physio appt - finally

Well, it's not next week - or the week after. Joan's first meeting with her physiotherapist is May 22 - the day before her neurology appointment. She'll probably be meeting the occupational therapist the next month. She's in the study, though, which means sessions starting next week, running through the rest of May. Can't say I'm thrilled - the OT is the one that orders the hand brace, so that's yet another delay on that. But it's better than nothing. I've been told the labour shortage has hit the children's hospital particularly hard, because most people moving here are young people who either come with young families, or start them soon after they get here, and I believe it. It's so....incredibly...slow. Though, they've just promised some rediculous sum of money for healthcare in the last budget - they updated their numbers based on $78 a barrel. It allowed them to invest billions, and still eliminate the healthcare premium as of January, 2009. If you want a job in healthcare, now's the time to come to Alberta! That and construction. They're investng a ton, both municipally and provincially into roads and infrastructure. Want a great-paying unskilled labour type job, pouring asphalt? We're the place to be! Oh, and mechanics - we just paid $69 for an OIL CHANGE because there's such a shortage! Even the Chicken Shack is still loooking for someone. They've been hiring since last September at least - $15/hour. The 7-11 starts at $12, including benefits and retention bonuses. It's crazy! And they've done so much frantic home building, that housing prices are expected to fall this year, including rental prices, which aren't even all that bad. Our place is awesome, and only $900/month. (Though, the little war-time type bungalows in our neighbourhood sell for $700,000. Or at least, that's what they've been listing at. They sit for months on end at those prices, so they must be coming down.) The only downfall of Calgary is it's a two-industry town - oil and construction. And it's all based on oil sands - the oil they've been pumping is almost all gone, which means our entire economy is based on oil being at least $60/barrel. If it ever falls below that, or even gets too close, this place would be a ghost town. Nice thought. But it's good while it lasts!

Anyway, I'm off to get a GST number. I tried and failed yesterday. We don't have a printer anymore, so the guy on the Revenue Canada number said to pick up a form at the Calgary tax office, and we can fax it back to them when we were finished. Well, sounds great in theory - it should absolutely be that simple, shouldn't it? So, I pack up the kids, and make the dreaded trek downtown. Anyone who's been in downtown Calgary feels for me right now. It's the most ludicrous downtown in the world. The main street - Centre Street - is cut in the middle of town, by the freaking Calgary Tower! And it's not like the road that runs into Queen's Park, where they've built a ring road around it. No. it's just smack in the middle of the street, and you have to navigate through a maze of narrow, one-way streets to get around it. It's ludicrous. Who planned that!? Anyway, we finally got there, then had to hunt for the parkade, then find a spot inside it, get the kids out, find the elavator, get into the lobby, find Revenue Canada inside a ginormous Government of Canada building. We finally got there, only to be stopped by a security guard. I'm a Canadian, in a Canadian government building, trying to conduct legitimate Canadian business, in a Canadian agency, and I'm stopped by a guard, who asks me what I want. "I just need a form," I squeak. Five women behind desks are staring at me. "Over there," the guard says. "WHAT do you need?" asks one woman, visibly annoyed by this intrusion. "I need an RC1." (That stands for Revenue Canada 1. As in, Form #1).
"What's THAT!?" she barks. "It's the new business form," her neighbour whispers to her. "Oh. We don't do forms here," the first one says, handing me a photocopied sheet outlining all the ways I can get the form - none include stopping by a Revenue Canada office. I can get one mailed to me, but she warned me that it's very, very slow. How nice. In fact, I can't even bring the form back to them once I finally DO get it - I have to send it directly to Regina. I really wanted to ask what exactly they DO do there, but didn't. I was the only non-employee in the room. There were five clerks and a security guard. Seriously, what DO they do? The whole fiasco could have been prevented if they'd just publish their phone number. Online, the office description said "service by appointment only", but it gave no phone number to make an appointment!! Ah, gotta love government waste in action.

So the business is off to a rough start. But the kids are doing great. John is still missing family. He's started calling me "grandfather," and pretending that I'm his grandpa. It's not so bad at home, but he did it all through the grocery store yesterday. We got a few strange looks, to say the least. He's such a goofball. he's really grown lately. he's become really tall and skinny all of a sudden, so a lot of his pants are loose. He had on a particularly baggy pair to get groceries in, and somewhere in the pasta isle, I hear. "Mom! Look at me!" I turned around to see him with his pants down around his ankles, and he giggling like a loon. Thankfully, no-one else saw! He's potty trained, by the way! he's in underwear 100per cent of the time. He hasn't wet his bed in almost two weeks, and has even been pooping in his potty! Everytime he does it, he comes up to me and says "mom, I have a surprise for you!" When I ask what it is, he whispers "it's something brown." Then we head to the bathroom for the great unveiling.

