good news!

Just stopping in for a minute to share two good pieces of good news!

One - we have health coverage! We were all approved, and it starts April 1.

Two - Joan has an MRI apointment! It's soon, too - April 23 at 7 a.m. Unfortunately, the neurologist is taking paternity leave from April 22 to May 21, so we don't have an appointment to review his findings until May 22, but it's better than nothing, right? I asked if there were other neurologists, but she said he's assigned to us, and has reviewed her file from Hamilton, and is actually very excited she belongs to him. Not sure why - he probably sees several of them. But it's still all good news to me!

What Joan does when we're not looking...

Joan had snuck off somewhere this morning, so I set out to find her. Turns out, she had scooted to her room for a little light reading.

progress!

I've finally heard from the physio dept for Joan! We got a huge "welcome to the children's hospital" package, with a letter, maps, list of services, and all sorts of stuff. I almost cried when I saw it, I was so happy! It said we'll be getting a call in the next week or two to discuss Joan and what we're hoping to get out of therapy, and then they'll put together her team and make up a schedule for us. I hate that we've had to start all the way from scratch with everything. But it's nice to see some movement, at last! Hopefully, now that we've been accepted in, it won't take long for the appointments to actually start.

This hospital really does sound amazing. They even have a childcare space for siblings, where I can drop John while I take Joan to her appointments! That's one less thing to think about. It's a gigantic hospital - floors and floors, department after department. The physio clinic is connected to the neuroscience dept. It's amazing just looking at the map, to see everything they have stuffed in there. Hamilton had a children's hospital too, obviously, but it was a department here, a doctor there, all scattered around. This is one huge hospital, devoted to nothing but kids.

Unfortunately, we still don't have coverage for Alberta Health and Wellness, and they haven't even gotten to our application package yet, so I don't know if they're going to accept my citizenship documents. But they'll be getting to us soon - they open them chronologically, based on when they arrived, so they should be getting to ours within a week or so, and if there's no problems, it will be processed the same day, according to the guy on the phone. Not that I'm excited to start paying $88 a month in health premiums. But not everyone accepts the OHIP cards, so the sooner we get into Alberta's healthcare, the better off we'll be. Besides, the conservatives promised to phase out the premiums. In fact every party did. But now that they have a huge majority, they can do whatever the heck they want. The other day, they announced a "sweeping tranformation of healthcare", whatever that means. They gave no details. Doesn't sound too good to me. Mike thinks it might mean massive privatization. The worst case scenario he could think of is charging big user fees for visits, in lieu of the premium, but I'm not sure that's even legal.

random kid pics

Joan, getting into a tangled mess. Now that she's more mobile, she gets into all sorts of fun trouble. We've even had to put up gates, when we discovered her perched at the top of the basement stairs, peering down.

John, fixing the freezer. It's been sitting unused in our living room since we moved in. It wouldn't fit down the spiral staircase leading to the basement. Mike had taken the lid off, to see if that would help, but it was no good. But it's hard to take advantage of meat sales without a big freezer, so we decided to fire it up, and just leave it in the corner of the living room. It matches the walls, so it's not too bad. Anyway, Dad brought his cool tool belt in, and showed John how to use the screwdriver, and off he went! He did most of it by himself! John was so excited! He talked about it for days! Mike said this is a good advertisement for the superior design of the Robertson screw - so easy to handle, even a 3-year-old can do it.

Meet Ballie - a ball of dough, awaiting transformation into a tortilla. Apart from his true passion of home improvements, John also loves to cook, and was helping me roll tortillas for burritos a few days ago. I formed the dough into 12 little balls, and as their "turns" came up, John would mould little faces on them. They'd each cheer that it was their turn - then scream as I squished them flat.

Ah. To be one again. I left Joan playing with the cat as I went to the washroom, and I returned to this.

Hope you enjoyed the photos! Nothing more to say - I have to get cleaning. I think we have a plumber coming tomorrow, to tear out a wall. We have a leaky pipe behind the shower, so each time we shower, water burbles up from UNDER the tub, and has started lifting and cracking our brand new tile floor. I'm just going to say, it's so nice to have it NOT be our problem for once. At least the bill's not our problem. I still have a bunch of guys coming in to tear out a section of wall. It will be very, very exciting for John, though. The management company had sent out a plumber earlier this week to scope out the job, and John was buzzing. He followed this poor guy around like a puppy. Every 30 seconds, I heard "Jordan? What are you doing?" "Jordan? What are you doing now?" The guy was a good sport about it, though. He seemed to enjoy the attention. had told John before he arrived that there was a man coming to looka t the shower, so when he answered the door, John said "I'm John. Are you the man?" Jordan laughed, and said "Well, I hope I'm the man, but for now, and just "a" man." I wish i had a video of John's reaction to this guy's pipe wrench. he went out to his van to get it, then walked in with this ginormous thing in his hand. "Mom! Mom! Look at that wrench!" squealed John, following Jordan through the house. "It's. It's huge!"

Anyway, I'd better go.

An appointment - at last!

Yay! We're finally in the cardiology clinic! The doctor's office phoned today with Joan's long-awaited ECG appointment. That's an ultrasound of her heart, to see if the murmer is nothing, or requires surgery or what's going on in there.

So that's the good news. The bad news? It's not until June 12! Ugh! Three months away. But at least it's a firm date, right?

Now we're just waiting on the MRI appointment. I've phoned the neurology dept so often, she seems to have stopped returning my calls. And we're still waiting on the physio clinic, too. I haven't even gotten a call from admissions yet. But having the ECG booked makes me feel much, much better. Pretty sad that we're in the fastest moving hospital in the city, and it's still taking this long. I can really see why people are turning to private clinics.

