August update

I see that I haven't written since early May! Of course I have had both vaccines by now, and sooner than expected since the supply increased and everyone was then encouraged to go get vaccinated asap. The first one caused a really strong reaction in me, starting with a burning sensation in my feet and followed by stabbing like pains throughout my body. I kid you not. It took me a few days of enduring this before I thought to take any pain medication, because I didn't correlate it with the kind of thing you could take pain reliever for. Finally I got some ibuprofen into my system and things gradually started to improve. I was a bit nervous about getting the second shot after this but did and went for the pain meds at the first sign of a reaction. The second vaccine was thankfully a much better experience. It was contrary to most things I have heard which said that the second shot is usually the worst one. Anyway, I'm very relieved to now be fully vaccinated. Now we just need to see when they will be vaccinating Bean's age group.

Our summer has been going really well. Bean has been having a wonderful time at his day camps, saying he wishes that I had signed him up for more weeks (i.e. more than five). He learned to swim earlier in the summer, which has opened up the world of swimming for him and given me a bit more freedom too. His other big news is that he learned to ride a bike! He was at a specific camp that taught bike riding, and by the time I arrived to pick him up after the three hours, he was riding his bike! At the end of the week they did a little presentation of all the kids and what they had learned to do. I stood there amidst the other parents as the instructor introduced Bean while he rode around the circuit. She announced he had learned to ride his bike, had learned to start and stop and other things. At the end I walked over to him, all choked up with pride and trying mightily to stay composed. Bean asked me a question and I took a breath to answer in a normal voice but couldn't, so he looked up at me and asked again and realized his mum was temporarily emotionally disabled and what did he do? He threw his arms around me and gave me a great big hug, no words required. He knows me well :-) Riding a bike is such a core element of childhood. It is the first real independence a kid has. I absolutely loved riding my bike when I was a kid all over the neighborhood to my friends' houses and back home. Colour me proud and delighted.

We got out camping a couple of times and plan to do at least one more trip during our next few weeks of holidays. The heat has been pretty extreme the past week here and we have spent a lot of time indoors and feeling inexplicably tired at times too. We stayed with some old friends who had pets and Bean had a constant allergic reaction the whole time we were there. I don't think he has fully recovered from that even though we have been home for a week now. The other irritant is the haze from the forest fires thousands of kilometres away yet still drifting our way. Hopefully the rain this week will help but we are apparently in for another hot week.