January Blues | Heading through Winter on the "Virus Express"

All I really want to do in the winter is hang out in bed, live from one meal to the next, watch DVDs, read the paper and the occasional novel. Winter in the city is no fun, especially as the rain begins to drizzle, the wind gets colder and colder. If it was up to me, I would simply hibernate until the temperature started rising againt and all the birds returned from Africa.

But as it happens, I have a two year-old son and a two month-old daughter to take care of. Once a happily gushing newborn, my son is now a little rascal who won't go anywhere without his Bob the Builder sweater and requests pasta with ketchup for dinner every night of the week. He also decides who is to push the buggy where and at which time and when we should sing which children's songs together. Maybe, just maybe, I'd be a little less stressed out if my son was able to live it up at the Kita during the daytime. The only problem with that is that Kitas are like virus factories, constantly churning out new childhood diseases that result in endless sick days. So far, we've hosted rhinoviruses, strep throat and pastell green mucus at our home, and since November, my boyfriend, my son (whom we've nicknamed "the Virus Express"), his little sister and I have taken turns falling sick. 

A stay at home mom works very long hours, but 24 hours spent in dry, hot air and with a sick child can easily feel like twice that amount. Although my son hasn't grown bored of his books and duplo building bricks yet, I insist that he get some fresh air at least once a day. Because darkness sets in at around 4, trying to head to a playground in the afternoon makes little sense. So I tuck my babies into two lambskin duvets and push them around in a double stroller while I pick up the drycleaning. On special days we might even drop a pair of pants off at the tailor's. Towards the end of the week, we usually pick up parcels from the post office, since the postman likes to come by right when we're out taking a walk. A highly recommendable location for kiddie activities in January is the supermarket. I like Kaiser's the best because although it's more expensive that any other place, they heat the place up properly and we always get free sausages at the meat counter. Men like car and soccer trading cards, but January-weary moms love themselves their discount coupons. I've been busy collecting reward points and - say what you will - am now the proud owner of a shopping cart chip with a snap hook. 

So this is my life: Supermarkets and viruses instead of a new year's eve hangover. But who am I to whine, winter sucks for everybody. We'll all just have to perservere until that one beautiful night in spring where our (inner and outer) clocks switch back to summer time.

(sjb)