the rest of yesterday...

So what did they do with their sugar high? Mostly, they ran around screaming like crazy loons. Dave tried to help me with the dishes, but shoving his red chair between me and the sink, so he could splash in the water. So I set up some buckets of water outside. It was like flies to honey! Within minutes, they were all out there, and they stayed out there for hours! They did get dress, by the way - as they came in soaked, I changed them into clothes and/or bathing suits.


After the sugar wore off, they came in for some down time. The little kids all had a nap, and John spent the afternoon building this cool little boat. It's made with cardboard fragments from a candy factory he's spent the last few weeks constructing in the play room, as well as straws (the body is filled with straws, so it will float), paper and loads of glue. He was pretty proud!

why I should never shower...

Well, there's probably more compelling reasons TO shower than to NOT shower, even if it means leaving all the kids unattended, but some days I do wonder if the trouble is worth it. I usually come out to some sort of catastrophe or bitter battle, with everyone screaming. But sometimes, what they get up to is worth a picture, even if it's just to get a little sympathy from Mike at the end of the day.



I guess I should have fixed them a snack BEFORE I headed to the shower. Dave got his hands on the peanut butter jar, and dug in. Why he smeared it all over his body, I'll never know. What I didn't get a picture of was Joan, using her fingers to snack off his legs. Mike was 15 minutes from home when I walked in on this horror show - we were going to go to the beach. I managed to bath and change both kids in time, but I didn't have time to get the giant smears of peanut butter art off the walls.

Why they make couch pillows with free floating fluff is beyond me. Anyone can just unzip the pillow, for an indoor "snowstorm," which is what my kids thought was time well spent, during this particular shower.

Their rationale? Apparently, Dave started it. Funny - I don't see him anywhere. Do you?

On another note, today is John's last day of Kindergarten! He's a full-fledged Big Kid, heading into grade school in the fall. Getting him to his last day was somewhat traumatic, however. They decided to schedule a pyjama party on the last day - the kids were to go in their PJ's, and they were going to have a big pancake breakfast party. John, for all his creativity, can be extremely rigid about weird things - much like his dad. John intended to go to school ready for bed - as in, no underwear, no shoes. It caused a HUGE fight this morning between he and Mike, who insisted he wear underwear, or he was staying home. John, who's just as stubborn, insisted that wearing underwear with pyjamas is just weird, and refused. It was an epic battle. In the end, might made right, and John went to school in tears, because he had to wear underwear. The shoes were a whole other battle. By the time the underwear fiasco was settled, we were already horribly late, and I couldn't find John's shoes. I hunted EVERYWHERE, but they were nowhere to be found. He has a pair on indoor shoes at school, but he still needed shoes to get to the cloak roon, so he had to wear sandals to get there - over his socks. He was mortified. "Socks with sandals is just weird!!!" he wailed. "And my underwear is itchy!!!" He was so embarrassed, he hid behind me the entire way into school, and when other kids came his way, he'd "hide" by standing flat against the nearest wall. I feel for the guy, I really do. But sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do, and socks with sandals isn't the end of the world! Hopefully, his whole life hasn't just been ruined by me, but I can see this one being brought up in therapy later in his life, for sure.

Better go. Ironically, I'm heading for a shower. Wish me luck - or at least wish for an entertaining picture.

Doe deer stops by for a visit

One of our resident deer stopped by yesterday, and the kids headed out to say hi! You can see, the deer don't really get very close - they never come down further than that ridge, so it's pretty safe for the kids. but they think it's cool! That said, I don't think I'd let them out with a buck. There's a lot more wildlife here than I bargained for. Yesterday, we took a drive on the outskirts, and there were bear droppings all over the place. And last night, I had to run to the van for something, and the coyotes were out in full force. It sounded like they were all around the house, barking and howling. They can sound very creepy when they get going, ad they sounded so close! I was going to do garbages while I was out, but decided to just head back in and find Bailey. I've only ever seen one in person - it was a day we were out looking for Mary after she vanished. Everyone we stopped to talk to told us it was denning season, and cats tend to vanish this time of year, as the new moms hunt for extra food. We saw no stray cats on that drive - but we did see a coyote run right across the street in front of us. Not an animal I'd want to run into alone at night. They don't attack people, but one did attack a little girl a few weeks ago - the conservation officer speculated it was because the family was out walking with their little dog, which is what the coyote was originally going for - then it changed its mind to go for something bigger. Like a 3-year-old. And don't even get me started on the freak bugs out here! I've already had several spider bites. We've discovered a bit of a wolf spider infestation in our house - another creature you don't want to bump into alone i the dark. I caught one in a jar the other day - it was HUGE!!! Joan now has a fear of ants, because there are some that bite. She had a horrible reaction - the bite itself turned into a bit welt, then she erupted into itchy hives all over her belly. They cleared up themselves after a couple hours, but now she freaks out when she sees ants - not cool, considering our yard is completely infested! At least it gets her into the van in a hurry when we go out!

a day at the beach!

Dave arrives at the beach, ready for non-stop fun, fun, fun!

At least Joan managed to stay awake

Tom, chillin' with the gear

we had the whole beach almost all to ourselves. A couple bolted as soon as they saw us coming, and only one other family arrived, and took up residence on the other side. Though we did have to share with a pair of ducks.

Joan and Dave building something together

John warming up. The lake was COOOOLLLD!!! I'm surpised he went in at all, but he was just so excited to finally be at the lake, he plunged right in!

Dave, digging. He's not big on getting wet OR cold, so he stayed warm and dry on the beach

Tom, not enjoying much of anything

John, wading with our duck friends

Dave, having a quiet moment with Ruf-ruf

John, leading his team of junior engineers

Joan, eating a sand-covered Dorito. Yummm

Dave, chasing down the ducks

Dave, chillin with dad's feet

Tom, not looking too impressed with the whole thing

dad's new van

John, putting the licence plate on mike's new work van, as Dave looks on.

