The Walking Dead

Roque and I are like the walking dead. It's been five days since we've been home. Roque had to go back to work the day after we arrived. I have been taking on most of the night time duties so that Roque can get a little more rest. Greyson's jet lag recovery is progressing like molasses in January. He sleeps in three hour spurts at best during the night, and then wakes up to be amused for about two hours before going down again for another spurt. Usually, he doesn't go down without some crying. He can sleep till 1pm in the afternoon if I don't drag myself out of bed to wake him up. He coughs all the time, just coughs, and coughs, and coughs. It's heart-breaking. His condition seems to have deteriorated in the last couple of days. We might have to take him to the doctor again. Just thinking about it makes me tired.

Meanwhile, it continues to be the Ballesteros House of Misery. Roque's cold now appears to be the flu. He is achy and feverish, and, on top of jet lag, is less than himself right now. Today we went to Costco and while I was feeding Greyson in the car in the parking lot, Roque was loading the trunk with groceries. He then realized that he couldn't find his car keys. He looked high and low, muttering and grumbling, completely bewildered and irritated. When I was done, I got out of the car, opened the trunk and saw it right away wedged in the corner. It is very unlike my meticulous husband to miss something like that. He is not himself.

We are combating fatigue, irritability and a general sense of being abandoned by God (at least I am). It just seems like it's been one thing after another since the day we left San Francisco. I think it will be a very long time before I decide to take my family on an international vacation. If I do, I will rename it from "vacation" to "expedition", that way I don't get my hopes up. We were sitting in Costco today grabbing a hot dog and pizza for lunch, battling Greyson's cranky whining and wriggling on my lap. Roque sighed and said, "It's really hard...kids." Yup.

Our friends Joey and Amy just had a baby. We visited them in the hospital last night and when asked how he felt being a new dad, Joey said, "I feel like I'm staying at a bad hotel and someone just handed me a baby." What is it about parenthood that brings us to our knees whilst spewing profundities?













More photos of our time in Singapore. Looking at these pictures remind me why what we're going through was worth the while.