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!

a day at the park

I have too many pictures, but not enough time to process and post them all, so I'm going to post them in bits and pieces. These were taken yesterday, on a trip to the park - this is the little park that convinced Mike this apartment was right for us, because it's practically in our backyard. We go almost every day. The first is Joan, on her favourite ride, the swing. As soon as we turn the corner and come into view of the park, she starts to giggle, because she knows she'll get to swing.

John, striking a pose for the camera

The park's main attraction - loose dirt stuff for digging, and running one's fingers through. It's actually ground-up old tires. My house is constanty filled with tiny bits of rubber.

My little construction crew

Some quiet time with Dad before bed last night.

More pictures coming in the next few days. I've tried to be more diligent about keeping the camera charged and ready, and it's paid off. Now I just need to log some time in "the dungeon" to get them posted.

Things here have been alright. We finally checked out Alberta's equivalent of the Early Year's Centre. They aren't nearly as good, or as plentiful. But they do exist. John has dubbed it "The Fun Place." As in, all day, every day, he whines "can we pleeeeeeeease go to The Fun Place today? Pleeeeease?"

Unfortunately for John, they aren't open very often, or for very long. We have two, two-hour windows in the week for open play time, which is kind of sad. But they have a few other things. They have free swimming lessons on Mondays, and they have an open gym time on Friday afternoons, where they bring out the tricycles and soccer stuff, and let the kids run wild, followed by a snack and a random literacy activity. We went to the pre-schooler program last week, and both kids LOVED it! John got to play with trucks to his heart's content, and Joan spent a couple of hours with me, filling containers with blocks and dumping. She even got to sit in an excersaucer, which is like a baby amusement park, and she REALLY loved that. The blocks and other things were better for her, though, because she was using both sides to play. I haven't seen such a big smile on her face for that long, like, ever. Lots of fun! John had fun, too, but he found the other kids a bit frustrating. A lot of them were younger - the pamphlet says it's for 4-5 year-olds, but we were told we could come, because he was close, but there were lots of really young kids there, like 2-year-olds. The language barrier was an issue. It's an inner-city centre, hosted by the YWCA, so it was a lot more multicultural than I expected. Very few of the kids spoke any english. One spoke only french. Several only spoke Chinese. One other spoke english, but you'd never know it, because he didn't speak at all. Some of the others were too young to tell what language they could do. I didn't realize this until near the end, because the teachers still spoke to the kids in english, they just didn't respond to anything. It was like a class of mutes, except for John, who was trying his darnedest to strike up some meaningful conversation. At the end, they gave them a little snack - they sat in a circle, eating crackers and peaches. John asked everyone in turn, "do you like peaches?" When he got no response, he'd move on to the next person. The teacher was good, though, and gave him a very full answer of "Normally, I don't like peaches, but these ones are very good, aren't they?" He nodded yes, and he seemed happy with that.

On the way home, he commented on it. "We didn't talk at the Fun Place," he said. "I know," I told him. "Most of those kids can't speak english." "But I can speak it!" he said. We might try to find a different one, not so close to the core, so he has other kids to converse with. But most of them are so far away, way, way up in the north end.

We were going to back this week, but John's had quite a bad accident. While I was doing dishes one morning, he was jumping on the couch, even though he knows he's not supposed to, and he fell, very hard. Hard enough that it knocked in one of his front teeth a little, and turned the insides of his lips black. He's still swollen now, six days later. We think the tooth will be okay, but he's still asking for his food to be broken into little pieces, so it's hard to tell. He lets Mike look at it, but not me. But Mike says it's looking better every day. He's still in a lot of pain, but it seems to be mostly his lip that's the cause. He fell while holding a pen, which dug a big gouge through his bottom lip, and seemed to go inside his mouth to cause a lot of the damage to his upper lip. You can kind of see it in some of the photos up there - you can see the swelling in the left side of his face still. He actually refused to leave the house for a few days after. He spent a lot of time on the couch, wrapped in a blanket, whimpering. But he also refused to take any Tylenol, because it's "baby medicine". But he's asking to go places now, like the park and the Fun Place, so I'm sure he's feeling better. From what little he lets me see, I think he'll be okay, but the decision to go to a dentist or not is being left up to Mike, because he's the only one John trusts to lift up that sore, puffy lip. (Probably, because Mike keeps telling John that I want to pull his tooth out. That might have a bit to do with it.)

Speaking of baby teeth, Joan has a new one, with another on the way. That brings her up to nine - almost 10. This latest one is giving her a lot of grief. She clutches her cheek and screams now and then. She's drooling like crazy and is in constant search of soft flesh to bite - usually mine! Hopefully, it will pop through soon.

Anyway, better go. I have more to say, but have run out of time, and buggy Blogger has already erased half of this post, so I'm not going to stick around. But I'll be back!

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!

John pooped in his potty!!!!!

Woohoo!!!!

It happened yesterday. I was cooking dinner, and John scooted past, headed for the bathroom. Not an uncommon thing, now that he's peeing in the toilet. But a minute later, he came back, all excited, and squealed "Mom! I did it! I made poop! Come see!!!!"

And sure enough, in his potty was a poop!!!! Woohoo! Of course, then he treated me to the play by play: "I sat down and I squeezed and I squeezed and I squeezed until it was there!"

Until that moment, John insisted on pooping in a diaper. If he didn't have one on, he's insist that I put one on. In Edmonton, he got into the habit of pooping in a diaper, leaning over the toilet, which I thought was progress. But this was a huge leap! I'm so proud!

