October in Calgary

Ya Ya!

Laugh it up!

But it was plus 14 on the weekend and all the snow is gone now!

I Love Chinooks!

The Bean and the Big Boy Bed!

:'( What a big boy!
He's Gonna be going off to college soon!

He sleeps pretty good now in his new bed with very few problems.

Now when he wakes up, he just gets out of bed and destroys his room!

And I can lay in bed and listen to him play from down the hall, instead of listening to him shout

"Mommy I'm awake! Get me out of bed!"

Day 12 of 31 for 21!

Ugh! No time to post about the fabulous dinner last night. We are off to Rocky Mountain House this morning to have Thanks Giving with Dave's family at his Sister's house. I love hanging out with Dave's sister and brother in law and Sam is super excited to see his cousins. I will post pics of both Turkey Dinner Festivities tomorrow when there is more time. For now we are out the door!

Day 11 of 31 for 21!

THE TURKEY IS IN THE OVEN!

The Yams are whipped and topped with Marshmellows, awaiting their return to the oven.

The squash is squashed and back into it's pretty shell.

The apple pies were made last night and are also waiting their turn in the oven!

The bird was stuffed to the nines with Dave's fabulous stuffing.

The Cheese veg are mixed and in line as well.

Now to get the house clean, the kitchen clean, the baby clean, my self clean and shiny.... SO MUCH TO DO! And I just wanna sit on the couch!

Thanks Giving is Awesome, But So much work!

Day 9 of 31 for 21!

So... On Thursday My GF Christine and I went to the toddler gym with the kids. We Met up with another friend of ours there as well. It's just some gym time for the little guys at the Cardel Place Rec centre. They set up a bouncy Obstacle course, a little rebounder for the kids to jump on, basketball, loads of balls, a slide and all kinds of stuff for the kids to do. It's nice to get them out of the house and playing with some new kids. Socializing, I suppose one would call it.

I put Hunter in the Bouncy Castle and then realized, after he got all the way to the back and couldn't get back out, that I EXCEED the weight limit and also am 8 months pregnant, which was breaking another bouncy castle rule. So I had to get my friend Alisha to crawl in after Hunter. All the way to the end. Over and under and around! Rescued! Phew! I laughed the whole time. So did Hunt.

Later, after the Chil'ens was all tuckered out, Christine and I walked over to the Superstore to look at snow suits for Hunt. He still FITS into the one from last year, but he can't exactly WALK in it as it is meant for babies that don't yet walk. The feet are all zippered up. He basically just does the Maggie Simpson star fish in it when ever I put it on him.

We found a really nice winter jacket/snow pant combo for him there that was only 39$. The snow pants have removable booty covers and the jacket has a removable hood and removable mitts. It's is really nice and warm and I am very happy with it.

We also found something else. I was hesitant to share this, seeing as it's not TIME yet, and I will be spoiling the surprise but !!!! I can't help it. He is so Gawsh Darned Cute (as Nana would say).


So Here it is!

IT WAS THE ONE AND ONLY TODDLE TURTLE COSTUME AT THE SUPERSTORE!!!

When Christine found it, I was so excited I nearly peed! Then we got to looking at the costume and realized that the head piece was missing. So we ransacked the hangers and shelves looking for either another turtle costumer WITH a hat or the missing hat that perchance had fallen off. We looked EVERYWHERE. It was no where to be found. I was ready to Weep! Then I saw a pile of boxes. Boxes that looked like a mishmash of costume parts. Random masks and head pieces, gloves and wigs. I ripped through those boxes so fast. And LOW AND BEHOLD!!!! THE TURTLE HEAD!!!! He he he. Then we found a fitting little Pj Jumper that was the right colour to go underneath and TADA! Best costume ever!

Day 8 of 31 for 21!

I can't seem to keep up to this blog!

Well, we had some left over crab and a few left over shrimp. Roughly 1 whole crab didn't get devoured the night before so I used some creative energy and made Crab and Shrimp stuffed mushroom caps.