Anyway, he's up now, so I'd better go.

the continuing saga

First, a confession. The camera, alas, is "a little bit broken" as John would put it. That's kind of why there hasn't been a new photo in a while. The cover has come off the battery area. I'm still working on it. In a pinch, I'm thinking duct tape will do the job.

I'm hoping to have it up and running by Saturday - I'm taking the kids to a family expo thing that sounds pretty fun. There's a petting zoo, story time inside a whale, inflatable bouncers, a potting shed, a craft corner, and all sorts of other interactive stuff for kids. It's all free - it's paid by exhibiters trying to lure parents to enroll their kids into summer programs. Everyone who has anything for kids will be there, from schools to the library. Should be a good source of inspiration on things to do with John. We've found lots of things, but no perfect fit yet. What he really needs is preschool, but it's expesive and we're not willing to give into that route just yet. But he does need some more stimulation in his life. He's so incredibly bright and social. Seems a shame to have him out of school. I so wish they had JK here!

More good news for Joan - I got a call from the physio clinic! It was a therapist who phoned, to asses what kind of services she's going to need. She gave me some neat new ideas to try, to entice Joan to crawl - the ones from the old crew just frustrate her to no end. Haven't tried hers yet, but they sound a little more friendly. She agreed she'll need both a hand and foot brace, and is trying to set her up with both physio and occupational therapists. However, they also want her to enrol in a research study, which requires her to start therapy next week! They can't guaruntee her whole team will be assembled by then, but she was pretty sure she could get an appointment with at least her physiotherapist for the first week, which would make the family eligible for the study. If not, they'll have to start probably the week after. Either way works for me! The study is to look at the effects that communication between baby and parent have on success. They've found anectotally that parents who are "in tune" with what their kids are wanting have kids who perform significantly better in therapy. So they've formed a little study, with a six-week parental class, to see if it's true. Half will get both the class and the therapy, the control will get therapy only. (Hopefully, we get the class!)

On the Mike front, we've decided to go ahead and go contract. I've been in charge of research, and spent a lot of time on the phone with revenue canada, and various other beaurocratic agencies, and it doesn't sound too hard, even for an incorperation. The added work to have an incorperation over a sole proprietership is pretty minimal. We only registered as an Alberta company, so apparently, they send out a pre-filled-in form once each year, we make any changes, answer a few questions, fire it back and that's that. The revenue canada stuff we'd have to do anyway - we need a business number and a GST number, no matter what kind of business it is. We're just tacking on payroll stuff, which doesn't sound like too much fun, but it doesn't sound hard, either. It's a monthly payment to the government - which they may ask us to do quarterly, if it's too small - and an annual summary. GST is just a cheque each year. There's the extra tax return for the company, but there's small business tax software. We're such a minuscule little business, we just can't see it being that complicated, as long as we keep meticulous records. It's really just an invoice out, a payment in, and a couple of paycheques back out. It should be pretty basic to keep track of everything, as long as we keep good records and keep track of all the due dates. Mike took accounting in university. I'm sure I can pick up enough to keep us out of trouble. I can add and subtract. How hard can it be? (Famous last words, I know.) Chances are, I won't qualify for EI after all. Mike will be sole shareholder, at least to start, so he's automatically out. And apparently, they're a bit sticky about wives working as assistants to their husbands in these little micro-businesses, according to the Revenue Canada Guy. He gave me the number of a form to fill out, which goes to a board of sorts. They'll give us a ruling on whether they would honour a claim, and if they say no, we just don't pay that deduction - but everyone qualifies for CPP. He gave me some tips to keep things simple, and told me some of Revenue Canada's small business pet peeves so we don't annoy them too much. He was pretty frank, and had lots of info. He said they try to keep it pretty user-friendly, ad we'll get all the forms and handbooks we need when we apply for our numbers.