I think it was inspired by a little incident that took place as we headed out of Edmonton. I had put a diaper on him for the trip, and then, as I was packing the car, he pooped in it. We kind of had to get out quick, because the guy was already there to collect the keys, and he was wearing my last diaper anyway, so there wasn't a whole lot I could do. So he had to go to the car all poopy, and he absolutely hates sitting, let alone being strapped into a car seat, filled with poop. To make matters worse, I then had to haul him through a pharmacy to pick up more diapers, and he hates walking filled with poop. And then, I had to change him in the car, which was loaded with stuff, so he had to lay down on the driver's seat, while I stood outside, with the door open. Then I had to pull down his pants, exposing his nether regions to the biting -38 degree wind, while I wiped him clean. The whole time this was happeneing, he whimpered to himself "I'm a tough guy. I'm a tough guy."

Needless to say, it wasn't a pleasant experience for him, and the whole time I reminded him if he'd used the toilet, this wouldn't be happening. And lo and behold, the next day, he used the toilet!

It's helping that the dipers they had at the pharmacy were all wrong. They have Mickey and Minney Mouse on them, which he despises. He thinks they're too babyish. He's still in diapers at bedtime, and he makes me put them on backwards, because he hates the mice so much. Mike got a kick out of that one. He rightly said if you're old enough to have a preference, you're too old to wear them. But he's very close to being fully toilet trained. Unfortunately, he doesn't much like underwear, either. He says they're scary, because they're too different. But that's just a matter of getting used to them, I think. Not sure he's ready for underwear at nighttime, though. He's woken up dry now and then. I guess if I just go cold turkey on the diapers, he'll learn to hold it overnight, right? I have no clue.

Anyway, better go. Lots to do today. I have lots of errands to run, and I'm trying to get John to the YMCA in time for a preschool open gym time that sounds like lots of fun. He says he doesn't want to go, but I know once I get him there, he won't want to leave! I'll try to download that camera tonight, too. I haven't posted a picture in too long, and I have a whole bunch of them in there.

we're home to stay!

we're home, as in our Calgary home. To stay, as in, until the next temporary transfer. The last of the guys were sent home today - we found out about it last night. Sure is nice to know we're no longer semi-nomadic. At least for now! There was a certain charm to it all, though. Mike felt that coming home on the weekends made this place feel like a summer cottage, and he was definitely right. And it really makes this place feel a lot bigger. After living in a one room, 600 square foot bachelor apartment, this place feels downright luxurious. Like, we have a bedroom. With a door and everything. And a dining table that can seat more than 2. Imagine that!

Just as we were heading out, I got a call from the neurology dept at the Alberta Children's hospital - it was the admissions nurse collecting info on Joan. I'm going to assume they're doing the MRI. The nurse didn't know - she's just admissions, so she has no access to actual files. But she said we'll be getting either a call or a letter to let us know her appointment dates. MRIs are in pretty high demand, so they could very well be months down the road, but a hard deadline is always good. I'll keep you posted. I should be able to update more often now that we're home, with 'round the clock internet access. I even have pictures!

Oh, and the weather you've been hearing about is true - it got to -38 last night - that's even before the windchill. Not fun at all! Even with mittens, it feels like your fingers will fall off after a few minutes. The burn of frostnip is almost instantaneous. It hurts to breathe. It's a little warmer in Calgary. I think it was -29 as we headed into town, arount 11 p.m. I heard it was -32 in the day in Edmonton. The worst I saw it during the day with windchill was -47. And school was still on! Poor kids. Apparently, it's a blast of arctic air escaping over the mountains. They have a name for it, but I can't recall. Should pass by Friday. All I've got to say, is if I ever get the urge to move to Whitehorse, remind me of this week!

doc update

just a quick note, before Mike takes the laptop to work...

We have a doctor! Turns out they really DO have a serious doctor shortage here after all. But we got one, because of Joan's condition - his receptionist agreed we needed one urgently, so let us through.

He's an older guy, but he seems good. He's getting everything underway for us. He's a bit disgusted she wasn't sent to a cardiologist, but she's being sent to one here. They have a special stroke clinic, with a pediatric specialist on board, so they'll do the MRI. They also have a pediatric cardiology clinic here, so he's trying to get her there for an ECG. He said it's best to do everything through the children's hospital, because they know more about these conditions in little kids, so that's where he's trying to get her in. He didn't know much about the physio clinic, so he called the children's hospital while I was there, to find out how to get her in, and they said they'll take her. So now it's just a big transfer of files, and getting everything set up again. A huge, huge relief!

Anyway, better go. He said we'll know about timelines in about a week.

we're still here!

A quick post - it's hard to get online these days, but we're back in Calgary for a day, so figured I'd better log in to say hey. I have new pictures, too, but my camera is here, but the cord is in Edmonton, so that will have to wait, unfortunately.

I guess I'll start with the big news. We sold the house on Monday. We're not very happy - we JUST made enough to cover all the costs. We each have our own way of making it ok in our minds. For me, I just remind myself that we did roll a $25,000 line of credit into the mortgage just a few months ago, so it's like we paid off $25,000 in debt over and above everything else. For Mike, he finds comfort by remembering all the corroded, leaky pipes held together with electrical tape, which are now someone else's problem. The place was a real ticking timebomb. We had smoking outlets, sparking bare wires, wobbly toilets that wouldn't always flush, and a leaning porch, not to mention extensive water damage and a leaking roof dangerously close to collapsing in several places. But our big consolation - we can finally get on with our lives. We don't know anything about the guy who bought it, other than he's paying the full amount in cash, didn't bother with a home inspection, and he wants it February 14.

Back in the west, we're still in Edmonton - Mike just had a day off, and we'd forgotten some things, and needed to check in on the cats, so headed back to Calgary last night, and will probably go back to Edmonton tomorrow morning. This is all getting a little...gruelling. It's disjointing for everyone, all this travel. John can't keep track of where the heck we are.