Our backyard...

I know this won't do anything for anyone from Dryden, but we have a herd of deer who pop into our yard now and then, and the kids think it's the coolest thing ever! There's about 4-6 of them, who generally hang together, and we see a big buck out there now and then, wandering alone (though he's far too dignified to ever hop our fence.) They don't come inside the fence very often anymore, now that there's so much food in the regional park behind us, but we still see them around - mostly in the neighbour's yard, which has no fence. This was taken in early April, when things were just starting to sprout. The little kids like to run out onto the porch to wave hello to them. John tends to scare them by his mere presence - I guess he's just that much bigger. Joan calls them "doe deer", after the song, Do a deer, from The Sound of Music, which was on heavy bedtime rotation at the time. (Her new favourite is Somewhere Over the Rainbow, which I generally have to sing at least six times each night. She'll either sing along, with big rainbow arm movements, or just sit wide-eyed and listen, as the boys twitch in agony.)

Joan's bling

Joan got a real treat today - a big box of bling from her Auntie Pam! Thank you to Pam for making her day! She loves the little crocs - they reminded her enough of ballet slippers that she insisted of her full "banina" outfit, and she did a little dance through the living room. It was fun to go through it with her - it reminded me of when I was little, getting clip-on earrings and costume jewellery from relatives. I also have pictures of Dave and John in necklaces and clip-on earrings. They're cute too, but not in quite the same way. I'll post them up later on. Great idea on the princess party in Dryden, by the way Pam! Probably more fun for her than a princess party with all her brothers! LOL!

Stay tuned for more pictures! I suddenly have a lot to sort through!

almost ANOTHER month later...

Boy time sure flies when you have four kids!

I have a few minutes before the afternoon school run, so here I am. Tom is asleep, and Joan is teaching Dave to say "doll house," which is cute to listen to.

Things are busy, busy, busy, but going well. Tom has had a huge growth spurt, so sleep has been elusive. He's up every two hours in the night, and eating non-stop during the day. It's such a dramatic spurt, that within a couple weeks, he's outgrown clothes, has to have the belt on his seat moved to new loops, and some days I wake up and he's actually noticeably bigger than the night before! Very scary. I can't wait to get him back on a scale to see how dramatic it actually is! I have pictures to prove it all, but they're in the camera. I've decided to abandon my hunt, and just find a new cord. Now the problem is getting up the nerve to go into an electronics store with so many little kids. I'm starting to get used to it, but I avoid stores that don't have shopping carts. I took them all to the store to pick up milk yesterday, and got a lot of very strange looks. John was walking, Tom was in his seat in the basket, and the other two were in the cart itself. I'm sure everyone was wondering where on earth the groceries would go. And so was I, considering that Joan gets a kick out of tossing groceries overboard when she's in the cart. But I only needed a couple things, so it worked out. It means we do a lot on Mondays, when Mike is off. Either we all go together, or we split the brood - I might take Tom and John shopping, and leave the others with Mike, or just take Tom, who's pretty low maintenance. Once, I even got to run to the corner store to pick up eggs, all by myself. It was glorious. It was hard to go home! But I guess that's just the nature of having lots of little kids. They're kind of...everywhere. I've gotten used to a crowd of spectators every time I go to the washroom, or little hands passing me the shampoo while I shower. Thankfully John understands privacy. Hopefully, one day I'll have it back!

The kids are doing well. John has only one more school day until summer vacation. He's very excited that he'll get to do grade 1 in the same school! But he's nervous about doing well, so we're starting "summer school" for him, to help him feel like he's ready. Mike has been working on his math, and I've done some work with reading, and he's doing really well already. But he wants to know more before school, and who are we to say no?! With math, he can now read numbers to 100, count fairly well to 100, and count to 100 by 10's. He understands simple addition and subtraction as well. We dappled in multiplication as well, but it's still beyond him - he had to assemble a collection of 100 things for school. So because he already knew to count to 100 by 10s, I showed him that by making 10 piles of 10 each, we can get to 100. He seemed to get it, kind of, but not really. With reading, we had to start with letters and sounds, sadly. But then we went on to phonics, by working on "word families", like cat, hat, sat, bat, or cow, now, bow. Now, he can actually figure some things out on his own. Mike told him to pick the "cheese sauce" from a group of containers, and he was able to find it by looking for the word that started with the "ch" sound, which he knows is c. And he's figuring out how to spell simple words, like toy and cow, on his own by sounding them out in his head. Ask him to read a page in a book, and he gets flustered. But he's really close! He's already beyond what they require for the BC kindergarten curriculum in a lot of areas. And his french is getting really good. He knows as much french as me, and I studied it until grade 9 - a little fact he loves to tell everyone!

He had a visit to the dentist yesterday. His second tooth had come loose, but the adult one had grown in before the baby had fallen out, and it looked terrible. The dentist said it's actually completely normal, and not to worry. He has some crowding issues right now, but as he grows, the teeth will all shift around and probably be fine. He may need braces down the road, but he said not to worry about it until he's older, and things have had a chance to settle out. We thought he'd pull the tooth, but he said to NEVER pull a baby tooth. That's old school dentistry, and now they know it's a big mistake - it'll fall out when it's time. And lo and behold, just a couple hours later, it fell out! But he said his teeth look good, and could only see one potential beginnings of what may or may not be a cavity. Pretty amazing considering his aversion to tooth brushing! I see little kids all over John's school with stainless steel molars, because they're all rotten. John rarely brushes his teeth - now and then I pin him down and do it for him as he kicks and screams - yet his are fine. Go figure.