We incorperated on Friday - it was only a couple hundred bucks. There was only one "legalese" section, about share structure. We just took a blurb from a sample federal form we found online. When we went in to the office, they showed us a pre-written blurb of their own, that they could just cut and paste from a file, so we went with that. It was pretty easy. And what did Mike choose as a name? W Inc. (It spells wink.) He tossed around Walchuk Telecom Inc, but thought it sounded too long and stuffy. Walchaco Inc was on the table, but he wasn't sold on it either. W Inc was just kooky enough for his taste, and shockingly, wasn't taken yet. So now it's ours.

John just came down, and wants to say hi!
lkmnbvcx

she's OK!

a bath photo, just for fun

Joan's MRI went through this morning. The anesthesiologist was a little leery, but because she had no fever and her lungs sounded clear, he said he was fine with going ahead. Apparently, the drugs they give can cause the lungs to "shut down" to the extent that they have trouble clearing themselves out, which can lead to an increased risk of pneumonia, which is why they won't put a sick kid under, if they can help it. But both he and the nurse agreed that, although she still had a cough, her lungs were clear.

Only one of us was allowed to go be with her for the sedation, so Mike went, which I was kind of glad of. Not sure if I could have handled that, to be honest. He said she fussed a little, but was too tired to put up a fight - it all happened before her normal wake-up time. Then, we took John to the coffee shop for some breakfast, before the playroom opened. I love having a hospital that's so geared to families, right down to the coffee shop. In the fridge were things like Minigo's, cheese strings, Jell-o, and about five different flavours of rice krispie squares.

The playroom is awesome. John bolted in as soon as the door opened, and was pushing trucks around before we even had a chance to fully check him in.It's huge and bright, and the volunteers are really nice. It's all funded through the hospital foundation, so it's free to use. I really appreciate that it's there, and if we decide to give anything to charity this year, this hospital tops my list. It's a little stressful getting the referrals organized, but now that we're in, it's a great place. The nurses are awesome, and it's all set up to be so family-oriented. There's toys in every waiting room. Play areas, fish tanks, wishing wells. Lots of bathrooms and smaller, more private waiting areas. They're all nice to John, who alway has a million questions for the doctors and nurses, but they all take the time to answer him and make him feel part of the process. They all seem to have all the information they need, and the interaction between them and us is all very organized and streamlined. For a hospital, where terrible things must happen all the time, it's a very soothing and reassuring place. It's been really great so far.

We didn't need to wait long for Joan to wake up. She was pretty crabby from the drugs and not too happy with all the wires and sensors attached to her. But she cuddled for a bit, and had some juice, and she seemed to cheer up with every wire removed. Her big beef was the IV hook-up, and I can't blame her. Those things suck. They told us everything went fine. They didn't need to use the radioactive dye - we had to sign a consent form ahead of time, in case they needed to use it. It feels great signing off on something for your kid, where the potential risks are coma and death. The anesthesiologist popped in to see her before we left, and said she did well, and her lungs weren't a problem.

The whole thing was very fast. They originally told us an hour in recovery - the nurse discharged us after about 10 minutes. I felt bad for John, who only got to play for maybe 20 minutes. He gave us a very sour look as he saw us coming to collect him! But he'll be back - I'm hoping to use it during her physio appointments, too.

Joan recovered just fine. She wasn't back to her usual happy self for about an hour and a half. But then she was starving, and ate like a horse. She did throw up a little - they said that might happen, even though they gave her antinausea drugs - then she was down for a nap.

So it all went very well, and I'm glad that's all done and behind us. She can now eat coins to her heart's content! And in four weeks we meet her neurologist, to see what horrors are hiding in that little head of hers!

MRI day!

Just a reminder that Joan's MRI is tomorrow - at 7:30 a.m.! Unfortunately, there's a chance that it may be deferred to a later date. Mike had a very, very bad flu, and it made its rounds through everyone. I got the lightest dose - no fever, and minimal stomach issues. John was hit hard - he was as sick as Mike, who wound up taking several days off work with it. I really thought Joan was going to sail through, but the night before her heart appointment, the fever kicked in. By the morning of the appointment, she had a fever of 102. We doped her up on Tylenol to cool her down a little, but it wasn't enough to let her feel "good" in any way. She screamed her head off through both tests, the weigh-in, through most of the waiting room time. Not a fun visit. The staff there was awesome, though. They work at a kids hospital for a reason - they all took the noise in stride, and did their best to distract her. They tried puppets, swirling lights, toys, funny faces, all to no avail. But they all kept their cool, and just kept working. Sadly, we had a very sick and stroppy John with us, too. We felt he was way too fluish to dump him in the siblings' playroom, so he tagged along with us. Also not a happy camper, but he found the tests pretty cool, and he found a cool truck to play with in the waiting room.