Edmonton is...different. Neither of us like it. We both remember it as a very classy city, but it's not like that this time. Not sure if we've changed, or the city. They still seem to have the same job shortages, but there are lots of homeless bums skulking about. I keep thinking it's just our neighbourhood, but Mike says it's pretty rough all over the place. They're downright scary. One of them was sleeping in our lobby the other day. Our little unit is right across the street from a grocery store. John and I headed over the night we sold the house to pick up some ice cream to "celebrate", and as we were walking along, some guy came bursting out of the shadows and ran straight up to me. I actually screamed, and started running away. He looked a little shocked - I don't think he intended to scare me. But there are some things you just don't do to women - especially women with young kinds - in parking lots past dark. There's more of a mean streak in Edmonton. The drivers are rude, the people are cold. I really like Calgary - I'd recommend it to anyone. Edmonton - not so much. But it's not for that much longer. Heck, it might end any day now. I'm actually a little annoyed about what's going on with Mike's transfer. Just before they were dispatched, the company gave everyone a call to see what kind of living arrangements they were able to get. Shortly after, all the guys with families were told they didn't have to go - every guy with family except Mike. He's the only one who made arrangements to bring his entire family with him. (Their concern was separating families.) A few days ago, they called a big meeting. All guys except four were told they were being sent back to Calgary. Mike was one of the four. Why? Because he'd uprooted his whole family to be here. If we hadn't gotten the place we did, not only would they have let him stay home, but even if he was sent, he'd be home by now. Five days. Not six weeks, like planned - five freaking days. But the logic is, with only four guys remaining, there should be enough work for those four guys to stay busy. A week of 10 techs made short work of the majority of the backlog, but it's apparently still busy enough to keep a few behind. Telus is doing a huge advertising campaign in Edmonton, apparently.

The kids are doing well. John is really missing school. He keeps asking where the other kids are, and whether he can go to school. It's heartbreaking. But I've managed to find a mishmash of various programs he can go to in Edmonton - through the library and Alberta's answer to the Early Years Centres. Lots of sing-a-longs, puppet shows, story-times, open play times. All free drop-in programs. It's not as good as the best start prgram - nothing can match that program. But at least it's interaction with peers. Mike meets lots of young moms here, and he tells them all about John's school and how great it was. There's no reason they can't put more into early education here. It made such an amazing difference in John. His self-esteem alone really blossomed there. He ended that program so confident and eager to try new things. It was great.

Joan's doing great. She's lots of fun. She's learned to point, which makes communicating a little easier. She's even starting to talk! She's said "No" "Up" "Yeah" and "Eat". I'm trying to get her to use her words more, but it's slowly coming. Just wish she could crawl! Her hand is getting stronger, and she uses her right arm a lot now. But she's not making huge progress. Tomorrow's big job is getting a doctor for her. It's tough without internet, and we had no phone in Edmonton until Tuesday. I met one at a clinic I really liked who was taking patients, but Mike didn't like the sounds of him. (This person will be Mike's doctor, too, so yes, his opinion matters). I had taken her in for what looked like an earache, which turned out to be nothing. He gave her a thorough look, and said her murmer was quite loud. He was really excited to talk about her stroke, and knew all about the condition. He said we might run into problems later, if she's not actually a lefty genetically. Not sure if that's true - no-one else mentioned that, but the therapist did say she may need help with writing down the road, so maybe they're just trying to spare me the worry by not telling me the full story. With all the lefties on my side, it may never be an issue anyway.

We took the kids to see the mountains just before we left for Edmonton. John slept the whole drive there, but the dropped jaw he had when he woke up surrounded by big peaks was priceless. He was speechless for the first few minutes, then finally whispered "It's big." And everyone who knows John knows it would take a lot to render him speechless!

Well, I had better go for now. We have a number for Edmonton now, and when we get back there, I'll e-mail it around. It's hard to keep track of stuff when some things are here, and other things are there. I'm REALLY looking foreward to ditching our two spare homes!

a day at the park

We had a quiet saturday afternoon, so I finally took the kids out for a walking tour of the neighbourhood parks. There's three within a block of our house. Unfortunately, the big one was fenced off - I'm assuming for the winter, due to liability (it belongs to our neighbourhood association). But the two smaller ones were open. Joan slept the whole time, but John had fun, even though he was the only kid there. He took turns on the swing with his imaginary friend Invisible John. (Man, does that kid need a social outlet! Unfortunately, every program in this city that I've seen so far requires potty training. He's almost there. He's in underwear all day now, and if we're home, he uses the toilet to pee, but not to poop. But he wet himself on the way home from the park, without even realizing it until it was too late, so the away-from-home training isn't going quite as well. But it should be soon! Hopefully, we can be done by the time we get home from Edmonton, so I can enrol him in something fun. There's pre-school programs here through the city's recreation dept - once a week type things. There's "pirate adventure" sessions, or crafty ones, or sporty ones, or space themed ones. Lots of things to choose from that I think he might like. I'm going to try to get him into something like that, at the very least. The spring session starts just after we get back.)

John's favourite part of the outing was finding a box of toys marked "free to a good home" sitting outside our neighbourhood community centre. He took a few cool things, and even chose something especialy for Joan, which I thought was very generous of him. My only worry is that now he'll come to associate the parks here with new toys. "The closed park is my favourite park. That's where the toy box is!" he said as we got home.

But anyway - thought you might appreciate some pictures! (Don't be alarmed by no hat. He didn't want it, and took down the hood himself. We supposedly had a little chinook this week, so it's mild - for now.