Sooo...

1 1/2 bricks of cream cheese

1 whole crab

20 cooked deveined shrimp

Garlic Plus (from Costco)

Worcestershire

Lemon Juice

Parmesan Cheese

Mix to taste!

Mash into Mushrooms!

OM NOM NOM NOM!!

I'll let you know how they came out later.

Day 7 of 31 for 21!

Today was my 33 week OBGYN appointment. It was fun actually. So far I really like both of the Doctors there. Both are woman and today I saw Dr. Grant, who was a large woman about my age. She was very comical and relaxed which was very attractive, especially when you have to talk to her about your uterus which is conveniently up in your throat. We were talking about the Duggars and Mrs. Duggar who is on her 19th pregnancy. I can't for the life of me conceive of having ANOTHER pregnancy let alone another 17!!! I carry babies well, and I think my body is good with being pregnant, but I AM NOT. I don't like having my body taken over or being so handicapped. I can hardly put on my own socks and shoes. It takes me nearly 3 minutes just to get out of the tub. Walking up a flight of stairs is exhausting and after all the running around I do and the misery I am in at the end of the day, I can't even have a glass of wine to make everything all better! GAW!!!

Anyway, at least I enjoyed my appointment. The Doc was saying that Mrs. Duggar was insane to keep having so many children because she is pretty much risking her own life at this point. One day her poor uterus is just NOT going to contract back to it's original state, not that it's even remotely CLOSE to being in it's original state now. I guess with her last baby, during labor the baby flipped in her uterus horizontally! "Now that's a baggy uterus!" Says Doc Grant! LOL

I'm done with the two. I'm happy with the two. If we want more kids, we can adopt.

So..... Rather than a glass of wine to relax my poor pregnant body, today I got my hair cut and bought 3 live dungeoness crab!

LOL!! We kinda played with the nasty one for a bit.. He seemed to be all riled up and have lots of energy and Sam was quite interested in him. He had a million questions about crabs, which I intend to call Jim and ask! Like.. Why do they turn red when you cook them, and do they have hearts, and why do they blow bubbles, and how long do they live, and how big do they get, and ........ ... . .. .. . He is 12. You can see how this went!

Needless to say, The crabs were YUM!

And Here is my hair! After a month of letting it grow out I finally broke down and got it cut. The Lady who cut it asked me, "Why so messy?" in the cutest little Vietnamese accent EVER! I told her my husband cut my dreads out with kitchen scissors, but I don't think she knew what I meant by dreads, but she sure knew the meaning of kitchen scissors!

Day 5 of 31 for 21

Well I created and STARTED this post on the 5th and didn't publish it.

I'm off the hook!


Today is my last day of work. I am completely Enthralled!

I have zero to no motivation to work, so it's rather fortunate that it's extremely slow tonight!

Now, I get to fill my hours and days with house keeping, toddler minding, baby prepping, vacuuming, dinner making, kitchen cleaning, and doctors appointments!

Soo... Am I really off the hook?

Day 4 of 31 for 21

Odds and Ends

Here are a few pics of the bassinette that Dave and I found at the
Kids Consignment store called Starbright for Kids.
It was only 75$ and I think it is lovely. It's very gender neutral and solid wood.

Here are Hunty's new Nick and Nora Jammies that we got at the Kids Garage Sale.
They are flannel and soooo soft and warm!
LOVES!

And Here is the Cute Christmas out fit I got for him.
I thought it was cute for Christmas dinner.

TADA!

Bean's Big Boy Bed

So here are the pics of the bed that I promised.
This was Sam's loft bed from Ikea but he really wasn't comfortable sleeping on it. At the time we all thought it was a good idea to give Sam some more room IN his room. This way he had space under his bed for a desk, but getting up and down proved to be a bit of a pain. So... Daddy got out his Saw!

And TADA!

A Toddler Bed!

Tonsilectomy FTL!!