Fast forward to the weekend. John, who's been sick and feverish for a week, starts screaming his head off, and clutching at his ear. "IT STINGS!!!!!" he screams, tears streaming down his face. It's Friday night, so our family doc has already gone home, but the nurse gave us the alberta telehealth number. They say to try Tylenol, and wait a couple days. Mike wasn't home yet, so I did the Tylenol to start. John was asleep within 5 minutes. However, an hour later, he was up again, screaming and clutching, so we packed everyone up and headed to the urgent care clinic. (The nurse had recommended the emergency at the Children's Hospital, but we called ahead, and they warned they were extremely busy, due to the blizzard which was hitting the city at the time).

So we checked in with our hacking, spluttering, feverish kids, one in obvious pain, and the other tugging at her ears, so we asked that they both be looked at. We were the first to be seen - thank goodness, because there were two kids riddled with chicken pox, running around, breathing on Joan. That's just what I need. Turns out, they both had ear infections. So now, we have matching bottles of his and her antibiotics in the fridge.

John is pretty much over his flu, but Joan isn't exactly 100 per cent. No fever anymore, but she's very sniffly and tired, and on antibiotics to boot, with an MRI scheduled in the morning. Great timing. I called the MRI clinic yesterday, to see if they'll reschedule. The nurse said to bring her how she is, and the anesthesiologist will make the call then. Hopefully, she's well enough to go ahead. It will finally put an end to my recurring nightmares of Joan eating metalic objects off the floor, only to have them rip through her organs during the MRI. Gotta love paranoid mom dreams. I've been having these dreams for months now. I've been sweeping the floor twice daily, in a futile attempt at stopping them.

We've got John signed up again for the sibling room. He liked watching the tests for her heart, but we're not allowed to watch the MRI. So if they let her through, it'll be 45 minutes of nervous waiting, followed by an hour of recovery as she wakes up from the sedation. Very boring for a little kid, so I'm glad they still had space in the play room! He's going to be there to watch her being put under though, but we've been preparing him for what he's going to see, and he loves playing doctor, so I think he'll be ok with seeing it.

In other news, Mike's company is being restructured, in a way. There's been rumors of piece rate being brought in for weeks now. But it turns out, they actually want the guys to all go contract. It means they all have to become their own private companies, with registrations and GST numbers and insurance and the whole bit. It's optional, so it's kind of dominated all of our conversation for days, debating whether it's the right thing to do, and if we do, what's the best way to go about doing it. We've been researching all the terms - dividends, capital gains, sole proprieter vs incorperation, gross-up. It's pretty complicated stuff. But Mike's been tinkering with tax software, to see what would work out best for us, both short and long term. There's a lot of factors that have to weigh in - child benefits, RRSP capabilities, tax rates, liquidity of assets, income splitting - but we've got about three weeks before everything gets presented to the guys in writing, and new contracts need to be signed. We're pretty sure it's the right thing to do. It eliminates all job security, and he won't be eligible for EI anymore, but there are other advantages. He could incorperate, registering as just an Alberta business, which makes things more complicated paper-work-wise. But then, both he and I can pull a wage from the company. I can be his assistant,a nd we can both earn minimum wage, which, while holding the balance of our assets at a corperate rate, which is pretty low - much, much lower than income tax. We can draw a wage from this company while he's at school, so it's a form of savings, and as far as we know, the company can invest in stocks and mutual funds just like a person can. From the tax software, that gave us the best scenario, tax-wise, and has other attractive benefits as well. But we're still hemming and hawing. That scenario would also give me EI benefits, in case Mike lost his job (because he'd have to lay me off, too.) Unfotunately, the company isn't making the status quo very palatable - there won't be any more bonus structure or overtime - just a flat wage with flat hours. Under the unit-rate contract model, it appears that Mike would bring in quite a bit more, but there's no security to it, and he NEEDS to bring in more to cover the extra costs. Don't know. It's a brave new world, that's for sure! Any advice is appreciated!!!

Anyway, better go. I'll let you know how everything goes tomorrow.

she's fine!

just stopping in quick while Mike's home to code off some jobs - our main computer is having some booting issues.