Let's see. Joan woke up one morning and asked to have a "Princess party." She wanted a beautiful dress, butterfly wings, and a pink crown. I don't know where this came from - she must have dreamed it. But she insists she must have this party. I think we'll pick a day in summer and throw her this party. Her birthday is so close to Christmas, it's hard to stomach a birthday party then, so she's never actually had one. I don't even think she's ever even had a cake. For her last birthday, we just took them to Dairy Queen, but she didn't even know it was her birthday - there was no cake, no gifts, but we did sing happy birthday over her banana split. Pretty sad, really! So I think she's due for a big princess bash.

Dave's doing well - he's going through his almost-two language explosion, which has been tons of fun to watch! He used his first three word sentence. Bailey had just scratched him, so he came up to me and said, all sad "kitty hurt me." He's really sweet. We had some tortilla chips, and he held out his hand for some. I put a couple in his hand, and out popped the other hand, asking for more. So I gave him a couple more, and he turned right around and handed them to Joan. He likes to shepherd the other kids. He calls them for dinner when it's time to eat. He gathers them up when dad leaves for work. he'll gently push Joan towards dad and say "hug!" At dinner, he'll push their plates closer to them and say "eat!" if they've taken too long a break. He's very into justice - he makes sure everyone has food (unless he's starving - then it's every man for himself!) and makes sure everyone has a blanket. He likes to wrap up his toys in blankets and rock them. He's really cute.

We had a pet briefly. It was a baby mouse I found fast asleep snuggled next to my shoe. It had obviously been attacked by our cat Bailey and didn't look like he'd make it, so Mike put him into a box, and gave him some of our organic grain. We named it Mary, because it was so tame, it was like it was the reincarnated spirit of our late cat Mary, who vanished just after Tom was born, and we speculate was snatched by a coyote. We kept Mary the mouse for a couple weeks. The kids loved it! Every night, we'd take it out to play. It was good for John, who saw the work of keeping a pet - every night, we'd clean out the box, and change the food, litter and water. They got to see all the rules of a pet - being gentle, always washing your hands with soap after touching it. But alas, Mary was just a field mouse at heart, and could not be tamed. Not only was she not a tiny little baby anymore, but once she started felling better, she would jump out of her bucket at night, to our horror, and Bailey's delight. We put a top on, but we decided that's no way to keep a creature, in a dark, enclosed box - and besides, she was starting to nip - so we set her free into the backyard, to be food for something out there. There were many tears from John, who had grown very attached to her. He's asked repeatedly since if we can get a real pet mouse. We told him we'd see in the fall - it's not a good idea in summer, because we'll be away here and there. We're kind of hoping he'll forget about it. But we'll see what happens once he's back in school.

Speaking of John and school, I'd better corral the kids back to the van so I can go pick him up!
I'll try to stop in again soon.

a month later...

i keep meaning to stop in here, but I usually think about it as I'm falling asleep, running through in my head all the things I would have liked to do but didn't.

These pics are from my parents, taken when Tom was one day old - just after he was sent home. He looks about the same now. Just a little bigger. How much bigger, we're not sure. It took him a full two weeks to regain his birth weight, which is a little odd for my kids. But he seems much bigger now. Just waiting for him to be assigned a health number so I can take him to the doc. Because he's a BC resident, and we're so fresh from Alberta, we're still considered Albertans, he has no health coverage anywhere in Canada right now. In fact, I have a big fat bill for his birth, because the hospital didn't know how to bill it. Apparently, it costs about $1500 to have a baby and spend one night in a hospital in Canada. We don't have to pay it - we just need to get it sorted out as things make their way through the governments.

Tom's a great baby. He's been sleeping from midnight to 5 a.m. from about three days old. You can set a watch to him most nights. I've been pretty spoiled, really. But I know enough about newborns to know it won't last. I was actually a little worried about him going such a long stretch every night so early on, so I mentioned it to his doc. He told me it's Mother Nature's way of procreating the species - Moms would go mad if every baby had the sleeping patterns of the first, compounded with taking care of older kids, so generally, the more kids you have, the better sleepers they are. It was the final installment of our doc's crusade to get us to have more kids. He came by to check on us the morning after, and he was marvelling about how easy our labour was. I agreed - the easiest one yet. "Good!" he said. "Maybe it'll convince you to have a few more!" When I looked a little horrified, he went into a huge speech about how great big families are, because it forces the kids to take care of each other, because mom and dad are too busy to settle their disputes. Sounds like Lord of the Flies to me, but he insists it works out. I think he's just paid a unit rate per birth, and likely gives the same speech to everyone of childbearing years. The fact is, five is our limit, because we don't want to buy a church van to haul our kids around.

We're starting to enjoy BC, and Mike is getting right into the whole hippie thing. We had the VW van already, but we recently bought a little grain mill and several sacks of various localy grown organic grains from a little granery north of town. We use it to make all of our own breads and muffins. Buckwheat pancakes are really good, we've discovered. Especially with real, organic maple syrup. No offence, Aunt Jemima. We've started making our own lemonade from lemons, pasta sauce from tomatoes, and we've decided to go one step beyond the all natural organic yogurt the kids already eat, and make our own, flavoured with local organic fruit. We're just deciding on the best maker to get. We've decided we should probably start making our own ice cream too. If we start making our own cheese, you'll know we've completely lost it, but so far it's been pretty fun, the food tastes a lot better, isn't any more expensive, and it's nice knowing exactly what we're eating. It's resurrected the whole "we should get a farm!" discussion, so we can get our own eggs and milk, too. Mike's been ogling this 600 acre (NOT a typo - six HUNDRED acres) farm on Keller Rd outside of Dryden, but I think it'll probably be gone by the time we're ready to go anywhere near Ontario again. Getting a little farm and filling it with a zillion kids has been a recurring discussion since before we were even married - I think we were both in high school the first time it came up - so I'm sure we'll do it someday. We have the kids already - just need a few cows and chickens and enough space for them all and we're there!