Well, My sweet angel Bean had his tonsils and adenoids removed on Tuesday this past week. It was a very difficult event for EVERYONE. I really didn't know what to expect and Poor Hunty had no idea WHAT was coming.

:'(
Here he is a 6 am. All Snuggled in cozy in his stroller as we check in at admitting at the
Alberta Children's Hospital.

Definitely looking a little tired as we woke him up at 5:30 to get on the road.

These few pics make me so sad.
Here, we had just arrived at the Day Surgery ward.
We were the first people there and Hunty got changed into his snazzy cute little Hospital garb. I just loved the teeny tiny smock.

CUTEST BABY BUTT EVER!
Gotta check out the bed and all the cool stuff going on behind the scenes.

After we got him into his cute little scrubs, Hunt had some blood work taken and was prepped for his surgery. The blood work was sad because he was crying so hard and we had to hold him down. Then he got a little ankle bracelet in case he tried to run away, that way people would know where to return him.
At first the bed he was on was just a regular bed so they had a proper Baby Crib rolled in for him. Then he was rolled off down to the OR room where I waited to meet his Doctor. He didn't want to sit still in his crib so I held him until the Anesthesiologist came. She carried him off to the operation room and I went to find a coffee, wishing I could lace it with half a micky of Baily's Irish Cream to easy my nerves.
I grabbed a coffee, rolled my stroller (aka Luggage carrier) into the Day Surgery Waiting Room and proceeded to knit for what seemed like a year!

I sat down at 8:23 am.

Doctor Lange came out at 8:38 am.
She told me that Hunter's surgery went "swimmingly" and that he was doing just fine. His tonsils were of medium average size and he was just in Post - OP waiting to clear his head of the anesthesia. I was told I would have to wait till they buzzed me before I could go meet him in the Day Surgery recovery area. They give you these new fangled pagers now that they vibrate when they are ready for you, rather than paging you over the PA systems. It's really nice and more private.

So I waited. And I waited. And Waited, and Waited!
And at 8:50 I was paged!
I jumped out of my seat, shoved my knitting into the stroller, grabbed my pager, rushed BACK for my coffee and boogied off to the Day Surgery ward where I would find my boy.

I was told Hunty was in Room 24. As I started toward room 24 a nurse started walking with me. She said he was awake and that he was a little upset and had been clinging to the nurse who was watching him wake up from the surgery. He wouldn't let go of her and he was crying pretty hard. As we got closer I could hear my poor lil guy sobbing and gasping. There he was in his recovery room, sitting on the edge of his bed, hanging on to this poor nurse for dear life. The instant he saw me he reached for me. I grabbed up my boy and held him close. I felt so bad for the poor lil guy, having to wake up in pain, all groggy and in a strange place with nothing but strangers everywhere. Oh so sad.
I rocked him and comforted him for a while, waiting for him to calm down.
He wouldn't settle.
We tried to give him some water, apple juice, ice, and even a Popsicle.
He wouldn't take anything.
The more we offered him the more upset he would get.

The nurse brought him some codeine and we had to pretty much hold him down and plug his nose to get him to swallow it.
He spit out most of the Tylenol that he was given prior to the surgery so he was in some pretty extreme pain. Since we had woken him up at 5:30 am to get him to the hospital by 6:25 am, he was pretty exhausted by 9:00 am, but every time he would swallow he was in agony and he would start gasping and crying again. You could just see the pain in his eyes and he just wanted to pass out for a while and not think about all the chaos. I sat with him on my lap for nearly 2 hours, holding him and cuddling him, hoping that the codeine would help, but it seemed to only make him groggy and dopey but really wasn't doing much for the pain. At 11 we forced a dose of Tylenol into Hunty and I called Daddy who works within minutes of the children's hospital. I told him I needed some help and that Baby Bean needed his Daddy. Within 15 - 20 minutes Daddy arrive, dressed in his coveralls, still in his sweaty work boots. Bean took one look at his daddy, stopped crying, reached for him and lay down his head on Daddy's shoulder and went to sleep for nearly two hours. I can't tell you the relief that swept over me. That was the first time that morning that I broke down crying. Just seeing Daddy there, I knew everything was gonna be OK.
He is such a great Daddy.
David was supposed to go back to work at 12:30 but he couldn't bear to leave Baby Bean.
We took turns holding him, going for bathroom breaks and cafeteria runs.
For a while the two of them slept together in the Lazy boy recliner next to Hunter's crib.
I sat watching them, knitting.
I'm finding that knitting makes for a fabulous Worry Doll.

