ah - me time!

Sorry for just one photo - this is all Blogger will let me post tonight. But it's still cute!

A rare evening moment to me. It's only 10 p.m., but everyone is asleep, including Mike. He had a safety meeting this morning at 7 a.m., which was like 6 a.m. yesterday's time. And he had to get up early and account for driving time to get there, so wound up getting up at what would have felt like 4:30 a.m., after working late the night before. I got up with him, and felt bad for the guy. But not bad enough to slug through the day like he did - I went back to bed, so I'm feeling fine!

I'm here to post a little more. First some answers for Gram, because she asked some good questions. They use ground up tires for playgrounds because they're soft, and don't compact. If you fall on them, they really cushion the blow. I guess it's also a way of using up old useless tires. Apparently, they're trying to replace all the rock-based playgrounds in Calgary with this rubber stuff. I hated it at first, but I've learned to like it. It's fun to walk on - very squishy.

Second - YES! John has in fact finally stopped jumping on the couch! It took a big bash-up to drive the point home, but it did what months of nagging was unable to accomplish.

He's doing much better, by the way. He ate taco salad, which is nacho chips with cheese, meat and veggies, without complaint, and without asking for it to be broken into pieces. He even let me brush his front teeth tonight, which is a big turnaround. Most of the bruising is gone - just a bit of redness remains, and his lips are still sore. Part of that is that they're chapped, from breathing out of his mouth this past week, but he doesn't like the feeling of lip ointments of any kind, so I can't really help him. So I think he'll be OK. Most of the swelling is gone. He looks much better today than even those pictures, which are only a couple of days old. He was a lot more cheerful today, too. He's been such a grizzly bear this past week, but I think that swelling being almost gone has really helped him feel a lot better. No black teeth, so far, either! One was a little loose at first, but it doesn't seem to wiggle at all anymore, so I'm thinking it's lived on to be banged another day.



Joan had an exciting milestone today - she pivoted to the right! Probably doesn't mean a whole lot to many of you, but trust me, this is big, big, big! She's really progressing. She's been pulling up like a pro for weeks now, but now, she can let go with her hands and still stay propped up with her hip. She's even venturing from furniture piece to furniture piece that way. It's pretty exciting. If I hold her hands, she'll even walk along, one foot in front of another. At first, she was dragging her right foot, but now, she actually picks it up and steps with it. She's still very awkward, but she's really driven, so she's progressing well, in my amateur opinion. I don't think it will result in walking until she gets into therapy, though. She's still turning that right foot out funny, and can't really bear much wight on it. I sure wish she had that brace. She looks like she could use a cane or something. Hopefully, they'll get it sorted out before she has a permenant limp or anything like that. Things sure move slow here! All the requisitions are out, but I STILL don't have a single appointment date. It's extremely frustrating. Her language skills are chugging along, too. We have an activity book from Cheerios, with big pictures of - shockingly - Cheerios all over the cover. Joan pointed to one, and said "eat!" She can follow verbal commands now. I can ask her to give whatever's in her hand to Dad, and she will. She knows when I say something is hot, not to touch it. She's known, and listened to, "no" for a while now. She's even shaking her head "no" to verbal questions now, which is kind of cool. She's started pointing to things in books, and saying what sounds like "that", and then waits for us to say what it is before moving on to the next object, like she's trying to soak it all in.

On the Mike front, he's been doing a lot of thinking about his future, now that he may actually be able to finish school. He bounced the idea one day of teaching in a northern area. As in, like, Nunuvut (which John can't pronounce, so he calls it "none of us"). We had teachers in high school who did that, and had nothing but good things to say about it. Mike's found a lot of resources online, including a blog by a guy who's been up there for eight years. It actually sounds kind of neat, in a "what are we thinking?" kind of a way. I've never eaten muskox before, but I'm sure it's close enough to beef to pretend. And I'm sure we could learn enough Inukituk to get by. They have airports and Canada Post and the internet, and some places even have nurses and RCMP officers. How bad can it be? Everything is heavily subsidized to keep the cost of living moderately in check - except food prices, which are infamous. The school board up there has a web page to help new teachers brace for the shock - a carton of milk ranged from $4-8. A 5-pound bag of flour is $14. It's a little crazy! Some of them have fly-in grocery services from Montreal - you pay Montreal prices, plus 20 per cent, plus the cost of postage. Apparently, the locals order non-parishables annually, and they're shipped by barge in "summer", which keeps the prices down. I can't imagine ordering a year's worth of toilet paper in one go, but that's supposedly how it's done there. It all sounds pretty cool and exciting, and the pay makes it worthwhile, not even including a hefty northern allowance. It's a decision that's still years away, obviously. But it's been lots of fun looking into it. He keeps returning to one community called Grise Fiord, in Nunuvut. Look it up on mapquest if you feel like a shock. But that's actually where this blogging teacher is, and life there sounds pretty civilized. Cold, though. And really dark for a few months on end. He's been posting multiple sun pictures the last few days, because it's finally starting to rise again. But all in all, pretty civilized. They have running water and everything. They even have an indoor hockey arena, of all things!


Well, better go. Joan has woken up again. I blame that pesky tooth. I'll be back soon with more pictures!