The other kids are doing well. I was expecting a bit of regression after Tom, but didn't get too much. Dave had the roughest time. He didn't seem too sure of how he stood with me anymore. He became pretty clingy for a bit. But I made sure he got lots of cuddles whenever Tom was sleeping, and he seems alright now. John and Joan generally fight over him, each trying to out tickle and out cuddle the other, to get the most face time with the baby. John's teacher said he was REALLY excited after Tom was born, and announced to the class that "Tom was full of cuteness."

There have been some not-so-happy moments since Tom came along as well, though none related to Tom. We've been getting the kids caught up on their immunizations, which is never good times. My parents were here while Dave had his appt, so he wasn't too bad. But the day John and Joan had theirs was an epic day, indeed. It was my very first outing with all four by myself, making it a bit traumatic for me to begin with. John, being almost 6, could be reasoned with about getting shots. he was fascinated by the science of the vaccines, and was actually looking forward to it. But then, the needles themselves came out. The nurse kept telling him not to look at it, so of course he couldn't take his eyes off the thing. He watch as it jabbed him, and of course, he was bawling. "It...*gasp*... doesn't ...*sniff*...feel ...*snort*...gooooood!" he wailed.

Joan is of course watching all of this, and probably thought she was off the hook - at least until the nurse plopped her on my lap, and started pulling out more needles. "NOT ME!!!! NO MOMMY!!! NOT MEEEEEE!!!!!!" she screamed. It was gut wrenching. What made it worse was the fact that she had fallen behind. One of the little known risks of shots are strokes, apparently, and when I saw that after her diagnosis, I panicked. I couldn't afford to have her suffering multiple strokes in her life, so she had gone largely unvaccinated. I know, I know. I'm usually a huge pro-vaccine person, but when it's your own kid, thoughts become kinda clouded. Anyway, her pediatrician gave me a huge package of information, which basically said that she's far more likely to get brain damage from the diseases the vaccine prevents, than from the vaccine. And her CP puts her at a higher risk of complications than other kids, so if anyone should be vaccinated, it's her. Then, when I found out that there had been a huge measles outbreak through BC from the Olympics, that was the final straw, and I made her an appointment. I thought it was dumb to live in fear of measles. The nurses were great - they weren't judgemental. Instead they thanked me for bringing her in and assured me it was the right move, because of her risk factors and so many diseases resurfacing because unvaccinated kids are becoming so common.

But sadly for Joan, it meant she needed six shots. So how exactly do you give six shots to a scared and squirmy 3-year-old? Well, now I know. They pulled in a second nurse to help, which is never a good sign. They plopped her, screaming, onto my lap. My job was to pin her arms hard against her sides, so she couldn't move. Then each nurse took three needles, and on the count of three, they both started a-jabbin! But it didn't end there. She was so full of holes, they couldn't get the band aids on fast enough, so she had a secondary freak-out as she saw blood dripping down both arms. If anything could cause a life-long irrational fear of needles, that was definitely it. She still talks about it. We went to see the doc for Tom, and as she clutched her shoulders, she shook her head and chanted "NO MORE OWIE! NO MORE OWIE!" Can't wait to take her in for the boosters in a couple weeks!

Well, the house is erupting into chaos, so I'd better go. But I'll leave you with a little gem from John. I don't know where this is coming from, but he likes to make up "food chains" in his head. This was his latest, after seeing a mosquito:

"Mosquitoes eat us. Then dragonflies eat the mosquitoes. Then fish eat the dragonflies. Then we eat the fish. That means...WE'RE EATING OURSELVES!!!"

update...

I sat down to write a bleary-eyed e-mail update, and remembered this place. Saves the trouble of looking up everyone's e-mail, at least.

First, the old news - the new baby is here,and just had his one week birthday! We named him Thomas George. Thomas, because we think Tom Walchuk sounds good. george is the name of Mike's great-grandfather, who died very early, while his grandma was still a teenager. And it turns out, Thomas was his grandma's brother as well, so also a family name. it's also Mike's middle name. He was born at 10:30 p.m., April 28. Our first non-Thursday baby. But he was close - it was a Wednesday night.

The labour went well. My doc is still raving about how "civilized" it was. I saw him for a regular appt a day and a half into my early labour. Contractions had been about 10-20 minutes apart since the Tuesday morning, but I was only 3 cm by the appt. But it was real labour, so he told us to get some raspberry leaf tea, and he'd see me at the hospital soon - likely that night.

I'd already packed my bag, and left instructions for the grandparents, thinking that he'd send me straight on to the hospital, so I was a little disappointed. No offense to everyone who was at the house at the time, but I was feeling like a bit of a sideshow and didn't feel much like going home to be stared at in my pain, so we decided to stay out until it was time. It didn't take long. We ran some errands - Mike got his driver's licence changed. We walked around a bit. Shopped for the tea. We went to Dairy Queen for lunch, but I couldn't eat anything, let alone stomach the thought of ice cream, so I mostly just had the tea instead. After that, we went for a drive, but it was cut short - 45 minutes after taking the tea, we were in admissions, with contractions suddenly 4 minutes apart! Yikes!

He was born four hours later. I got the epidural, which was awesome. I felt nothing. They had to break my water carefully, because he wasn't lodged in right, and they were worried the water would sweep the cord out. It was done by the OB on call, and involved positioning the baby straight, then breaking the water with a contraction. He was born shortly after, with two quick, painless pushes. As the doc said, very civilized. Well, I lost a pair of socks in the deal, so it wasn't all good, but I'm not going into that here.