After a few hours, David managed to get Hunter to sleep a while in his crib.
He went home at 3 or so, needing to shower and check on Samuel who was home alone.
I am so happy that Sam is mature and trustworthy. It gives us one less thing to worry about when he is home alone. He makes his own lunches and keeps busy and would never let anyone in the house. I'm happy with how he is maturing lately.

After a good long nap, my little man woke up feeling quite a bit better.
The concern the nurses were having earlier in the day was that if he wasn't drinking or taking any fluids in his mouth, then his throat would be very dry and it would make things worse. As I said, every time we tried to get him to drink something he would get upset and start crying, even after the Tylenol had kicked in. He would sleep for half and hour on Daddy's lap or my lap and the nurses would ask us to wake him up and see if he would drink something. This only caused my poor boy trauma as he would just get so worked up. Finally I said that I didn't want to wake him up anymore. He was too tired and he needed to get a decent sleep, otherwise we were just tormenting him and making it worse. The less sleep my boy got the more miserable he was going to be. Thankfully, the respected this and allowed him to sleep for a few hours.
AND YES!
Daddy returned to the hospital around 6 or so and by then my lovely, sweet handsome son was ready to wake up.
We got him out of his crib and changed his diapy and smock so he could feel a little better.
He sat on Daddy's lap and I tried to give him some juice. He REALLY wanted to drink. He would reach for the bottle with enthusiasm but get dismayed when it hurt to suck.
I went to the fridge in the hall and scoured for something I thought might make him feel better.

SORBET!

He ate an entire Dixie cup of Orange Sorbet!
Then a popsicle, a chocolate pudding, then another half of a strawberry sorbet!

Here is a blurry picture of my boy sitting in his crib, covered in chocolate pudding, eye's crossed from all the codeine, toe all aglow from the oxygen/heart rate monitor.

That night he did quite a bit better, though getting him to take his medicine was still a trauma. We still had to hold him down and plug his nose to get him to swallow it, but I'm told the codeine tastes awful.
He would sleep for short bouts of roughly 2 hours MAX.
I slept next to his crib in the recliner.
My sleep was awful. There were machines constantly ringing, babies coughing and crying, lights going off and on, more machines beeping. Not only was it noisy but for the most part Hunter slept on my lap, or lay with my in the recliner. Being 8 1.2 months pregnant with a 25 lbs 18 month old boy squirming on your belly for hours.... It was a rough night to say the least.
I was up at midnight, 1:30 - 3:00 or so then again at 5:50.

When I awoke at ten to six, I woke up because the on shift nurse was in our little room (it wasn't a room at all, but a 3rd of a room) giving Hunter his codeine and Tylenol. She was also changing his diaper and checking his Stats.
I asked if she needed help to give him his meds and she said no he already took them.
Wow!
He was taking his meds without having a trauma.
The other fabulous thing about that morning was waking up to see a Tim Horton's coffee, breakfast sandwich and a bag of Timbits waiting for me on the side table!

Oh Daddy! How we love and thank you!

He still wouldn't drink anything significant tho.
I was hoping he would at least be interested in some juice but he really wasn't.
It wasn't an hour later that he was back to sleep.
We both slept till about 9!


Later that morning the nurse on shift (we had seen 5 different nurses by this time) mentioned that if he wasn't eating or drinking by the afternoon then he wouldn't be able to go home. If he was willing to swallow, eat or drink, it would show that he was doing well enough to be discharged. Well you don't have to tell Hunter twice!

