quickie

just wanted to poke in and say thanks to my parents for the package they sent. It actually arrived a few days ago. John was so excited when it came in!

"WHAT'S INSIDE!? WHAT'S INSIDE!?" he squealed. As I pulled back the flap, he said "It's...it's....it's STUFF!!!"

Inside were some Christmas presents from my Auntie Glenn Ellen and Uncle Dave. It was a farm truck and trailer set, with people and horses. He LOVES it! It still has an honoured place on his bedside table at bedtime, which is typically reserved for his favourite toy of the day. He's been using it to cart stuff all over the house. One of the horses has been named "Gink." I think it's inspired by Dr. Seuss. Joan got a pink minivan, filled with people, and she was so excited! A car of her very own! She spent the whole day filling the trunk with things, and shifting all of the little people around. She got a great fuzzy hat, too, which has come in very handy - it has a chin strap, so it seals all the gaps of her snow suit, which has been good with the crazy weather out here. It's not the temperature, it's the wind that makes it so cold. (Except for now, with a chinook and all. I think they said +9 today)

But it was the thing at the bottom of the package which really made John's day - it was his Tonka bulldozer, which we had forgotten at my parents' house over Christmas. The second he saw it, he scooped it up, gave it a big bear hug, and said "Bulldozerey! You're here!" Then he turned to me and said "look, Mom! It's Bulldozerey! It's my wish come true!"

Bulldozerey was then united with his fleet of Tonka truck friends. That night, as I was brushing my teeth, Bulldozery appeared at the door, and asked me, "mom, can I live in this house with all my friends?" When I said yes, he cheered all the way down the hall to bed.

Some other John tidbits:

John: Dad is so strong! He can move mountains!
Mom: One day, you'll be big enough to move mountains, too.
John: yeah, but I'll need a beard first


John, whispering before bed: Goodnight Mom. Goodnight Blankie Pink. Goodnight everyone in the whole world.

During a game of I spy:
Dad: I spy, with my little eye, something that is black
John, with eyes closed: Is it my blinks? (As in, the inside of his eyelids)

horribly outdated pictures

Don't know if you noticed, but John's hair had been getting long. He needed a haircut when we moved at Christmas. We went to get our hair cut when we got to Calgary, with the intention of getting him done, too, but he was pooped, and slept through the entire appontment. One day, dad had had enough, and went at John with kitchen scissors. He did an alright job - a bit mulletish, but not bad.

more photos

This is the sledding hill across the street in Calgary. Before the warm snap hit, and it got up to +9, turning everything into slush, John and Mike spent a lot of time sledding. John loves it! He likes to go down by himself now, and he laughs like a loon the whole way down. This is the looong climb up the big hill.

Arriving at the bottom of the hill

Even Joan loves to slide!

John of the Jungle - this was taken in Edmonton. He named this plastic plant "Ferny" and was central to many jungle-themed games.

What a cutie. Joan loves playing with John's boots, because if you hit them on the ground, they have flashing lights. Who needs toys!?

Things have been a little uneventful here since I posted last. Mike had three days off, but we did nothing. He got out his map, and I know he was thinking "road trip" but he was wiped, so we just spent time at home and around the city. Got caught up on some niggly chores. The house deal got finalized on Thursday, while he was off, but we didn't even celebrate. It was sort of all very anticlimactic. I think the posession is only exciting for the buyer - picking up the keys, going in for the first time. From our end, it all ended with a voicemail from our lawyer the day before saying everything was finalized. Meh. Now we just wait for everything to shake out - the mortgage has yet to be actually paid out. The utilities are busy calculating final bills. So it will still drag on for a bit longer. But it's nice to know that it's all his problem now! I asked the agent if she knew what he had planned for the house. She said he's planning to fix it all up, but isn't sure if it's a flip, or if he plans to actually live in it. If he plans to flip it, it would be neat to see what he does.

Actually, I guess you could say we celebrated with a trip to the bank to start the kids' RESPs! At long last. We've never had even the prospect of any money to even bother starting it, but now, things should start looking up, so we headed down and opened them up. We had to go get our pension stuff from our previous jobs rolled over anyway, so we figured, why not?