The doc stopped by at 9 a.m. the next morning to approve my discharge, but it took the nurse until 2 p.m. to do the paperwork. We were hoping to beat our record of being discharged 12 hours after the birth - a record set by Dave - but no such luck.

I was a little nervous to see everyone's reactions to Tom, but all of the kids love him! Especially Dave, who tells me 'he saaaad" every time the baby cries, and tries to soothe him by bringing him blankets and stuffies. Joan has claimed him as her own, and says "My baby love me!" and showers him with lots of gentle strokes, hugs and kisses. John thinks he's cool, and this morning, chose to sit in the back on the drive to school, so he could sit next to Tom, instead of his usual favourite spot in shotgun.

Being a newborn, Tom has already had a rash of doc's appts. He failed his initial hearing screen in the hospital, so we had to go yesterday for a more extensive test. But everything is fine - both ears tested perfect. They said he probably just had a lot of gunk in his ears at the start, because he was pushed out so fast - he wasn't squeezed enough to flush it all out.

His jaundice test came high, so we were asked by our doc's colleague to come in for a check. But our doc said because he was a bigger baby, it's within the acceptable limits, and he was looking healthy and alert, so he wasn't concerned. he was, however, mildly concerned by his weight - after a week, he still hasn't recovered to his original birth weight. He was only 8 pounds - 5 ounces short. He said we'd wait another week to see how he does or doesn't grow, but repeated that he looks very healthy, so it's likely all fine. But he told me to drink lots of water, in case it's a supply issue, and eat more high fat and calorie dense foods, including lots of fatty milk and cheese in case it's a milk quality issue. So, last night, I snacked on ice cream, and I've switched to the kids' whole milk to see if it makes a difference. I was hoping to drop my baby weight, but if he needs me to eat more ice cream and rich fatty foods for a while, well, that's just a sacrifice I'll have to make.

Well, better go. I'll keep you posted as things go - probably here, because it's easier than e-mail and I can say more than on facebook. I'm hunting for my camera cord, so I can post my own photos. I thought I had set it aside, but the move happened so fast, a lot of things have gone missing. In the meantime, if anyone has a good one of the kids or Tom, send it along, and I'll post post it up.

ugh

ugh about sums it all up.

sorry for such a long delay, and this update won't be much of anything, trust me. It's late. We're only up because mike wants to wait up to check his jobs for tomorrow. His van needs a new battery - it dies every night. he was given the day to get it fixed but the mechanic who handles the fleet at ATI wouldn't touch it, because it's under warranty, and needs to go to a dealer. So he still has a battery that dies after about 2 hours of sitting off. he wa promised a fast-paced day with lots of jumping around, so the van doesn't die in the field.

Things are ok here. the big news - we're moving to kelowna. pretty old news by now. no idea when - sometime between now and feb 1 for mike. roughly a month after that for the rest of us. John was pretty upset by it at first, but now that packing has started, he's actually excited and looking forward to it. though he has told me that he wishes we could bring this whole house with us, because he likes the way it looks. we're hoping to get something sort of similar out there - a family room AND living room. maybe even upgrade to 4 bedrooms, for the growing brood. I want a main floor play room, where we can set up all thier toys and shelves, and a fruit tree in the backyard, but I'm told I might be asking too much. we'll see.

everyone's doing pretty well. Everyone is looking forward to school getting back in. probably no-one more than me. I've been really tired lately. It started well before the news of the move, and has escalated. My doc wouldn't test me for anemia last month, but I had it several times growing up, and severely enough in college that I had to take mega-doses of iron for months, so I kinda know how it feels. And my old family doc gave me a couple of tricks to spot it on my own, and I failed each test- white skin on the insides of bottom eyelids and bottom lip. I've looked like a racoon, with pale skin and dark circles. but the last straw was getting out of breathe and dizzy every time I climbed our stairs - not normal at 5 months pregnant, but exactly what happened in college that wound me up on those wretched iron pills. So, we went to the health food store and got some of that florodix liquid iron stuff - apparently it doesn't build up, so you don't need to worry about taking too much. It actually seems to be working. After just a couple days, the dizziness and windedness was gone. Now almost a couple weeks later, I feel a lot more energetic, and I'm starting to get a bit of normal colour back - and inside my eyelids are bright red. Not sure if I should mention it to my doc on Friday. Some are ok with you taking extra stuff - others, not-so-much. The dose is really pretty small, compared to the iron pills I had to take before - even less than what I have in my normal vitamin. All together, it's actually less iron than what was in prenatal vitamins when i was preggers with John - they've since cut the levels way down. But it seems to be enough. Mike's been taking it too, but hasn't noticed any difference in himself.

Joan had her 3rd birthday on the 28th! We didn't feel much like a big party so soon after the mayhem of Christmas, so we took the kids out for burgers and then to Diary Queen for banana splits. We didn't even do presents that night. She talked the whole way home about how much fun she had, so I think it was the right thing to do. She's never been too big on cake anyway, because it makes her hands dirty, which she hates, and it was nice to get out of the house and have some fun. Can't believe she's three already. She's come so far this past year. It's hard to imagine her a year ago, taking her very first steps, but still relying on that little walker of hers. She had so few words, and so much frustration. Hard to imagine that was the same person as the happy, bubbly, mile-a-minute little tornado we have now. She's had a huge word explosion over Christmas! She knows most of her colours now, and can count to 10 (with a little prompting. Well, ok a lot of prompting). She talks non-stop. She talks about her feelings, things she sees, things she remembers. It's just great. Today, for the first time she said "love Dad." Obviously, Mike was pretty happy about that!

I have a zillion pictures to download from the camera. Even a video of john's christmas concert to pop on youtube! Max the Moose made his stage debut! It was supposed to be the "teddy bear twist," but John doesn't like following the crowd, and claimed he didn't feel ownership of any of the teddy bears we own. Fair enough - the younger kids have claimed most of them. David is madly in love with one my parents had sent to John - Dave calls him Arfarf, as though he's a dog. He has a stuffed dog by the same name. In fact, most soft, cuddly things are called Arfarf. Anyway, John, being John, wanted to take a stuffed yellow crab to the concert. We vetoed him. We convinced him it'd be a bad idea, by telling him he'd be sent to the back row. That put a quick end to that! So we went hunting, and there in the cupbourd was a Max the Moose stuffie that Mike had given me when we were first going out, in high school. John wasn't convinced he was the right choice, until I told him that Max was in fact, Dryden's mascot. That was enough! So now I have a little video of Max the Moose doing the twist with 60 teddy bears.

In lieu of pictures, I'll leave you with a Johnism that made me chuckle. John is very big into crafts, and has copious gobs of googly eyes, which seem to wind up everywhere. One escapee landed on the bottom of John's foot. John, feeling something, turned his foot over and said "ACK! My foot is looking at me!!!!"

baby 4 update

sorry for the delayed posting. things have been a bit difficult here - everyone was sick for all of October, then H1N1 hit, and then Mike got transferred to Kelowna. It has been a bit tiring, to say the least!

So I had an OB appt today. I had to miss last month because I was in the hospital with Dave, and sick myself, and she didnèt have another spot for another four weeks.

It all went fine. She said all my test results to date look perfect. They did find some sort of a white spot on the babyès brain in the ultrasound. I forget the name. But she said itès nothng -a good percentage of babies have it, and it normally clears up by week 30. They donèt even do a follow-up, itès such a nothing. The only time they follow up is if there are other visible defects, esp in the heart, which isnèt the case.

I am measuring three weeks ahead. I got that with Dave too. It could just be so many babies passing through in there. could be a problem. It will be monitored. itès likely nothing.

I brought up my fatigue issues. She said itès still too early for anemia to be a factor, and my last iron test was good. She said, watching John spin in circles and Dave tear apart the cupboards in her office, ÈItès probably more due to your, umm...lifestyle... at the moment.È

Sheès probably right.

Iève been having nosebleeds, too. She confirmed itès nothing - high levels of estrogen, she said. Totally normal.

Iève been feeling lots of squirming! Every day now, I feel it at least once, which is nice. Hopefully, it wonèt be as squirmy as Dave! He used to wake me up at night with all his craziness - and heès still a very busy little guy! My appetite has picked up too. Joan has been marvelling at the sound of my rumbly tummy. It makes her giggle! Iève had to add a couple meals each day to keep it at bay. John is cute - he keeps bringng me things to eat, to see if the baby likes it. itès usually a share of his cookie, or oranges, or other sweet things, because I told him the baby moves more after I eat sweet stuff. So really, everything seems to be going smoothly! So far, so good.

The other kids are doing well. Theyève all managed to stay healthy these last few weeks, though i noticed Joanès nose dripping today. hopefully a good nightès sleep and a couple days off will clear it up. She was sent home early today, because of a big storm that blew through. They put them all on the bus, and brought them home at noon, without calling first. Of course, i was in the north end of the city, at my doc appt. So, they called Mike - who is in Kelowna right now, so not only didnèt know it ws storming, but couldnèt do anything anyway. They had to take her back to school and wait for me - luckily I made it back in time before the schoolès early closing time. She started crying when she saw me. She was the last kid in the ISMD classroom, and apparently had just had a marvelous afternoon, with lots of time in the multi-sensory room, and loads of attention from her therapists, and was NOT pleased to see me come through the door to bust up her fun!

Johnès doing just great. We just jad a parent teacher conference. At ths school, they ask that you bring your kids with you, which at first seemed a little odd. But it actually worked out well - he got to show me his school work, and he got to have input on the discussion. She says heès doing well with the french, and school in general. his tantrums during upsetting situations are becomming more and more rare as he grows and matures. She says heès very meticulous with his schoolwork, and puts a lot of care into the things he does. We got a stack of his work to take home - lots of tracing, mazes, shapes, colours and number type games. I had flashbacks of kindergarten looking at it all. I think we did the exact same worksheets, only in english. He did really well, but messed up a few of the patterns. He had talked about his patterns at home - he told me that some of them were really tricky. But heès doing great.

Dave is my little wildman. Heès been walking well for a while now- a couple months, I guess. And he just loooooves to run! He and I do groceries together while the others are in school, and at the checkout, he just canèt seem to resist all that open space at the front of the store, and always squirms and wriggles with all his might so Ièll let him down. Iève learned to fight him with all MY might - one time I put him down thinking heèd just cling to my leg or putter close by. Nope. He was off in a flash, bolting for the other end of the store, giggling all the way! At Johnès interview, I let him walk in the school. he generally follows the herd. But when we turned the corner, and saw that long, long hallway. Oh boy! He made a run for it, and poked his head in the next classroom, which was full of kids. And when he saw I was on his tail, he shrieked with laughter, and scurried the other way as fast as his little legs would go! Luckily, mine are still longer, so I won. But he sure is a speedy little guy! Now that theyère all walking, Ièm going to try to find them all a gym program. They had one at the Y where we used to live - theyèd fill the big gym with balls and slides and all sorts of fun stuff, and let the kids go hog wild. I think theyèd all get something out of that now, itès just a matter of finding something like it close by - itès a good way to let them burn off excess energy in the winter, rather than bouncing off my walls. The last time I took the kids, Dave didnèt exist, and Joan was still bum-scooting, so itès been a while!