I think he was feeling quite a bit better by that time anyway and he was going to make up for lost time as it was.

He ate a Dixie cup of ice cream to start.
I wanted to see how well he could manage soft and cold.
Then he polished a whole mini box of rice crispies, well soaked of course.
Then I thought I would see if he was interested in any of the sausage they brought him for breakfast. He polished off a whole one.
He then had an apple juice, half a piece of toast with peanut butter and jam and last but not least, a Timbit!

My boy chowing down!

We went home early that afternoon, miserable, tired, happy to be home, both desperately in need of a bath. We slept that afternoon away, patiently waiting Daddy's return.

Since then, Hunt has had a few mornings where he has been a bit more sore.
And Oh The bad breath he has. Blech!
He has also been quite a bit more clingy and sucky.
He has become the world's biggest Daddy's boy as well.
He just can't get enough Daddy.

And lastly, We are all coming down with a cold.
Hunt has had quite the runny nose and Dave and I are both getting sore throats.

If it's not one thing, it's another.

Day 3 of 31 for 21!

Today is day 3!

I am completely unmotivated to blog tonight. I am exceptionally pregnant and uncomfortable and I can't wait to get home and pass out. Working until midnight is no fun at all when you are tired and miserable from being pregnant, but alas, I have to slug it out.

Today Evad and I went to the Kids Garage sale at Cardel place. I must say I was slightly disappointed. 75 - 85 % of the clothes that were for sale were girls clothes. Seems like girls have WAY more clothes than boys and what boy clothes there were, were worn fairly thin. I bought a few new Pj's for Hunt and a really cute Formal Christmas outfit for him for the Holiday's this year as we are heading to Vancouver. I thought it would be nice if he had a snazzy out fit for Christmas Dinner with his Grandparents.

I also got a really nice swim float finally. So far I have been through three different floaties for Hunter, all of which were Fail! In one, swimming at Great Gramma's pool, Hunt leaned forward and tipped right over. Head first into the drink. Another one I bought was so cheap it wouldn't stay inflated properly and the very first one was so small he out grew it in a matter of months. This new one that I bought is one identical to the ones they have at the swimming pools. It's a really nice float and has a canopy for the sun. Here it is.
So far this is the nicest, most stable kids float we have ever used. I bought it for 4$

That is about the extent of my garage sale purchases today, which is pretty sad because I am a total garage sale junky.

After that, Evad and I went to the mall and had some lunch, wandered around and got a new phone for my self. It's a Samsung Ace. I got the phone for few and there is no contract. It's a basic 30 agreement that you can renew or not. I pay 44$ a month for unlimited calls and texting to my 5 faves, 150 local minutes, Unlimited incoming texts, 250 outgoing texts to other numbers, and call display! No contract, No obligation, NO GOD DAMN CONTRACT! .. Ahem.. sorry. Sadly, I am a little bitter about cellphone companies and being chronically over billed. We just canceled our contracts with Telus on our 2 cellphones and it cost us 679$ to get OUT of the contract. This was the CHEAPEST and EASIEST way of dealing with the outrageous phone bills. Months on end we would change our plans and minimize our options till we were down to the bare bones plans and STILL we were paying over 150$ a month on cell phone bills. On top of that, our phones were connecting to the internet at the weirdest times. I had received bills for Facebook Internet activity at 2 am on a weeknight when both Dave and I would be in bed. Randomly being charged 10 cents here and 29 cents here for internet activity that we weren't using. In fact, Dave was quite amazed that a cell phone could actually access Facebook. On top of all that, we weren't getting some monthly bills in the mail and then poof, we would get a disconnection notice. One month we were actually disconnected for no real reason, except I think they wanted another 70$ out of us for reactivation charges. Anyway, that's all sorted out and I'm happy to say I really like my new phone and the cheap plan that I DON'T have to renew if I don't want to. :D

Day 2 of 31 for 21

It's only day two of the 31. If I should forget to post one day, I ask that someone please comment on my blog so that I get an email telling me to get my act together.

