If I never return from this trip it is either because I fell from the high beds and opened my head, or because I hit myself on the low ceiling – and opened my head. Or both, like hitting the ceiling first and then falling over, in which scenario I will certainly not make it. This story ‘of climbing and hitting heads’ became even more complicated when little mr. ex Happy got sick (did you notice less posts the last two days? There you go.)
So, this is how it usually goes: Alex is crying. We let him cry for a while hoping he will sooth himself and when he reaches hysteria level we need to act. Action plan: a) climb up the ladder to his bed b) open the little curtain c) put your knee on the matress and push you body high up with your palms. BANG. You hit your head for the first time in the ceiling. ‘Auch’ and some swearing. d) you sit next to Alex’s tent and think further of the action plan. e) you open the zip at Alex’s little tent (Alex in the meantime has reached 100 degrees temperature from crying. Gioia, who sleeps in the same bed outside the tent, turns around noticing ‘something is going on’, but no more, she can still sleep while Alex’s crying can be heard from Mars). f) *This is really difficult*: you use both hands, palms up, put them under crying Alex, you lift him up and try to bring him close to you while he moves like an octopus. 8,5 kgs crying octopus. You lift him up. BANG. Alex hits his head on the ceiling. The volume level increases. You try not to cry yourself. Now that you have him safe on your hands you realise you forgot whatever you were supposed to bring a level down (=downstairs). And you want to kill yourself.
The last two nights I slept with Alex in our high bed – above the steering wheel – and Martijn squeezed himself diagonally between Gioia and Alex’s empty tent (too much effort to remove it). This is because Alex had fever and would wake up every 10 minutes screaming, which made the aforementioned stepwise relief method impossible to execute. In his ‘new bed’ he had plenty of space and could scream easier. But this bed is even higher and the ceiling is so low you can’t sit, you can only crawl. Supernice for mama #NOT! These two nights Alex would only sleep if I was literally skin to skin with him and the moment I would remove my hand from his head/ belly/ little feet he would immediately wake up and cry. It was quite a nightmare, but today we saw the first smile and heard the first goo-goos again! It seems we are getting back on track, yuhoooo! And can enjoy the paradise we are in:
