French apartment renovations, Day 690: Bye bac

Well, it's done. Zari ended up having that difficult passage, the one that Eric helped her with last night, as her piece to analyze. She felt that her presentation was repetitive, but at least it's something we covered the night before since otherwise she would have been totally lost. She had her sports medicine visit after lunch, and the doctor was positive about the prognosis. He does want her to go in and get some sort of scan (not an MRI) just to see what her kneecap is doing and where it's located.

While Zari was gone and Ivy was at school, the rest of us did a deep clean of the kitchen and living room. Dio scrubbed down the backsplashes and the metal shelves. Inga cleaned the chair rail moldings and dusted the furniture. I cleaned the oven, vacuumed the tops of the big furniture, and washed out a few drawers.

When Zari came home, she cleaned out her school folders and had a HUGE pile of papers to recycle...from just 6 months of school!

I got the kids' DCEM renewal applications off. I sent a very nice note explaining why we are renewing with such short notice (I had to wait for my own visa to be renewed) and that we would very much appreciate an expedited renewal if possible, etc etc. Vive la bureaucratie!

I convinced and cajoled Dio and Inga to come to the beach with me. Dio really didn't want to go. "It's so boring at the beach and I'm not even going to swim! Why do I have to go?" I told him he didn't have to, but if he chose to stay home he wasn't allowed to be on any electronic devices (the kids have been on them a lot, despite our best efforts). And...he came!

The waves were picking up when we arrived and kept getting bigger. The three of us had so much fun playing in the waves. Dio sometimes needs that push into action. Once's he out and doing the thing, then he likes it. But intertia is strong with this one.

Eric was already there, treasure hunting. He came back with mismatched water shoes and broken glasses.

Dio and I went to his doctor's appointment in the late afternoon. I didn't even realize it, but it was with a sports medicine specialist! He said it was likely due to Dio growing so fast and the muscles and tendons falling behind the bones. Plus he's not super bulky in his core, so all of the work playing soccer ends up pulling more on one end than on the other. We got sent home with 3 sets of prescriptions (so French!):

#1: 3 different medications to get at the pharmacy: an anti-inflammatory, a muscle relaxant, and tylenol as needed
#2: a prescription for physical therapy, 2-3 times a week at least
#3: a prescription for an x-ray to ensure there's nothing strange going on anatomically

When we walked in the doctor's office, the first thing he asked was, "Do you speak French?" We assured him that yes, we did. He said, "Well I wasn't sure, since you look very Nordic." I suppose that is true if we go back enough generations! We are Norwegian via the Freeze family, Swedish/German/Danish via many of my ancestors.

We had crepes after dinner and played a round of Cover Your Assets before watching Stranger Things. Zari was gone all evening at a birthday party / we're-done-with-the-bac party.