Today it was the day to go, drive some miles and watch Noddy and The Treasure Map.

Today we had high temperatures, we are used to have a fresh brise where we live so going to the interior made us have hotter temperatures and a dry air. The complex where the musical took place had no air conditioned so we were all sweeting during the show.

The show started half an hour after the established hour, this is something I really don’t like because the children become impatient and it’s a little complicated to control them.

When Noddy and his friends arrived it was a blast. My daughter was speechless and impressed with all those animated characters she’s used to watch everyday on TV. My son was also excited and participated in the activities that were requested from the stage.

The clues to find what the treasure was were English words (the show was in Portuguese of course). The words were: “to work”, “as a team”, “much better” and “together”. Putting them in the correct order:

“Much better to work together as a team” - the message was: when we get together and try to solve something as a team is much better than alone. Friends have to speak with each other no matter what is going on, even in bad days when we are not in the mood.

I personally found the musical very interesting, I really liked it and I’m happy that my kids were able to watch them live.

It was not allowed to film the show but I was able to film 15 seconds movies (my camera doesn’t allow more time) without a problem. It was not possible to get close to them, only at the end of the show we were able to go near the stage so no photos with my kids and Noddy.

Here are some photos I took during the show:

I tried to insert here one of the movies I made but it didn’t work out. This was the first time I tried so I have to check what am I doing wrong.

Two more working days and I will be on vacation. Wednesday my kids are still going to school and daycare so that I can take advantage of the day to do a few things at home, Thursday they will stay with me while dad will be working 3 more days.

Once again we won’t be going anywhere, we will be staying at home, use the pool a lot and go to the beach.

We might have the visit of some dutch friends that are coming to Portugal for their vacation, they intend to go south so we don’t know yet if we are going to be able to get together.

These dutch friends travel a lot, last year they were in south of France for two weeks and early this year they were in Brighton, a city they want to visit again. They told us Brighton is an excellent city to spend a few days visiting, there are several attractions that please grown ups and children.

Near the coast line, Brighton has a Royal Palace, museums, giant sculptures, street artists, surf stores, well known clothes brand stores, theaters, music, beaches and much more. For accommodation there are condos and hotels some of five start and the 400 restaurants bring us all types of food.

My friends told me about so many Brighton qualities that I felt I needed to look for more information. WeLoveLocal.com is a site where we can find reviews and recommendations for several places and attractions we can visit in Brighton.

The real cool feature about this site is that you always have a Google Map on the right side showing the places you are selecting. For instance you want to go to the Riley Snooker Club, you search it on the site and when you click on the link to see the information available for that snooker club immediately the Google Map appears showing the exact location of the club, the streets around it, etc.. This is great when we don’t know the exact location  and directions to take, with the map we are able to check the streets we have to take to get there.

The WeLoveLocal.com has a Brighton Directory featuring local business listings. This is also very useful for instance to check where a car parking or a cinema is. All location are featured on the Google Map.

My friends are really impressed with the city, who knows I will be able to visit it someday.

My car needed some new parts, it failed in the annual inspection so we had to fix it. 380 Euros (+/-590 US$) was the bill and it only included the price of the parts, the handwork was for free.

Well…I guess I need a drink. See you…

My daughter is afraid of all type of insects and animals, she just freaks out, screams and cries when she sees an unexpected bug. What happened today is hard to believe.

During break time in pre-school she saw a bee, a beautiful yellow and black bee, was she afraid? No. She tried to grab the bee with her hand and she got stung on one finger. I really can imagine the pain she felt because when I was younger I was stung by 3 or 4 bees. My poor baby…

The hand still hurts and it’s swollen, I just gave her some medication for the pain and to reduce the swollen, I believe tomorrow she’ll be ok.

Well, two days ago she hit a iron bar with her forehead and now she has a black spot.

Well, what can I say, growing up is having a lot of experiences, some good but also some bad, all together they will make my kids more alert and aware of what is going on around them.

Dani continues with an undetected and painless node so I guess everything is back to normal. Just in case and once the exam is already scheduled, next week he will be doing the exam to check the node. For now I’m going to keep this subject closed. I’ll post about the exam results next Thursday or Friday.

When I pick up my kids at the childcare after work I was really looking forward to check my son’s condition. First I decided I would wait at least one or two more days before checking his axilla again but…I just couldn’t wait.

What did I find on his axilla? Nothing, rien, nada. The pain is gone and the node is not swollen anymore.

I can’t say I’m not worried anymore, I’m going to wait a few more days, even make the exam next week (just in case) but I’m really relieved. It’s probably the antibiotic working, probably it was just an infection, it’s too early to tell but I’m glad it disappeared.

Thanks to all of you that left a comment or sent me a message. It’s good to know I have someone thinking about us out there.

• Worried about my son. Hopefully the node will return to its normal state, but I already schedule the eco (scan) for July 3rd (there are no appointments available sooner)
• The Noddy surprise was a real surprise. When I said I had a surprise they thought about everything but Noddy.
  School is over for Dani. The hard study and missing soccer classes gave good results and he really improved his grades.
• Soccer classes and tournaments are over.
• I might have sciatic nerve pain. The pain on my lower back is terrible (but nothing compared to the pain I feel for my son).
• I’m not inspired to write and blog but I know I can’t give in to the pain and worries I’m going through. I now what a depression is and I’m doing trying my best to not let me go down.

…real panic.

This morning when my son woke up he said his left arm hurt. I asked him exactly where and he told me on his axilla. I started to sweat and head up to check it. I found a swollen node!