Speaking of real estate, the landlord is getting a bank appraisal on our place next week. The management company called to let us know, and they said "he's doing something with his mortgage." I'm going to think positively, and just tell myself he's refinancing, or something like that. Hopefully, he's not planning to sell. The movers who moved us in here predicted we'd be looking for a new place soon, because typically these little places get sold off for "infill" - where they doze the building and build a bigger, taller apartment block in its place. Hopefully, that's not the case. I don't think I can handle another move really soon!

Kids are doing great! Joan has started playing "imaginary" games, which is fun to watch. She'll reach into an empty box, and pretend to pull something out and give it to me. She does it over and over again. Then, when i pretend to hand her something, she holds out her hand to accept it, and puts it back in the box. She likes to feed me, too. She'll reach out, with a glob of food in her fingers, and open her mouth and say "ahhh", which is her eating signal. If I lean over and open my mouth, she'll pop the food in, and giggle. She spent about half an hour feeding me grapes one night. It was great. But she won't do it for anyone else. She's also started pushing on her bad arm - the other day, she actually hoisted herself up to sitting from lying down using just her right arm! She likes to follow me around the house, now, too. Instead of screaming if I leave her in a room, she just chugs along after me.

John's doing well. He's been having a lot of what can only be called flashbacks. He'll suddenly start talking about something that happened months ago - largely revolving around the move. The other night, out of nowhere, he started talking about the junk removal guys, and how they were cool, and he got to go out and help them. That was almost four months ago!! He talks a lot about the truck ride, and the movers making the house "naked." and watching all the things going into the truck, or picking me up at the airport. He never talks about the bad things - all the memories seem to make him happy. I'm not sure if this is something we should be worried about. When the memories come up, we just talk about them until he's ready to move on. But they just keep coming up, and they're surprisingly vivid, the way he's describing things. He's remembering school, too. He talks about Becky and Sue, his teachers. He talks about certain games they used to play. He talks A LOT about Keira - the one girl in the class. One night, he stormed up to us, arms folded, and announced, "I want to go to Keira's house. RIGHT NOW!" When we asked him who Keira was, he flipped his hand and mumbled "she's just a girl." It was so cute! His first crush, I think. He talks about her a lot. The other day, I had pulled over in front of a mailbox, which was in front of a group of row houses, and out of nowhere, he asked, all excitedly, "Is this where Keira lives?" Poor guy.

Oh, I hear a pitter patter upstairs. Must be John, looking for me, so I'd better go! I promised him a trip to the really big park today, which is six or seven blocks away, across icy sidewalks. Should be exciting. We'll be on foot - our car is out of commission with a flat tire. Mike told John he could help him fix it tonight, which John is soooo excited about. John told me last night that he would need a big lunch today, so that he would be big and strong enough to help dad lift the car up.

I'll be back again soon - I'll try to get some pictures of our place here in Calgary, now that we're a little more settled in.

pictures and more!

These pictures were all taken in Edmonton. The kids, hanging on the couch.

Joan pointing at the toy I was using to get her to smile.

John, in the livingroom.

The kids, sharing some lunch, on the floor.

John took this one - Joan on our bed.

Sorry about the infrequent posts, everyone. Thins are settling down, but we're still busier settling in than I was expecting to be by now. As well, we put the computer in the basement room, so that we wouldn't be tempted to sit online all day, and it's worked. It's like a dungeon down here, so no-one ever wants to come down, me included. John thinks it's scary. I'm always afraid Joan is going to smash her head on the concrete floor, so I try to come when I'm kid-free, like now, which is a rare thing.





Where to start? Let's start with Joan. The Neurology dept nurse called a while back, to see if she had ever had an MRI. So, because she hasn't they're getting one ordered, obviously. Once that's done, we can get in to see the neurologist, and go from there with him. Not sure what else he's going to do. The damage is done. But we'll see. Apparently, from the MRI they can pinpoint exactly what went wrong, where and how extensive the damage really is. Because it's being done at the children's hospital, the waiting list is much shorter - 2-3 months, compared to 6 months to a year for an adult. But that still seemed like a long time to me, so we did some exploring in the private clinic route. It's about $350-$500, depending on the complexity of the case, they can put her under, but according to the lady on the phone, cases in kids as young as Joan are usually rejected for private testing by both the lab and the childen's hospital, so it likely isn't possible. She then tried to transfer me down to someone who wouldn know more, but I got cut off. I've decided to see just how long a wait we're in for before I push it much further - sounds like a long shot, and we might only be waiting a few weeks anyway. Haven't heard back from them on the date yet.