Riding "the wild animal"

His first time on a tire swing! He thought it was really cool, and told Dad all about it that night.

He liked this, too. But not for long. I think it made him feel sick.

The view from park 2. Our house it just out of view - we live at the base of this big hill. This is actually a leash-free dog park. Some people use it as a sledding hill, but there's an even better sledding hill (no dog poop) just a couple blocks away, with an outdoor skating rink, too. But John was too tired to see it on this outing. Pretty big hills for a little guy. He was pooped by the time we got home.

And just because she's so darned cute, a picture of Joan, taken just before the big move.

we're alive!

Don't have much time - kids should be up soon. But we FINALLY ave the internet up and running, so thought I'd quickly pop in and say hi.

Well, we're in Calgary! The move was stressful, to say the least. Once we added everything up - flights back and forth, u-haul, gas, gas and more gas, we figured out it would have been the same price to hire movers to take everything from point A to point B - and probably much less stressful. If we move back to Ontario, that's how we're going to do it, or so we think now. The packing part was still hard on the kids. At one point, just a couple days before Mike arrived, I was busy packing, and Joan was sitting on the bed nearby. John came up and sat down beside her, gaver her a big hug, then said "Baby, you're my best friend in the whole wide world. Mom is really busy today. Too busy to play. So this isn't play time, or story time. This is work time. But remember, everyone loves you very much." I felt so bad when I heard it, because i think it was less John reassuring Joan, and it was John reassuring himself.

Our trip home to Dryden was delayed by a day to try to get everything in the house squared away. It was three households all going in separate directions, so it was a bit chaotic. But somehow, we managed. And of course, everyone was sick as dogs for the trip. Only John seemed to escape it. I lost my voice. Mike threw up. Joan had a fever. It was all pretty miserable. Mike spent 80 per cent of his time in Dryden in bed, before heading to Calgary at midnight, Christmas night. But they made good time, and arrived the night before my flight even left.

Everyone's fears about John acting up in the u-haul were unfounded in the end. John was so excited to finally see dad after three months apart, I think he would have gladly travelled in a cardboard box with him, just to be able to stay close. He loved the truck! He drove back to house in it with dad, when we first picked it up. Mike said he squealed "the truck is awesome! Yay!!!!" And threw his hands in the air.

Those few days between picking up dad at the airport and leaving on our trip were the happiest I'd seen John in the whole three months prior. I had dragged both kids into the terminal to pick up dad, at 1 a.m. - not the smartest idea. John melted into a wailing puddle on the floor. Another mom helped me out by taking Joan, while I got him to a chair, where we waited for dad. By the time dad appeared, John had fallen asleep, so Mike picked him up to carry him to the car. But he woke up - in dad's arms. I wish i had a camera to capture that smile! it was one of those uncontrollably happy grins, from ear to ear. We were worried that there would be some residual anger against dad once he came back, but it didn't materialize at all. In fact, i became chopped liver. He was constantly elling me and Joan to go away, because he wanted dad all to himslef. "Just me and just dad. Not you and baby!" was the line I heard over and over. One night, Mike and john were cuddling on the couch, and John looked up at dad, and pointed to dad and himself one by one, before cuddling back in - a little secret affirmation of "just you and me". It was very cute.

The packing of the truck was a little stressful. John flip-flopped between being stressed that all of his things were vanishing into the truck, to being worried that other things weren't being loaded fast enough, and might get forgotten. It was a very good idea to have movers for that part. We were able to spend time with the kids, John in particular, reassuring him that everything was really OK. But after the movers left, the real stress started. We had a bit of last minute packing and loading to do, but all of John's things were in the truck already. So he just wandered around, searching for things, getting increasingly agitated. At one point, he went to Mike, all sad, and said "I can't find my games or my toy trunk or the tv." So Mike broke out his laptop, and he and the kids watched Charlie Brown Christmas together. It cheered John up, and kept both kids out of my way, so it was a good thing.

The final load onto the truck was the worst part. It was 3 in the morning. The kids hadn't slept, but Mike was getting ready to go. So we were loading up the last few things. John, who was massively overtired and somewhat confused, was almost hysterical. He sat in the den on our luggage, rocking back and forth, screaming over and over "DON'T FORGET ME!!!!! WHAT ABOUT ME!!!! ME!!!ME!!!" It was heartbreaking, and no amount of consolling could convince him that he wouldn't be left behind. The first time he smiled all night was when I buckled him into the truck, and hugged him good-bye.

Mike said he was asleep within about 5 blocks, and slept to Sioux st Marie, as I recall.

Mike drove all the way through, just taking naps as needed. John was wide awake for one of his naps. He explained that he needed to sleep, so John was going to need to be quiet. And he was! he sat in the space between Mike's knees, and quietly read books. For two hours! Apparently even the second leg went well. Mike was pretty worn out by the time he got to Calgary - he was travelling with a flu after all. And John didn't sleep quite as much. But he was a good traveller. Even John travelled well. On the first leg, she slept in the taxi to the airport, then again for the entire flight, then the entire trip home from Winnipeg. Or so I think she did - i was asleep the entire time too. The trip to Calgary wasn't quite as smooth. She screamed for the entire trip to Winnipeg, and only slept for half the flight. But all in all, a good little traveller.

Christmas in Dryden is kind of a blur, to be honest. We were sick and exhausted. It was definitely nice to stand still for a few days. John had a great time with all his grandparents, and still talks about making great-grandma Evans' bed move. He shows me all of his toys and tells me exactly who gave him each one. Unfortunately, he seemed a little confused by the whole thing, even though we'd explained it so many times. At each house, he'd ask "is this our new home?" When we told him no, he was actually pretty eager to hit the road in search of our new house. He was asking to get back into the truck before Christmas even came. it was sort of sad in a way. I don't think he enjoyed it as much as we hoped, just because he was in limbo and confused.

