It has all the different types of buildings you might see if you were to take a trip around Romania. The girls were convinced this was where the Teletubbies came from. 
Unfortunately the Teletubbies were not home.Being the capitol, almost everyone speaks English in this city making touring so much easier. This was something that came as a relief as I had an appointment to see a Pediatrician at the Children's Hospital about Ruby. Ruby had been suffering from explosive diarrhea for closing in on 6 weeks. It seemed to go hand in hand with the fact that I had transitioned her over from formula to whole milk right around that time. Ruby was waking up through the night 3 or 4 times with terrible cramping, gas and explosive acid errupting from her. Her bottom got to the point that she had open sores from the constant diapers changes and acidy diarrhea. I obviously wondered if she was having difficulty with lactose but I also knew that the formula she had been drinking was made with lactose. That being the first ingredient. I would have put her on lactose free milk but that does not exist in my little town. I could have put her on Soy milk but all my literature said to avoid that unless she had a milk allergy. That was not the case.
I was nervous about this up coming visit as it would be our first time accessing medical treatment here. We were told to go to the ER and ask for this certain doctor. URGH! How many times has that happened in my emerg when people come waltzing in off the street and say "well Dr. Summeroff told me to come to the ER and I thought he would meet me here." Then we have no choice but to tell them their doctor has just handed them off, punted the ball, passed the buck and made their problem ours.
The ER was tiny with 3 exam rooms and 1 resusitation room which had 2 trauma beds. Happily it appeared clean and virtually empty. We did as we were told and the nurse called the doctor on her cell phone. Maybe it was going to work afterall! The nurse got off the phone and told us the doctor that we were waiting for had a "family emergency" and would not be able to see us today. GREAT! There you go! I knew this would happen! Surely her emergency isn't as important as my kids leaky bum!
Happily she had called another pediatrician who was working in the hospital to come down and assess Ruby. Thank god.
We met the doctor about 15 minutes after our phone call but unfortunately she spoke not a word of English. I could feel my inner voice again, "Where did you get your degree, DeVry Romania?" I calmed myself and new that I was armed with a medical English-Romanian dictionary and that they weren't going to do anything to my baby unless I new every step. The doctor examined her as any Canadian doctor would. She asked me questions through the nurse who spoke very broken English. Ruby was weighed and her weight charted on a growth chart. So far I was impressed! Ruby even got in the mood and managed to provide 2 very fresh stool samples during the course of the exam. The doctor agreed that she thought Ruby needed to have a lactose holiday. For 3 months, she would need to stop lactose intake so her little body could have a chance to make more Lactase. With such a long period of diarrhea, likely stemming from a gastro, she had essentially pooped out all her lactase making her temporarily lacotse intolerant. She would start a Lactose Free Formula and I was going to have to think about food I could make without cheese or yogurt. Not easy!
In the end we all had a nice time visiting with each other. We didn't tour at break neck speed only did what we could handle and let the children play if they wanted to. We found another lovely park with an awesome playground. With equipment that had long been made illegal in our Canadian playgrounds by "safety crazy" people armed with lawyers. The kids had a wonderful time trying out the see-saws, the spinners, the slides, the swings and even some new equipment that I had never seen in a park that would never pass code in Canada. The kids of course, loved it! 
As we waved goodbye to Simon and started on our journey back to Roman a distinct feeling of dread came over me. My parents were leaving for Canada the next day. I kept trying to fight the feeling of sadness, telling myself that this goodbye would be easier than when we left Canada. But it felt very much the same, just as painful. I knew, from the distant look in their eyes, that my parents were feeling the same. That night as my parents sat on thier sofa bed and I talked to them on the couch, my Mom had some tears. All that time I had been trying to fight that dreadful feeling of sadness and trick myself into thinking this goodbye would be easier, was suddenly chattered as I saw tears in my mothers eyes. I remained composed, trying to sell my lie, that this should be an easier goodbye. I told my parents that this will be the longest period of time that we will be away from eachother and then never again. They were not convinced.
The next morning was D day. Departure day. The driver was coming to get my parents at 1 pm. The time slipped through my fingers like water. Precious time. Gone. I attempted one last time to put a positive spin on their departure by challenging my mother with a weight loss challenge. It allowed us a moment of light heartedness but that too swooped away quicky. David came home at 12:30 so he could say goodbye and I am sure he had no idea what he was walking into. Like time had passed in a blink, the door bell rang and it was the driver. I could feel a rush of emotion and I tried to stop it but it was no use. I saw my fathers chin quiver with sadness and I was an instant mess. They kissed their "best grand daughters" goodbye, choking on the enormous lumps in their throats. Barely able to get words out. I was unable to speak. I knew if I opened my mouth, it would be all over. I had to consider that all three of my children were at my side, looking at me and their grandparents with concern. I kiss my parents and watched them pull away through clouded eyes. They were gone.
I turned to David and was surprised at what I saw. He too, had enormous tears in his eyes. His lips were curling to fight his emotion and chin quivering.
"What the hell are you crying about?" I asked him. This is a man who never cries. Not a wimpy guy. Not someone who get teared up easily by watching other get teared up.
"Well," he said slowly, trying to compose himself. "You are making me sad." I was immediately annoyed and challenged him.
"David, you have seen me cry a number of times and never joined in. Why now?"
"Well, you saying goodbye to your parents. You being so sad. Them being so sad. You're doing this all for me!"
I realized at that point, that finally, he got it.
See you all at Christmas. Can't wait.
Alison xxxxx
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