I have yet to hear back from the cardiologist or the physio clinic, so I gave the doc's office a call on Friday. They gave me the number for the cardio clinic. Turns out, they have a 0-6 month waiting list for the pediatric cardiologist, depending on urgency. The triage assessed her to be about the middle of the pack, so we're in for roughly a 2-3 month wait to see the cardiologist, too. Amnd apparently, they made that decision because she eats and sleeps well, has plenty of energy, and is growing at a normal rate. But if that changes, I'm to let the doc know right away, and they'll step her up.



The physio clinic, on the other hand, fell right through the cracks. The receptionist said he made a note to refer her in, but that request was never passed to the nurses for follow-up. She was going to leave him a note to get it recrified, so hopefully, she can get back into physio soon. Even the Hamilton clinic only took a couple of weeks, and this one is apparently even bigger.



So that's Joan in a nutshell. she's doing really well. She's become pretty mobile. if we put her on her belly, she can creep around combat-style. It tires her out, but she can get pretty far that way. Her main mode of travel is the butt shuffle. She basicly drags herself around with her good arm. The therapists warned me that she would do that. they say it's mobility, which makes them feel happier, but it's not ideal, because it just continues her reliance on her strong muscles. I let it go, because now she can play with John, and both of them have a lot more fun. She's also getting much better with her body overall. SHe can get into different positions now - she can get from lying on her back to sitting up fully, with no help. She can get from sitting up, down to her belly as well. She can stretch really far, and lift both hands right above her head. It's really something to watch her first thing in the morning, just as she's waking up - you'd never know there was something wrong with her right side. She stretches and rubs her eyes with both hands, with the exact same movement in each hand, like a mirror image, like nothing's wrong. Her newfound mobility is causing some sibling tension, though, because now Joan can shuffle to John's toys. The further he moves them, the further she shuffles. Gone are the days when he could just put them safely out of her reach!



Thank you to Mike's parents, by the way. We got the package! John was so excited about the playdough! He's been using it to make rocks for his dump trucks since he opened it. That and playdough poops, which isn't quite as pleasant to watch. But,whatever makes him happy, right? John's outfit is very cute. To be honest, we actually neglected her birthday entirely. Not on purpose. But it was the first day we got here, and everyone was tired and crabby. We bought a pie to have a small celebration, but didn't even eat it that day. Yup, her birthday just...didn't happen. We had talked for the first few weeks that maybe we should just have a big party, and say it's her birthday. But that just never happened, either.



John is doing well. He seems really happy here, now. He's still talking about the move, but he talks more about the donut with sprinkles dad got him en route, than anything else. He still says he misses our big house, but he says he really likes it here. "This is a happy house" he says. Everyone is definitely hapier here, so I can see why he said that. We definitely fight much much less. Most of our fights were house related, anyway. So with that horrible experience out of our lives, yes, things have been much happier, and have been even happier still since we accepted the offer. (They take posession on Thursday! Woohoo! We have an appointment to sign the forms with a notary on Monday, then we can wash our hands. The lawyer takes care of everything else. Yay!)