Even when we got to Calgary, it took him a bit to settle down. We spent a couple nights at Mike's little place, then we moved to the new place - so that's two more places. Just after we got everything into the new house, he asked me "when do we got to the next house?"

But it's been a few days now, and he's starting to settle in. When he says "let's go home" he still feels the need to explain exactly which home he means. "Not our big house. Not dad's apartment. Let's go to our new house!" He and joan share a room here, and he's actually loving that. he hasn't been in our bed since we got here. He has all of his toys in there, and his bed, and his "reading chair and reading light", which is one of the big comfy easy chairs from our attic. It's in there for story time before bed, and he really loves it. I find him in there reading quite often. During the move, he escaped there regularly. If things got a little hairy, he'd announce "I'm going to my room! GOOD BYE!" And off he'd go, and he'd shut the door behind him.

But little does he know, his life is about to be turned upside down yet again! Oh joy. Mike's first day back at work, he got a call from his manager.
"Hey Mike! How did the move go?"
"Oh, it was stressful. But it sure is great to have the whole family together again."
"Oh Mike, I feel so bad for you."
"No no, it's really great. We're finally together. Things are fantastic!"
"Ohhhh Mike."

And that's when his manager broke the news that the entire team is being transferred....to Edmonton....for six weeks.

The pay is the same, and he gets the per diem again, but he has to use it for accommodation while he's there. It will barely cover a hotel room, so really, it's just regular pay. But on the upside, it's all the work he can handle, so it's crazy overtime, which is big money.

The big downside is the family. We just got together. John is just starting to unwind about dad being gone, and is getting used to him going to work each morning and coming home each evening without fail. We're not sure how he'll really cope with another six weeks apart. So we've decided, if we can, we're going to go together. it's not like I have anything holding me here, and John's not in school. My task for today is to find us a place to live. It apparently starts January 11, so I don't have much time. And it could last six weeks, like they say, but it could also dry up after 2 or 3. On the upside, this comapny also does a lot of work on Vancouver island. So he may get transferred there at some point, so the kids and I could have a long tour of the extended relatives, without Mike missing any pay.

Mike was talking about the predicament to one of his coworkers, who said "Welcome to contract work." So I guess this is the norm. They used to shuttle them around with Bell, too, but it was always, always voluntary, and they provided free accommodation AND a per diem, and all the overtime they could handle, so it was a sweet deal. This...not so much. But I guess that's why he gets paid the big bucks.

it kind of sucks for me, too. I'm just settling in too. I like Calgary. I had heard it was a grumpy city, but I don't see that at all. In fact, it's easily the nicest city I've ever been in. It took me a while to put my fnger on what makes these people so different. I thought at first that they just provide excellent customer service. But that's not it - regular people on the street are nice, too. I think it's that they don't have that high-strungedess of Southern Ontario. I thought Hamilton was mellow. And compared to Toronto, it is. But here, it's at a whole other level. People here are so...relaxed. They're polite. People coming down the street smile at you, look you straight in the eye, and say hi. If you're stuck in a line, they'll tell you a story about their life, or play with the kids. Mike says it's like a really huge small town, and it really does feel that way. We're all Calgarians, so we're all like one big family. I had to run some errands the other day, so I had to take the kids to a mall. John was a little overwhelmed by it all. There is SO much money here - a bit of a culture shock coming from Hamilton. Everything in this city is dripping with wealth, including the shopping malls, which are filled with cool decorations and bright shiny things. John kept getting away from me, and when he did, someone would stop him, and direct him back to me, telling him to stay close to mom. I thought that was kind of neat. When we stopped for lunch, I had people offering me their seats, even though there were lots of empty tables, just because they thought their seats would be more convenient for me. If Joan dropped something, someone would pick it up for me, without fail. One guy actually left his lunch, and walked halfway across the food court to pick up a book at my feet, that Joan had dropped. "It looks like you have your hands full." he said, and turned around to go back to his lunch. Mike happened to call when we were just beside the doors to leave, so John was hovering by the door. About six people passed him, and each one said "watch your fingers." It was drilled in so much, that John started saying it to the people passing him. One of the people was this total surfer dude, with the long hair and everything. John told him to watch his fingers, and actually opened the door for him, and it was a pretty heavy door. The guy said "Whoa, you're a strong little dude! You must have eaten your Wheaties today!" John looked so proud! Even the drivers are polite. I haven't done much driving here yet, so I wasn't sure if I was allowed to turn right on a red. So when i was in that situation, I thought I'd better just sit tight, and if people honk, I'll know I can turn. Well, about eight cars lined up behind me, and no-one honked, so I figured, must be illegal. But I asked Mike about it, and sure enough, I could have made that turn. They were just being polite. That's just so...Calgary.

Anyway, better go. I hear little feet fast approaching!
I'll update again soon, now that I have internet!

quick, between chore post

Well, i have a couple minutes, and just don't feel up to washing another dish or packing another box, but both kids are occupied, so thought I'd stop in and update super-quick.


The house still isn't sold, but there's quite a bit of interest on it. We had an open house, and a couple of people from that were very interested, but both felt the price was too high. It turns out that's the common theme from everyone who expresses a genuine interest in our house. So, we've lowered the price. By $15,000. I know it's a lot, and we aren't very happy about it. But if that's what it takes, so be it. We need it sold, like, yesterday. But I think we're going to be pretty firm, and expect our asking price. I think we've compromised enough for these cheap bastards already.

