Staying at Casa Biggs Flow Chart

Links: Linnen - Hotel Oderberger - Airbnb - Stadtkloster Segen - Zarenhof Prenzlauer Berg                  

As you can see from the quality of the flow chart, it's not the Ritz around here. Our place is really for the broke or broke at heart. That being said, we do offer the following amenities:

Hugo's famous eggs

Impromptu modern art installations  

Those who are dessert motivated attempt to adhere to the following code of conduct during meals:

Hard to say if hand or computer drawn are the way to go.

We don't have a ton of wiggle room with our rascals, but we can do the following to be a bit more hospitable:

• Have normal breakfast food on hand. I now know that most do not regard lasagna as a breakfast food.
• Work with dietary restrictions. I can cook gluten free, vegan, soy free, etc. 
• Extra encouragement to the littles to be quiet in the early hours. 

On that note, I need to join these people:

#Momfail

Paul and I chose 1 Timothy 4:12 as Crosby's baby dedication verse.

Do not let anyone look down on you because you are young, but be an example for other believers in your speech, behavior, love, faithfulness, and purity.

Here I am declaring to Imago Dei Church in PDX: "This passage reminds me that while Crosby isn't using words we can understand, he already has a lot to say."

Last week he was trying to tell me, through very dramatic means, that he wasn't feeling well. I kept sending him back to school. A doctor's appointment on Friday revealed that he has a new viral infection on top of an old viral infection. The doctor said that I sent him back to school too soon. #momfail. Today he got even sicker - with a fever. So, Monday he'll definitely be home and we'll see after that.

"I'm a tiger. I'm a champion."

My college friend, Neysa, told me during her visit about a book she is reading about how our general 'life of comfort' is making us soft. She pointed out that the man writing the book comes from a place of privilege but some of his points are interesting. One of his theories is that we need to do more hard things; he specifically gave the suggestion of endurance sports. 

During my collegiate club sport days, I repeated the mantra, "I'm a tiger. I'm a champion." I mostly whispered it to myself during cyclocross races. I also think the ridiculous mantra spilled over to other challenging circumstances in early adulthood. The grin-and-bear-it mentality got me pretty far, but you know what it isn't getting me through... 

Friday morning:

Me: Staring off into the distance in despair.

Carmen: "Mommy, you are sad because your uncle died."

Me: "Today I am sad because we haven't done our final lice shampoo and you already have a new pinworm infection."

Monday morning:

Crosby: "My stomach doesn't feel good."

Me: "You're going to school."

Monday afternoon:

Call from school secretary: "Crosby has a stomach ache and needs to be picked-up."

Crosby resting in his forth floor classroom that doubles as a sauna.

Me to Crosby: "Sorry. I guess my body rejecting the pinworm medication was actually a stomach bug working our way through our family."

--

Ok, dear reader, I know you're thinking "Yeah, yeah, yeah - are you really still blogging about being sick all the time?" Yes, because the official count is now past 18 months of near constant illness. But, I've learned a a few very important lessons this last round of parasites. I am going to blog about these revelations in the hopes that God believes that I've learned something and will give me a break. Jokes. 

--

Growing up I was always praised for my "toughness". I see this toughness in some of my kids in that they can take a punch or shake off a fall. It's a quality that is still generally rewarded in our culture. Nevertheless, I give a lot of lip service to raising sensitive kids - and reversing the "boys don't show emotion" cultural construct. That being said, often I just want to scream at them, "Just suck it up." So I'm learning, and like many learning experiences - it's painful for everyone. 

Also, as Carmen noted, I'm still grieving my uncle Karl. I want time and space to think, and that just doesn't happen when my kids are sick. I had the privilege of meeting my new bible study ladies for a late night showing of the German history in the government quarter. Along the way, I rode past a restaurant Paul and I went to on a double date with Karl and Joy. Every time I pass that restaurant I feel a physical tightening in my chest. I had the thought yesterday, "Karl couldn't have in a million years imagined the pain his suicide would cause. Suicide doesn't end the pain, it just defuses it to the people who love you." A thought that is as dark as our blue man group audition photo: 

Speaking of auditions, I'm trying out better mantras. My friend Leah gave me the book Breath as Prayer for my 40th birthday. I have to admit that I outright rejected it based on the cover. The cover is beautiful, which made me feel like it was marketing to my soul. Turns out the author is a graphic designer so it shouldn't be held against her. I am only a couple pages in, but I can tell this is going to be a helpful practice getting me through the many challenges ahead.

In the mean time, I continue to try and walk the tightrope of building character and raising sensitive kids. My current strategy is to put my kids to work at home when they are "sick but not too sick".

Producing art

Assisting with party planning

Cooking a meal with little assistance

Helping with Hugo's swim practice. 

With that, the school just called. Running off to another sick kid pick-up...

Real Talk: Parasites

Caution: Do not read this post while eating or before bed.

I remember learning about pinworms during my masters' program core course in 2006 at the Charité here in Berlin. The curriculum featured various experts on different aspects of tropical medicine and public health. The expert teacher during "parasite week" was a 30-something father to preschool kids. When teaching us about pinworms he said "of course all parents with small children get it". I believe there was an audible gasp of disbelief from the class.

