Fresh air at last
The boys have been cooped up for the last week or so with a bout of the dreaded GRIPA. Although technically the word GRIPA translates as THE FLU, the implications of the word certainly don't translate over very well. In Latvia, the GRIPA is a terrible, terrible thing. If you get it, you have to obsess about where you could have possibly contracted it, notify everyone you have ever been in contact with, and if your children catch it, the underlying implication from those around you, is that you are A BAD MOTHER - oh, and don't even DREAM of sending your kid back to school/kindergarten until they have stopped coughing. Completely. We don't even want to hear them clear their throat.
Now obviously, flu complications can be dangerous no matter where in the world you are from, but back in Oz I seem to remember "getting the flu" as a fairly common occurrence that was accompanied by a week at home, a bit of panadol, fluids and lots of daytime tv. No stigma attached :)
Anyhow, after having over a week of the plague ravage our household, we finally went out to the park for the first time yesterday. It was uncharacteristically sunny and warm, around zero degrees, which is the perfect temp for sticky snow, good for making snowballs and snowmen. Best part was a huge mountain of snow about 3 metres high which has been created by bulldozing all the snow off the footpaths and into one spot. The boys have loved these snow mountains from when they were very little, climbing to the top and pretending the mountains were castles, or pirate ships, with icy steep downhill slides for quick getaways. Yesterday, of course, the hill gave a perfect vantage point for the boys to attack their poor, defenseless parents with as many snowballs and ice chunks as possible.
If you look closely you can see I am about to be sconned on the back of the head
Vicious little darlings
Jem fights back
'Gripa' is also the name of the same kind of flu-like illness in Ukrainian. I think the sound of the word alone conjures up images of some disgusting 18th Century disease that provokes horror and general shunning of the poor sufferer. I hope the boys are fully recovered and they are welcomed back to school!
Wow, I never knew it was so serious, even when I lived there. Yikes! Maybe it's worse when there are children involved.
Um, I know there is no direct comparison in any of these shots, but, is Tiss getting as tall as like, Mook's shoulder? I think we're going to have a very big shock on our hands when we come to LV and meet these big boys that used to be the little nephews we left a few years ago...
Hey Mara, Mikus and I were looking at some videos the other day, and there was a clip of Mik's 2nd birthday, and you and Joel were there, singing daudz baltu dieniņu! I somehow don't remember Mikus being so small when you were in LV. So yep, they've definitely grown :)
Hilarious!!! The GRIPA... I guess the picture is quite like you drew it - with small children you notice it more. As an adult you can chose not to join the GRIPA-mania and more or less just ignore it.
But! About Oz and "getting a flu" - I think the difference might be in what they mean here by that name, it's often just a cold and no real influenza. In a common language I mean. "I feel fluie" - means influenced by symptoms of common cold. My Matīss "had a flu" last winter - it was not The G!
Also the GRIPA-flu in Brisbane sounds like a joke to a true northerner. Come on, it's warm there! GRIPA needs atkušņi, mīnusi, ziema, tumšs, drūms, skolā(trolejbusā)-visi-klepo: i.e. GRIPA-season! It's the same like with a draught v.s. the CAURVĒJŠ. I've never enjoyed open car windows in LV whereas here... But that's another story! :)