The kids are doing well, but Joan is sick yet again. she's on day two of a fairly high fever. She can't eat, and does nothing but sleep all day, which is what she's doing now. John has a bad cough, and says he's really sick, but the only evidence is the cough, so I think he's exaggerating. Unless he has bronchitis or something, and I'm just being too hard on him. But he has no fever. He's been in full Dr John mode for Joan's flu. He does little check-ups on her, and prescribes her medicine (Tylenol). He strokes her head while she's taking it, and assures her it won't hurt. It's very cute. He's so funny. He decided he wanted to make everybody chocolate milk the other day, so I got all the stuff out for him, and let him have at it. It was hillarious. He mixed his own perfectly. I got a cup of straight chocolate syrup, with a dollop of milk, and even Joan got a tiny splash of chocolate milk in a little glass. She didn't drink it, but I held the cup up to her mouth, to make him feel good. he was so proud! it took me a while to clean up the gooey chocolatey mess it all created, but it's the thought that counts.

The big concern these days is his attitude towards dad. He's so mad! We've had several conversations like this:

"Are you excited that dad's coming back?"
"No. I'm mad at him."
"Why are you mad at him?"
"He hurt my feelings."
"How did he hurt your feelings?"
"Calgary."

The other night, he wanted to read "I'm a Big Brother" - it's a book he likes about a big brother and his baby sister, that my parents sent for him when Joan was born. The last page is the happy family at the park, and he went through each figure in turn, relating it to his own family.

"Look, mom. There's the John, and that's the baby, and that's the mom. That's like you!"
"And what about that guy over there," I say, pointing to the dad. "Who's that?"
Silence.
"Isn't that the dad?" I ask.
"No. That's a big ugly bug."

The teachers at school mentioned today how incredibly happy he's been lately. I mentioned that he's not like that at home, and relayed some of the things he's been saying about dad,and the anger he's been expressing.
"Ah, we've been wondering when that would kick in," they say.
However, he hasn't said a word about it at school. They think he's probably using school as an escape from the chaos and confusion at home - it's a constant he can rely on. Boy, I hate to pull him out of there! He had cheered up when I first told him about Christmas. He spent the next few days saying how much he loved and missed dad, and how excited he was to see him. But that wore off - I think it took too long for dad to actually materialize, so now he's back to being bitter. We're trying different things to help. Last night, I marked off on the calendar all the days we've passed through so far this month, then circled the day dad gets here. Every day, we'll mark off another day. It seemed to cheer him up. He's seen the video of the new apartment. He seems to like that. "Look, our new bathroom! Look, that's our kitchen!" I've gone online to find him pictures of Calgary. I'm not sure what else to do.

An interesting tidbit - if you're ever in a Zellers, and there's an announcement of a "code yellow" over the PA, it means someone has lost their kid. Discovered that one the hard way. I took John to suit him up with new winter gear - we were trying to hold off until we got to Dryden, but we got a huge, huge snowstorm on Saturday (the day before our open house - figures). So we had no choice. He had a warm jacket, hat and mitts, and Mike's grandma sent him a new scarf that he likes. But he said his boots were too tight, and the school requires snow pants, because they like to take the kids outside, and he had none.

Shoe shopping with John is always a breeze - he loves picking out new shoes. I always try to make sure he's there to pick out his own, because he enjoys it so much. The kids' boot isle had boy's boots on one side, girls' on the other. There was a stock girl there at the moment, and John being John struck up a conversation with her right away.
"Look at all these boots, Girl! They are so beautiful!" he said, waving his arms frantically at all the fluffy pink and purple girl boots. While they chatted, I checked out the selection on the boys' side - only two pairs were going to fit him, which I didn't thinkwas going to be enough selection for him. So my plan was to divert him away long enough to get him to another store - the Sears on the other side of the mall. But before I could, he fell in love with a navy blue number over on the boys' side, with twinkly lights, kangaroos and bright yellow trim. Lucky for me, it happened to be one of the two that would fit. He tried them on, loved them, and refused to take them off again. "Oh Mommy! They're so comfy!" he said.

And of course, they were tied together, and of course he wanted to parade around the store on them, so he spent the next few minutes, while we looked for a register, taking little baby steps so the plastic ties wouldn't trip him. I wound up having to put John on the counter so they could scan the boots with his feet still in them. That happens every time I take him shoe shopping.

The next department was where the trouble started. He didn't like the look of those snow pant things one bit! He was having none of that! So while I was picking out one that would match his jacket, he took off! I tried to follow him, but my stroller is big and they pack those racks in so tight at Christmas, he actually got away.

I asked a nearby employee if she'd seen him. "No. Have you lost a child?" I admitted I had, and suddenly, this mission to get him back was mobilized. "Don't worry," she said, very seriously. "We have Code Yellow." It was surreal. With a flip of her hand, three other people came rushing over to jot down a description. An announcement of a code yellow rang out over the loudspeakers, and the little crowd of workers were dispatched around the store to hunt down my kid. The whole thing took maybe 10 seconds before he was discovered sulking in the candy isle. Then everything returned to normal, as though nothing had happened. It was really something to see!

Now it's winter, and the battle over winter gear has begun. I watch these poor moms trying to wrestle their kids into snow gear day after day, and I've decided I'm not going to go down that road. John's been good - he's even worn his snow pants every day this week without a fuss. But today, he snapped, and refused to put ANYTHING on. So I said, OK. So out he went, into the ice and snow, in socked feet and indoor clothes. I got a few horrified glares from the moms, but the dads who saw had a chuckle and cheered me on. It took about three seconds before he was asking for mittens. We weren't even off the school yard before he was putting his boots on. By the halfway mark, he was fully bundled, completely of his own choosing. No wrestling required, and no frostbitten digits. Probably not something I can do in Calgary - though maybe he'd just get dressed that much faster out there!