Seventeen years later, pinworms came to Casa Biggs. They were truly our most disgusting childhood illness to date. Although our current lice battle reminds me that between the two parasites - pinworms are more manageable. I'm posting this info to save any people in my orbit the trouble of assembling their own treatment strategies. I error on the side of conservative without doing the super time/soul sucking measures - for example washing your sheets every night. 

Pinworms 101

How to know if your kid has them?

One of our littles is very sensitive to things not being ok in its little body. (Thank you German for giving me "das Kind" to use the neutral pronoun for anonymity.) After a super "off" day, aforementioned little person mentioned an itchy bum. I did a quick check then, but the true test is to put the kid to bed and then check 2-3 hours later. The disgusting worms come out of their little bums at night to lay eggs. Friends who've had it say that another sign is seeing worms in the poop. My little canary in the coal mine gave me a heads-up before it got that bad. The internet also talks about the tape test the next morning. I don't know anyone who's had success with the tape test however. As such, the best way to play this is put your kids to bed, watch a movie to stay awake, check their bums when the movie is over, and then pray somehow to erase your memory of the horror you just saw so you can sleep.

How to treat?

Our pediatrician said that we should treat only the kids with the worms and only once. She didn't even need to see the disgusting worm I saved. The nurse wrote a prescription for pills to take based on their body weights. However, my general practitioner is of the American mindset that everyone in the house should be treated twice. He wrote a prescription for Paul and me. Because the package was based on the typical German body weight - we had enough to treat the kids twice too. #petitperks

Pinworm eggs are super sticky so in addition to being aggressive about constant hand washing, you'll also need to do a bunch of cleaning. Some people are super aggressive with bleach, but I shot for the middle of the road cleaning strategy. I should have been more methodical about what I did while kids were asleep vs awake, so I wrote out an order of operations below.

Late note: Our next two rounds of pinworms - months later - we just treated the child in question and that was enough. 

1. Drug store run

Supply list:

• Nail brush 
• Lysol or similar surface cleaner
• Sadly no alcohol should be taken with the medication

2. Cut the kids' nails and scrub with the nail brushes. 

3. Bag and store all the stuffed animals and non-essential blankets. They are going on vacation for a month to be sure you get through the second round of treatment without washing them again. 

4. Vacuum all the things - sofa, floors, chairs, etc. 

5. Change all the sheets, bath towels, and hand towels. Wash everything in hot water.

6. Take the pills. Put kids to bed.

7. Wipe down all the surfaces, door handles, and toys with the antibacterial surface cleaner.

The pills are supposed to kill the worms immediately. However, we started the next two mornings with a bum wash, new undies, and then subsequent towel wash, just to be safe. We also did night bum checks on the chance nights that we happened to be awake two hours after putting the kids to bed. Three weeks later we took the pills again right before our favorite family of eight came to stay at our house. The last time we stayed with them in Hungary we gave all six of their kids scarlet fever. 

I am happy to report that at the time of this publication we did not manage to give any of them pinworms. The jury is still out if we gave our most recent guests lice.

Lice 101

How to know if your kid has them?

The first time I got lice I thought an itchy scalp was my body's way of telling me that I shouldn't have tried for a third child. jokes! I saw the sign at Kita announcing lice but I didn't make the connection. Long story short, a louse jumped out of Gen's former boyfriends' hair while Gen was at our house watching the kids. She looked down at the current little Biggs in her lap and yup, he was the culprit. The second round I had an infant Carmen, I don't remember how we found lice. This round Paul saw a louse jump out of Hugo's hair and exclaimed "is this what I think it is?"

How to treat?

Well, as this is not our first rodeo, we already had a healthy supply of lice shampoo in our medicine cabinet. Some lice shampoos include a comb, others do not. Double check when you buy the bottle. The lice comb is key. Apparently there are two kinds of shampoo, one is preventative and another is to treat. I don't know if there are big differences in efficacy but we have all the things.

The good news is that our friends who were visiting were really good sports about spending their wedding anniversary at our house like this:

"It's kind of like a spa." Liz

The bad news - in retrospect - is we'd spent the previous couple days doing this:

Dex's funcle skills in action.

Sharing helmets

The internets say that most transmission is hair to hair. However, this is our more conservative plan of attack:

1. Pharmacy run for lice shampoo and lice comb.

2. Place all hats and helmets in a bag for the week.

3. Soak all brushes in hot water for 5-10 minutes. Only use one brush so you don't have to do this process over again if you find lice later.

4. Wash all hair ties or put in a bag for the week.

5. Wash all the pillow cases.

6. Use lice shampoo per instructions. Spend 1-1.5 hours a person with the lice comb.

The bad news is we found the first bug at 7 pm. As such, Paul and I were up until 2:30 am on Friday night brushing hair. Likely we could have gone faster but Paul is much, much better at lice combing than me. But the good news is we could do another check today, Sunday, before hopefully sending the kids back to school and Kita. So two days later:

1. Drug store run:

• Tea tree oil
• Spray bottle
• Alcohol for personal consumption 

2. Lice comb with tea tree oil spray diluted with water every two days until we don't find any nits or bugs.

Good lighting is key. Any low quality screen-time will do.

3. We'll do another shampoo per the instructions of our lice shampoo to repeat in a week.

It's a jungle out there. Stay parasite free my friends.