Today is Oct 2nd, which means I have 3 more working days till I am on Maternity leave and 47 more days till the baby comes.

I am getting kind of worked up about the baby lately. I wish my momma had some time off at the beginning of November to come and help me get the house ready. I am having a harder time with the last trimester of this pregnancy than I was when I was knocked up with Hunter. He was quite small for dates (4lbs, 14 oz at birth, 36 weeks 3 days) and I really am beginning to think he didn't move very much. At the time we called him Kickypants Ross because he was so active, but I didn't have anything to compare his movements to. With this child, there are days when I am honestly sore from all the kicking and rolling and moving and the pressure is intense.

As for getting the house ready, I am a little overwhelmed because I am so pregnant and uncomfortable and irritated, tired and sore, and just all around cranky. I wish I had more energy to take care of everything that I feel is PRESSING. I think the best way to get the house ready for the new baby will be to make a decent list of all the things that I would like to get done and just start working away at the list.

We cut Sam's old loft bed down into a toddler bed for Bean the other night and got him a Mattress. I had NO idea that a single twin mattress was so expensive. We spend over 350$ on it, but it is an excellent mattress and considering how little and light he is, I'm sure that he will be able to use it for probably more than 15 years. I will have some pics of the old loft bed and the new toddler bed posted here asap so you can see what we have done.

That said, we have to do a little furniture rearranging to get the new baby's room in order. There are some things I would like to do in the room to make it a little more inviting as well. Just a few decorating ideas I have. After that, I think I will feel more comfortable and less stressed about the baby coming.

Tomorrow, My Girlfriend C, Dave, Beany and I are going to the Cardel Place Kids Garage sale. I'm hoping to find a few things for the new baby and some sleepers for Hunter. He has pretty much out grown all his pj's and when he wakes up in the morning he usually has a few snaps open and one if not both legs hanging out. He apparently IS getting taller. I also want to find him some big boy toys for learning. Something more suitable for toddlers so that we can put his old baby toys in the new babies room and he can have some new and fun things to play with. Rattles are sooo last year.

I must say that having another baby is exciting and terrifying at the same time. I really wanted Hunter to have a little baby brother or sister to grow up with so that he wasn't an only child. The age difference between he and Sam is so large that he is considered an only child and I didn't want him to grow up alone and bored. Nothing more entertaining than beating on your younger siblings! We weren't expecting, planning or trying for the new baby, but I am glad that it happened. This way we get all the baby nonsense over with ASAP and Hunter will be very close in age to Phoenix. But I have days where I wonder if my head is gonna pop off with the intensity and fear of it all. Two Babies Still in diapers. Double Strollers. Dueling Playpens. Double stuffed Diaper bags. Two different nap schedules. Three if you include Dad! Toddler food and baby food! Crawling and WALKING! I only have TWO hands! They will out number me. And then there will come a day when Phoenix and Hunter are working in cahoots against me! "Quick, Mom just went into the bathroom! Lift me up so I can get to the cookie jar!"

Is it just me or does anyone else ever go... "Holy shit! I'm not responsible enough for all of this!"

/sigh... I can do it.. I just need some help... Mom? Momma!!?? Mommy!! !!?!?

GRAMMA!! ??!

31 for 21!

IT'S OCTOBER 1ST!

Today is the first day of the 3rd Annual 31 for 21 Blog Challenge. I knew it was coming but now that it's here, I must admit, I'm not prepared. I have a terrible string of laziness lately that I can't seem to shake but, I'm gonna do it! The goal, in a nut shell, is to blog every day for the 31 days in October, which is Down Syndrome Awareness Month. You don't have to blog ABOUT DS but it's a way for Bloggers to show their support for Down Syndrome. Tricia has started her first post with a Mr. Linky so you can see who is getting involved this year.

So, if you are a blogger, I challenge you to the 31 for 21!

Start blogging!



ETA ~ Perhaps this will help shake the laziness. If anything It will certainly make up for the COMPLETE lack of September posts.