Anyway, John is here, and wants to play some games. Better go! I'll try to take some new pictures soon!

lots of news!

Ok. Where to start.

THE MOVE

Mike got official approval for time off at Christmas! He gave them three options - they chose option B, which has him off from December 18-28. He's flying here the night of the 17th, then we'll spend the 18 and 19 packing up, then he and John are heading to Dryden in the U-haul. Joan and I have a flight booked for the 20th into Winnipeg - grandparents on the receiving end have been e-mailed our itinerary. If we can finish loading the truck in one day, Mike will head out the 19th, then we'll both arrive in Dryden the same day. Joan and I will be there until the 27th, when we fly out of Winnipeg, but Mike has to leave on the 26th. I was originally supposed to take the train with Joan, but the prices for everything had changed since we looked last time - they actually dropped for the plane. We're not sure how that happened - maybe they switched up to a bigger plane. No idea. It means no stop in Geraldton, which is unfortunate. But it's less travel time overall, which will be nice. For Joan and I, anyway. I know there are some concerns about John in the U-haul, but we think it will be OK. It's split into two legs, and if it's really that bad, we'll get him a plane ticket with me for the second leg. But we think it would be good for him to spend some "quality" one-on-one time with dad and a big truck is a pretty cool place to do that. John has been fluctuating between sad and mad when it comes to dad being gone. It has hit him pretty hard. But we'll play it all by ear.

We had looked into moving with a mover. We got lots of online quotes, and one in-home quote. They were all too high to justify it. The lowest one was $1400, which would have made it cheaper, but it was an estimate of 2,000 pounds. The in-home guy, who actually saw everything, estimated it at 4,000 pounds, with a quote of $4500. And with everything that Vicki just went through, we decided moving ourselves was probably the better plan.


JOAN

Joan had her second physio appointment on Thursday. They were really impressed with her progress, especially considering she had a flu, so we couldn't spend much time on the exercises. They gave me a whole bunch of new stuff to focus on. Lots of tipping her over onto her right side, and forcing her to prop herself up. She doesn't like it - she cries. But they noted that she can actually get herself up from a semi-reclining position on her right, which tells them she has good strength. They said in that case, she isn't crying from pain or discomfort - she's crying out of fear. They compared it to asking someone to get on a bike and ride it for the first time - it's a new thing, with new movements, and it feels very scary at first. But as she gets used to it, she'll start initiating it on her own.

They also showed me how to stimulate her tummy muscles so that she'll pop up on all fours. They told me to keep her up on all fours for as long as she can hack it each day, because it builds tons of muscle, and the "pushing" action is critical for mobility down the road, like getting up off the floor. And if we do it enough, there's actually a chance she will crawl, which is the ideal scenario. They said there are a lot of people walking around that never crawled as babies. But for kids like Joan, it's worth the effort to teach her how, because it builds upper body strength and coordination, which she's lacking. There's still a chance she never will, though. She may just use the strength from these exercises to pull up and walk.

They talked about the braces she'll need. They showed me the hand brace, which is just a soft foam glove, designed to hold her thumb out, because now it's always tucked in. And the harder she works, the tigher she balls her fist, which works counter to the therapy. We may not have enough time ot get one - she didn't have one we could take, because they need to be custom made and fitted to her. But she's going to see what she can do.

The really big news was her foot. She doesn't hold her foot flat, so it's going to be hard for her to bear weight on it. So the physio guy said she's going to need a special orthotic brace. It's a custom-made plastic cast type of a thing, which will hold her leg and foot in perfect allignmnet, therefore forcing the muscles to grow and stretch in the proper way for walking.

The catch? They cost $1,000 each, and because they're form fitted, she needs to get a new one every time she grows. In Ontario, the government will pay 2/3 of the cost. At the time, we weren't sure what Alberta did, if anything, so he rushed around to get us some appointments, but the soonest she could be fitted was January 11. I took it, because at the time, we weren't sure if Mike was able to get the time off over Christmas. If he couldn't, we'd just stay for the fitting. But Mike did get the time off, so I'll have to cancel the whole thing, and have it made in Calgary. Fortunately, we did some looking, and they have a similar program there - the province will pay 75 per cent of the cost, and the cost to individuals is capped at $500/year/family. So it will never cost us more than $500/year, no matter how many of these little braces she goes through. I'll probably do some phoning around to make sure that's really the case. But it seemed pretty clear, so I don't think we have to worry too much. Physio guy said her physio will be covered there, too. They'll set her up through a similar clinic at the Calgary Children's Hospital, so Alberta Health and Wellness pays the tab, which is good to know. The government isn't run entirely by heartless blue robots after all. It sucks that we're moving to the only province in Canada where we even have to wonder if things are covered. But so far, it looks like everything will be OK.

THE HOUSE

Not sure if it's just my experience, or if the entire real estate industry is completely crazy. It's filled with spazy people. We had one showing that our agent didn't even tell us about. I went outside to go pick up John from school, to two men on the porch expecting to be let in. They had an appointment. I didn't know, so the beds weren't made, and the dishes weren't done. It was very embarrassing. We've had agents come so late, that I've left for the showing, then come back, and THEN they arrive. My favourite one was the agent who arrived half an hour early to let me know he couldn't make it, but his client was still coming, so could I please stick around. He even picked out things that I was to point out to his client. I did the whole showing. If he buys it, I expect part of the commission. Hopefully, it will sell very, very soon, because this really, really sucks. We're having an open house next weekend - maybe something will come from that.

Anyway, John wants to play, so I'd better get going!
A note from John:
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