Dave is doing well since getting sick with swine flu. For those who donèt know, he got seisures from it, and had to go to the hospital, because we found him lying on the floor unrespensive, pale and barely breathing. Hopefully, that will be my first and last ambulance ride. He was in hospital for five days, undergoing a battery of tests, and being treated for...everything from infection to meningitis. In the end, the only positive results were swine flu and an ear infection, which may or may not have passed into the bone behind his ear - depending on which radiologist was asked. His seizures were very scary - they had a hard time getting them to stop. They had to use three kinds of medicine, and very large doses to finally stop them. And then, he slept...and slept...and slept. And when he woke up, the medicine had eliminated his sense of balance. He couldnèt walk for three days, which he found incredibly frustrating. When he first woke up, he couldnèt even hold his head steady. We had to prop him up, and he was a wobble-head doll for the first couple days. The pediatricians were really concerned about brain damage, but the neurologist assured me that it was just the side-effect of so much medicine. He told me to look for personality changes, or physical regression, but we donèt see that. Heès still the same little guy he was before, and heès progressing well physically - he still hasnèt chosen a dominant hand , heès walking on uneven surfaces now, and heès much faster, and trips much less! There will be follow-up appts and tests, to make sure it was just a flu and fever induced seisure. The feel thereès a chance it could happen again with his next flu, so they have him on clobozam, an anti-seizure medicine, for a few months, just to play it safe.

well, itès getting late here - about 2 a.m. (Hmmm...these late nights might have something to do with my fatigue..) so I had better head to bed! The kids will be up soon, wanting to shovel and build snowmen. Ugh.

Happy Birthday Dave!!!

Happy first Birthday to Dave! Well, it was yesterday. But still. This picture was taken on the beach at Ghost Lake while we were in Dryden - about an hour before heading to the fair. His party has yet to take place. With permission from John, who was burned by the splitting of dates on his 5th..or was it his 6th, or maybe 55th, depending when you talked to him...it's being delayed until my parents return from their vacation in BC, sometime in the next few days.

Dave did something really sweet the other day. Mike had a hockey game, so he was catching a nap on the couch before heading out. The kids were horsing around, but Dave went up to his dad, and made little questioning tones to get his attention. After a minute, he seemed to figure out that he was asleep. So he left, found his favourite stuffed animal, and nestled it into mike's arm. I wish I had a picture, it was so cute. I also wish I had a picture of Mike's reaction to waking up snuggling a little stuffed dog!

a day at the fair - part one

Joan, beaming from the roller coaster at thefall fair! John wasright beside her. It was tons of fun, until she dinged her head on the bar during a ride that evening. Somehow not to fun after that.

This was taken the thursday night, and was coooold and raining the entire time. But we went, thinking it would rain all the days it was on. Thankfully, the next day was beautiful, so we went back and had a ton of fun. But isn't she so cute in her raincoat!? It was a gift from my parents, from thier shop. I can't wait for it to rain, so she can wear it to school. It's like it was designed just for her.

Mike had a lot of fun showing John the big kid rides he was old enough to ride - as long as an adult rode with him!

The Octopus was actually John's favourite ride!

a day at the fair...

John, Mike and Uncle Adrian shiver in line at the bumper cars. This ride definitely stuck out in John's memory. He rode with dad, and thought it was lots of fun to smash uncle Adrian.

John, Joan and Mike prepare for a whirl in a giant strawberry. the kids are at that magic size where they can go on lots of rides...but only if an adult comes on too. Mike had a blast going on all the rides with John - he even convinced him to go one one that twirls upside down!

John teaching his sister the ropes on the boat ride. Joan LOVED the rides - this was her first year being big enough to get on them! Her favourite was the merry-go-round. It was funny to see her huge smile, only to see it melt away as the ride came to an end. I lost count of how many times she went on.

My mom and dad, with David, and Joan, waiting to see John, Mike and Adrian on the bumper cars. The lines were long by that point, so we had actually taken the little two around to see the animals. Joan of course loved the horses. But I'll never forget her reaction to seeing the little ponies! She let out a gasp, and tore across the barn! Dave didn't come out with quite the same love in his heart for barnyard life. The pigs were in pens that had a circle cut out of the wood, at just about the right height for Dave to stand and look through, and see them close up. Unfortunately, it was also snout level. So Dave put his face up to peer at the pig, and out pops this ginormous twitching, grunting snout, snorting right into his face! I have never heard such blood-curdling screams from that poor kid! We hurried our way outta there, boy! After we got out of the barn, we stopped to watch some people riding their horses. Joan just loved that. Not sure my dad did - she was riding his shoulders at the time, and she started bopping up and down, pretending he was a horse!

I have a few minutes to kill, while I wait for Mike to be ready for timesheets, so thought I'd pop in and start posting some of the Dryden pictures - with more to come. I'll sort out the album and post it online as well, so you can see all the pics. Better late than never, I guess! It's been a whirlwind fall, but things are settling into a bit of a rhythm. I feel like I can breathe - and post - again.

Mike's reading up on converting his van Ruby to a diesel. We'll see if it even comes back from the shop. It's been there since we got home. Even the guru himself can't figure out why it's pumping out black smoke. He says he's just about out of ideas. But he doesn't want to see our van die, so the next step is to replace the fuel injector, which is causing all the problems with...a carburetor. Apparently, he did it on one of his own vans, and it did the trick. He's really a great mechanic. He's been tinkering with it for weeks now, but told Mike he wasn't charging him for very much of the work, because he loves our van, and just wants to see it back on the road. (that and he hasn't FIXED anything.) Anyhoo..