I stopped breathing, my heart stopped, my energy was gone in a second and I felt like fainting. I checked again and there it was, hurting badly.

I took my son and daughter to the daycare and head up to the family doctor. They still had one appointment left so I took it. I went back to the daycare and pick up my son.

To go straight to the point, the doctor told me that a hurting and mobile node was in fact a good sign under the circumstances.  Why? Because a steady not hurting node has an immediately worse prognostic.

During the appointment we found out that my son has a swollen finger near the nail looking as if there is an infection spot. If there is an infection, the swollen axillary lymph node can mean an infection defensive action, it’s all in the same arm so… (I hope this is the case!!)

Prescription: Antibiotic for 8 days, next Monday, if he still has the swollen node and pain, he has to do an Eco to check the node.

I’m really, really scared and I’ve been crying on and off since this morning. I know I have to wait but I’m really scared and waiting is not my strong virtue.

Surprise, Surprise.

Noddy And The Treasure Map Musical is going to be in a city not too far away from us so today, without saying a word, I bought tickets online for me and the kids for June 28th.

Tonight I’m going to tell them about this and I’m sure they will be thrilled, especially my daughter who loves Noddy.  Catherine is not very fond of masquerades and outfits so I hope she’s not afraid of Noddy and Friends.

It’s a special gift from me to them and I know they will love it.

I think this is something a little private but at the same time something I feel comfortable writing about. All women should make the Pap Smear and check if it comes out normal. Why? Because who does this test regularly has more chances to discover a dangerous disease at a very early stage.

Since my daughter was born, 4 years ago, I have never seen a doctor again, not even for regular test. This Monday I had an appointment with the family planner doctor and I did the Pam Smear test, I have some blood tests to do as well as mammography and breast eco. I have to wait a few weeks for he Pap Smear test, the longer the results takes to arrive home the better, it means everything is normal, but, I wish I could know right now the result.

I read a post at The Domestic Diva called Parents tune into your Kids, this was an interesting post to read. Take two minutes and read it than come back please.

I agree with what is said by The Domestic Diva, completely, we must give our children our best attention and provide them with quality time. I couldn’t agree more.

Now talking about my situation and most full time working mothers with no one to clean the house, to help with the meals, to go shopping, how can we give our children quality time when, even on weekends we have the house to clean, shopping to do and we are so tired that we can’t even walk because our legs hurt so much.

I try to give my kids most of my free time but there are those days that, no matter how much I want to be with them. I’m not 100% with them. There are those weekends when I take them to the park but I just want them to play alone because I’m too tired to walk and play with them. However most of the times when my attention is requested, although tired and not wanting to, I manage to drag myself and play with them. Is it quality time? Maybe for them it is, they don’t even notice that I’m not ok, but that’s for sure not quality time for me. Do they deserve the effort? Yes, of course they do. They are away from me 10 hours a day and they surely deserve a mom that spends time with them and plays with them even if that’s not what she really wants, I mean, I want to, but the tired side says: go to bed, rest and let them play alone.

Most moms (not all of course) I know from blogs are staying or working at home mothers, although I know it is not easy to handle a house and kids full time, at least they are at home and they can prepare some house stuff during the day.

When I come home at 7pm I still have laundry, cooking and some cleaning waiting for me, besides all the other activities (baths, playing) that involve the children. Am I proud of being a working mom? Of course not, my dream (which is slipping through my fingers) has always been to spend more time with my kids, pick them up at school, do the homework with them but the reality is different, I have to delegate those tasks to other people because…I’m working.

Should I have gymnastic classes or swimming classes to easy my stress? Of course I should, but when do I have time, when I should be asleep?

Of course I’m aware there are full time working moms in the US, moms with a career, with high status inside a company, but do they have time to blog? Probably not. The reality I see on blogging world is about moms that follow their kids, who have the computer on all day, who have time to socialize, to participate in forums. I tried to do that but I’m going down the drain, I’m tired because I can’t put up with that because I have little free time.

I’ve been blogging less lately because I’m so tired I can’t stay up everyday until 2-3am and get up at 7am in the morning.

Do I want to be a full time mom? Yes I would love to, but European reality is much different from US. Even if I blog for money, the reality is not good, two years ago if I earned 300US$ I would earn 300€, now 300USD$ means 192€ and it’s getting worse.

Do I want to work from home? Yes, I would love too but in Portugal there are no companies providing that type of work.

If there is a US company that wants to offer me a job I can do from home I will be pleased to accept! ?

I’m not criticizing anyone, on the contrary, I would love to hear from working moms to know how they manage time. I want to improve my parent skills, I’m always looking for ways to be a better mother, that’s why I sometimes instead of writing my own posts I read other mom’s blogs because I learn so much from them.

Are you a full time worker? Leave me your blog URL and I’ll be please to read about your daily life, I’m sure I will learn important lessons from you.

Do you see the animal shaped balloon on the bottom left side of my page? I’m participation on the Orange World’s First Internet Balloon Race.

Go to the site: http://www.playballoonacy.com, sign up, submit your blogs and place the code on your blog template. The race will start on June 23rd.

People from all over the world can participate, they will follow the balloon and visit the blogs/sites that are participating, this means more traffic, new visitors and possibly new readers.

And how does the race actually take place?

The balloons will fly across a range of sites, picking up speed & distance bonuses as they fly. They can also pick up tokens for entry in to free prize draws.

There are already a bunch of sites signed up to support the race, including The Sun and Yahoo.

Head to http://www.playballoonacy.com and participate.