Speaking of John, I've been trying to get him out to programs, to see other kids, now that we're settled in Calgary. We've found one he loves. He askes to go every day. It's a preschool open gym time at the Y. They get out a bunch of gymnastics type mats and spread them around - every time it's a little different. Sometimes, there's trampoline stations, or slide stations. There's basketball and hockey. All sorts of things. He LOVES it! He loves the hockey, especially. Every time he gets the puck in the net, he throws his arms up and yells "I SCORED!" It's great fun for him. One time, they had draped a bunch of big mats over some balance beam type contraptions, to make a big soft slide. I don't think there wee less than 20 kids on it at any given time. John made a friend there, with a boy about his age. The two of them started wrestling on the way down, and that morphed into the two of them rolling down clutched together, yelling "CANNONBALL!" all the way down. Before long, two other boys joined in, and all four of them would land in this tangled, giggling mess at the bottom. It was hillarious! Oh, and on the Thursday program, they close down one side part-way through the program, so that a senior's group can have aerobics at the same time. They put down a partition, but it's just a big curtain, so a lot of the kids like to peek around and watch. Well, mine was not content to just watch. He joined the class! I poked my head around, and there's John, dancing along with a group of seniors. He was pretty good! he was following along with all the steps, and adding a few of his own. I went in to get him, but got shooed out by everyone. The senior next to him told me to leave him "It's ok! It looks like he's having fun!" she said. Even the instructor told me over her microphone that he was okay, they didn't mind. He even got up in front of the class and started leading it beside the teacher! The seniors were all laughing, and John was loving the attention. It was the highlight of his time there. "I got to dance with the big kids!" he said on the drive home. How on earth did I produce such a ham? One time we tried to go wasn't so much fun. We got there, waited in line to pay, got all of our winter gear off, get his socks and shoes off, just touched the door and bam - there was a fire alarm! They told us it was probably a false alarm, so we could just hover in the lobby, if we liked. So I asked John if he wanted to stay and wait, or go, and he chose to stay. It was really pretty exciting. The fire department showed up, and the police arrived, so there were firefighters all in their full garb, and the police as well. By the time they decided it was a false alarm, there was only half an hour left in the program, so we beetled there, but they were already taking it apart. And then, there was ANOTHER fire alarm. So the firefighters all came lumbering back down the hallway, right past us, and that really freaked John out. He turned to me all wide-eyed and said "Mom! We gotta get outta here, before the fire men spray us!" So, we did. I think we'll go again tomorrow. It's only $3.50, and worth every penny. We tried to go yesterday, but the car wouldn't start - we're at the end of another "artcic outflow." But it's ending today. This morning, it was -38 with the windchill. By this afternoon, it's supposed to be +1. I don't get this place. I really don't. But anyway, it worked out really well. Mike talked me through how to start the car (who knew pressing both gas and clutch would work?) By then, it was too late for the Y, but we still needed groceries, so we headed to safeway. Turns out the owner is Chinese, so he had arranged for some dancers to come and put on a Lion Dance for Chinese New Year right in the store. (I thought they were dragons, but they called them lions - those things with the big masks, and two people underneath them, as the legs. There were three of them.) I took John to see, and he loved it! He was a little scared at first, and found the drums a little loud, but at the end, he jumped up and down, clapping his hands yelling "Bravo! Bravo!" He talked about it the whole rest of the shopping trip, all the way home, most of that evening, and even as he was falling asleep. He especailly liked the part at the end when the lions ate the lettuces, and spat out candy.



What else? Mike's work is going well. They're in winter slowdown now, which means just full time. A nice change from Bell, where winters were pretty bleak. They were told it'll pick back up in March, though. It's just a few draggy weeks in February, then the slowdown is over. He's trying hard to impress them, because the company plans to tripple its workforce over the next year - which means hiring four new managers. I'm sure you can see what he's thinking.



Appluing for healthcare has proven to be a real pain in the butt. Turns out, to get healthcare in Canada, you actually have to prove you're Canadian. That's a snap for everyone, but me. I don't have my birth certificate anymore, which states I'm Canadian, despite being born in new Zealand. And Alberta Health and Wellness won't just take my word for it. So I called immigration, and they said i need a citizenship card - that I'll need it for everything down the road anyway, including getting a passport to travel to the states, and foruse with most government agencies, which will slowly no longer accept birth certificates like mine. Problem is, it takes five months to process an application, which means me being without healthcare for six months, because supposedly, OHIP will cut me off at the same time as the rest of the family. That means, paying for all healthcare out of my own pocket, like I'm some kind of foreigner. Hardly seems fair. But luckily, my parents had some documents from when we came over, and when I described them over the phone to Alberta Health and Wellness, they said that should be enough proof to not be a problem. Hopefully, whoever gets our file is lenient! Obviously, I'm still going to get the citizenship card, too, if only to prevent future headaches at border crossings and government offices, and in case they still say no to the documents I DO have. But I'm thinking it really is a slow process - the application package has yet to even arrive!



That's about all I can think of for now. We're pretty dull. We've been glued to the US Primaries lately. We're hoping for Obama. Why can't we have a guy like that running here? I love his speaches. It isn't even my country, and I always feel so uplifted at the end. His one in Virginia last night was amazing. Makes our slate look pretty bleak and lifeless in comparison. Like, our candidate of change is...Stephane Dion!? Not fair!



Anyway, enjoy the new pictures! More to come!