The kids are doing pretty well. Joan is in her first week of morning preschool. The administrators decided it would be best for her to endure one upheaval at a time, so they decided to move her as soon as they could, to get used to the new kids and the new morning routine. It has been a bit rough. She was a little spooked out by the whole thing on day 1. Mike stayed home with the sleeping boys, while I took Joan to school to settle her in. That alone threw her off. "Yaya seep?" (John's asleep), "Beebee seep?" (Baby asleep?) She seemed ok on the drive, and went for her class - but then stopped dead in her tracks when she discovered her room full of strangers! She spent a good 5 minutes just...staring. The teachers were great - they all made a point of coming to see her, to show her that they were all still there. Then her favourite teacher introduced her to a couple of girls, and another teacher lured her over to the art centre, which is her most favourite, to help her settle in. Today was day 3, and the fatigue was starting to show. In the lobby at pick-up time, she laid down on the floor and made pretend snoring noises. She thinks that's really funny, but she only does it when she's actually tired. I've also seen a lot more bum-scooting lately, which is also typically a sign that she's beat. We're trying to get her to bed earlier, but I think she needs to go earlier still - especially when she starts the full-day program in a few weeks.

I don't know if I've done a very good job in describing exactly what renfrew is, or how the programs in it work. I call it preschool, but that's not really accurate. The preschool program is called the PUF program - Program Unit Funding. It is funded by Alberta Learning, which is their ministry of education. But it's group therapy. the "teachers" are actually therapy aides, who are there to enact the prescribed goals of the resident OTs PTs and speech therapists. Everything in their day is geared to fulfill these goals. snack time isn't just about eating - it's a fine-motor activity, which they tweak to require two hands for Joan. Follow the leader isn't just about following rules, it's a gross-motor activity, usually involving an obstacle course of overs and unders and big steps and unusual textures. They play all the usual games just...tweaked, so that therapy is worked into the play. Now, the therapy program she's starting in October is a whole other ball of wax. It's sort of like 2.5 hours of gym class. It's Integrated Services for children with Motor Delays - ISMD. It's funded by the government through an agency called Services for families of children with Disabilities - FSCD. Part of what they are willing to fund is a personal aide, who comes to your home for 10 hours per week, for intense therapy. This program provides that, but in a social, school setting, which allows for group games and activities. It's often referred to as the Cerebral Palsy program. They all have it, to varying degrees. Typically, the kids who they think will see the greatest benefit, get access to it first. But everyone there has a completely unique set of goals. For some, it may just be to walk independently. Others, it may be to be able to feed themselves. Others are there to work on balance issues - they're running all the time, but fall constantly. All are there to build strength and flexibility. Both of these programs run 5 days a week. She'll have an hour and a half lunch in between, when she can relax, have a nap, read books, have some general down time. We've applied to have her bussed while she's in the program - they do door-to-door delivery, but it can't start until she's right in both programs - likely after thanksgiving. It sounds so harsh, but they've all assured us it's a great program, and we'll see results very quickly, and they take everything one day at a time, and she'll be fine.

As for John, he's doing...ok. We had our first parent teacher interview last week, and it went well. She says he's doing great, is listening well and following directions. But this week, things have gone a bit sour. Something happened today that he's really mad about. Something like he was at the magnetix centre, and a bunch of other boys came up too, and they were all talking loud, and the teacher thought he was the only one being loud, so she refused to give him a checkmark. But he maintains his innocence - he said he was being quiet, and the other boys were yelling. I'm going to ask about it tomorrow, just to get her side of what happened. It's hard to give him advice when things don't quite add up. And yesterday, something happened at snack - the floor was left messy - but that resulted in everybody losing a checkmark, which really upset him. But generally, he seems to be enjoying it still. He likes gym time, and music class - he got to play a drum! She said he's very supportive of his classmates - he cheers them on when they have to get up to speak in front of the class "great job, so and so!" That sounds like him. But I find with him, a little discipline goes a long way. I have a feeling he's blowing some relatively minor incidences out of proportion, and taking the refusal of checkmarks too personally.

Dave's doing awesome, too. He's so funny to watch. He picks up on everything. He's started to play with cars now, and he'll drive them along the floor, making the appropriate engine sounds. He takes probably a little too much delight in annoying his big sister. He really knows how to push her buttons, whether it's cuddling with her favourite toy, or taking something he knows she likes and crawling away really fast, with her running behind. It's really funny to watch him at work. I think them being away for those two weeks helped him - he's a lot feistier now, and will stick up for himself. Before he would just let them all take his toys, and do nothing but look sad and miserable. Now, he fights back, either verbally, or by chasing them down!

He's started walking! He can get about halfway across a room now, before falling. He still prefers to crawl, though - much faster. But he practices his walking more and more every day. Won't be long now before I have three walkers!

Oh - John started Beavers this week. That was really fun! We headed out to the Scout store first thing after dropping off Joan, to pick up his uniform, and that night, off he went. They just read stories and talked, which he found a little boring. But he did well - he did everything the leader told him to do, when he was told to do it. He was a great little Beaver! Sadly, our troupe doesn't have enough leaders to maintain it yet. But lots of parents took home the volunteer info, with the intention of joining as leaders, so hopefully, it will continue. Mike would be an awesome beaver leader, but he's not ready to sign up. His work is generally demanding, and he doesn't want to commit to something he can't completely commit to. But I'm sure it will work out fine. John would be devastated if he couldn't go.

One question - Joan has started calling John "Yaya". She came back from Dryden doing it, and no-one knows where it came from. It's starting to stick - now John even calls himself Yaya at home! Does anyone know why or when she started doing this?

Can't think of anything else. Things have generally been chugging along. I've been tired, with this new schedule and everything else and have tried to take it as easy as possible. Mike lets me catch naps where I can and stuff like that. But we're really all doing just great. I'll post up more pictures soon!