Next installment

Part One is here. Note that we are talking about real-life circumstances and not my dream sequence described here. :)

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We had a date with the specialists.

As I mentioned, I was nervous about the details: about needing to quarantine items, about dangerous substances, about a few bugs getting away and continuing to multiply...and also about needing to clean for "company" (AKA the Bug Guys). Weren't they going to be going through every nook and cranny, like my underwear drawer? (gasp)

Well, David solved that one. He needed a nap, outside. Babushka had not arrived yet. I took him outside and the bug guy (there was just one) arrived soon after and got right to work. We had to stay outside. I was not involved at all. And that's when I realized...when you are too concerned with controlling everything, the best solution is to surrender control to someone else.

So we stayed outside while it all got done, and then all went and had lunch, and stayed outside for the rest of the day too, while the apartment was airing out.

How long ago was that? A week? It seems like ages!

The bug exterminator did NOT find anyone. No signs, nothing. Our bed was "clean." Maybe we never had "tenants," or maybe we were just in time. By the time you see them running around, you've got a pretty big problem. I count it a blessing that I didn't have any encounters.

I did get some more bites, only on my ankles, up to a few days ago. I think I've been bite-free for the past few days. There could be a few offspring somewhere, but the poison will continue to work, and for now it seems that we have won.

I still have doubts sometimes, thinking of all the ways they could come back. I guess in an apartment building you're never really SAFE. The bug guy said we're having an epidemic and that the warm weather is PERFECT for the bugs to thrive. You never know which of your neighbors are trying to drive out pests, only to have them seek refuge in YOUR home.

And so I realized that this is another area of my life in which to trust God. There are a lot of times I feel like a pilgrim, when we have to travel for one reason or another. It was a relief to become apartment owners, but in the back of my mind I sometimes feel God saying, "Don't get too attached to it." Whether it's bureaucracy, vacation, or a bed bug infestation, He reminds me that the only way to really feel at home is to abide in Him.

Birthday #2

Last Saturday was Andrei's turn! This time last year we had been wondering whether or not he would have to share his birthday, but that turned out to not be the case. June 29th came and went, and no baby.

Homemade placemat encore

I don't know about other families, but it usually happens that if Andrei or I want to prepare a surprise for each other, the person being surprised has to take care of the baby, which sort of gets in the way of spoiling the birthday person, if you know what I mean. Here, corral the little one while I make a "surprise" dinner or whatever.

Just try keeping him occupied when he knows his other parent is doing something interesting in the other room! At least with Andrei's parents helping, the adult-child ratio is skewed a bit in our favor, so we all get to rest a little while taking turns with various tasks (okay, his parents do almost everything when they're over).

It worked out this time that Andrei was able to drop us off (via tram) at a new mall nearby, and I managed to do a little shopping while David slept in the stroller.

The birthday itself was the same as mine-a meal, then lounging around in the living room laughing at David, and then we snuck out to a movie.

Knee-level timer self-portrait

My day

I was riding a regular city bus (the kind I have a pass for), when someone suddenly handed me a pie. I looked around and it looked like other passengers were being given them, too. Interesting.

When I got off at my stop, I noticed that there were several stations where prizes were being handed out, like it was a holiday. Everyone was sort of giddy. The various prizes seemed too unrelated for it to be a business promotion. I called a friend to see what she thought, and she said "the government is getting people revved up. Something is about to happen."

I got home and an unfamiliar scarf hanging from our coat hooks caught my eye. Someone was in the apartment. 

A peppy college-aged girl suddenly showed up and came right over to David and started examining him, almost like it was a house call, only I hadn't called the doctor. I had the feeling that I had to pretend like everything was normal, so that they wouldn't know I was on to them. The girl asked the same questions that the pediatrician asked. At one point she asked me how much he weighed, and I shuffled through some papers to find his latest print-out from the pediatrician, but for some reason his weight had not been recorded.

By this time, some other "nurses" had arrived on the scene, and were starting to examine David as well. Then it got even weirder as other mothers and children started to enter our apartment, and I realized that our apartment was being taken over to be used as some sort of base. I made small talk with one woman who had a boy close to David's age, but we knew intuitively that we couldn't discuss what was really going on.

While they were performing more tests on David, I decided to sneak downtown. I went into one store that had some housewares, and a clerk offered some advice. He was just a young college guy like the girl that was in my apartment examining David. He seemed so casual that I almost felt like I could relax and joke around with him, but I knew that he was really with the government. They had purposely chosen these youngsters so that people would be more likely to let their guard down.

I got back to my apartment and the nurses were spoon-feeding David from a jar. "Excuse me, what are you feeding him?" I asked, without even taking my shoes off. I looked at the contents and saw that it was spaghetti. "But he hasn't tried tomato products yet," I protested, though I didn't try too hard to argue.

Finally, Andrei was home. We had to decide together what to do. We were being watched. As we looked out the window, we saw a man walking along, holding a weapon. Then another man came along, also armed. Shots rang out, and we knew that it was only the beginning.



Now THAT was an intense dream.

An update of sorts

A new kind of problem has kept us busy lately.

It started out with a few itchy bites on my leg. "Bug bites in the summer?" you say. "How unremarkable."

Perhaps. But they were just so CONSISTENT. No matter what the weather, what I wore to bed, whether or not I had changed the sheets, windows open or closed...whatever it was sure was hungry. I never felt anything at night, never saw any bugs on my body, I would just suddenly start itching and find a bite or two (or several).

Finally one day (my birthday), while David was taking an amazingly long nap, I did a little research. Unfortunately, the best explanation that fit the situation was that we had bed bugs. :( I didn't want to believe it...I really wasn't looking for there to be anything wrong. I would have accepted an allergy explanation or something similar. But, the signs were just adding up to bed bugs.

Andrei wasn't getting bitten, but he wanted to make sure David (with a few suspect bites) and I weren't going to suffer long. We then entered the research phase of things...

We scoured extermination sites and forums. Andrei wanted to hear from the professionals and I wanted to hear from the people who had experienced this (and won!) :). I typed in search phrases like "I get bites but husband doesn't," and found tons of testimonials. He looked for (child-safe) bug poison that could be purchased in St. Petersburg.

Meanwhile, if you read enough testimonials, you learn just how much people suffer psychologically from trying to get rid of infestations, whether it is bed bugs, fleas, etc. If it goes on for long enough, paranoia sets in. Since we didn't seem to have a huge problem (no visible signs of bugs except for the bites), we weren't TOO worried, but there was still a need to act fast. Even so, we began to exhibit a mild form of paranoia, manifested by incessantly checking each piece of lint we came across, often repeatedly. :)

Andrei, in an attempt to protect David, put containers of lavender water around the legs of his bed, so bugs couldn't climb up.

David's bed bug "bling"

My issue was that I'd read all about quarantining belongings. People described basically living out of garbage bags for MONTHS. I started becoming obsessed with how this would work. How would we determine what was clean and unclean? How would we keep them separate?

Where were they hiding?

To be continued...