Joan had her cardiology appointment yesterday, and everything is fine. There's no hole, no abnormalities at all. The initial diagnosis was correct - an innocent murmer. But instead of being caused by a hole, like the pediatrician thought, it's just caused by the particular shape of her heart. The way blood moves through causes a bit of an extra whoosh, which is completely harmless. Most kids outgrow it as the shape of their heart changes with growth. About 5 per cent continue into adulthood, but even in that case, it's completely harmless and will never cause her any problems. He said her heart looks fine and healthy and normal, and the murmer in no way had anything to do with the stroke. The cardiologist got on the phone with our neurologist as we were leaving to go over his findings, so now neurology knows she's all clear for the MRI.

really, REALLY quick Joan update...

Got a call from the Doc this morning. Cardiology decided to step Joan's appointment WAY up - to April 16! I think she's getting two tests - they said both an ECG AND an echocardiogram. Apparently, they're two different things. I looked up on Wikipedia, and yeah - they seem to be different. At any rate, we go straight from that to a consult with the cardiologist, to discuss the results.



Mike is off that day, which will be nice. We booked John into the sibling childcare room, too, so for most of the two-hour appointment he'll get to play with other kids. Thankfully, Mike's even off the day of the MRI, which is awesome! Though, it's scheduled too early to drop John with the childcare, so he may just be coming along for the ride.



Anyway, thought I'd pass that on! Yay!

super-quick Joan update

hello,

Joan and I visited the doctor today. I didn't actually ask for anything to be moved, but I passed along some of the family's concerns, and my own concerns, and some of the family heart history.

He said it was probably all very safe - she's not the first case they'll have seen, so they'll know what they're doing, and they likely won't put her right under anyway - typically, it's just a sedative, which is safer.

That said, he conferred with the cardiologist after I left, and the cardiologist feels, in light of the family history, that her ECG should probably be stepped up. What they're going to TRY to do, is co-ordinate with Neurology, to have the two tests done back to back on the same visit. He's not sure what they'll do about sedation - the doc said to leave it with them for a couple days to go over her chart and make some decisions, and he should be able to relay their answer to me by Tuesday or Wednesday next week. I'll keep you posted on what they say.

this and that and the other

It's been a bit, so thought I'd better stop in. Sorry no pictures - I'm actually on Mike's laptop, and he has none loaded on here. It's his day off today, and he's at the gym. (He got a membership for himself a week or two ago, and has been every day since. He's put on some weight since leaving Hamilton, and it's starting to make him feel tired at work.)

Anyway, things are going alright here. Kids have gotten over a strange flu. We think it must have been what we had, but in us, it dragged on and on, but wasn't bad - just annoying. In the kids, it was a 24-hour bug. Joan got it first, then John. The night it hit John, he crawled into bed with us, and was so cold, he was shivering. Then the fever hit, and it was like sleeping with a radiator. He spent the entire day dozing on the couch, complaining that he was hot and cold and everything hurt, and barking orders at me. "Mom, can you move my drink?" "Mom, can you get me my super duper cozy blanket?" In the evening, his fever spiked to 102, but I had nothing to give him, so thankfully, Mike postponed his last job to make a run to the pharmacy for me. Within half an hour, John was feeling great, back to his perky, chatty self. Then had a great night's sleep, and woke up feeling fine. Joan's wasn't even that bad. She felt slightly warmish for a day, but showed no other symptoms at all.

I just have to send a very big, very belated thank you to Mike's grandma - she sent the kids a HUGE gift basket for Easter, filled to the brim with chocolate and cookies and fruit. I had to love John - he was taking out all these sweets, but the first thing he ate was the grapes! All the fruit was eaten in pretty short order, actually. We still have one of the four Easter bunnies left. I actually turned one of the big ones into a pan of brownies, which Mike thought was a horrible thing to do. But they were sooooo good! So thank you so much! You really made John's day. He was so excited when he saw it come in! In fact, he's still taking about it!

We finally went to the library last week. John's usual gym program was cancelled, due to March break, and they have a big library right there, so it became his consolation prize. He really liked it. They had computers pre-loaded with fun little preschool games, with numbers and letters and puzzles. It was very popular - the kids all piled their little chairs around the monitor, taking turns with the mouse, feeding each other the answers. It was really cute. At one point, it was just John and another little boy, and the other kid had the mouse. John kept patting the kid on the back, saying "good job!" and "you're good at this game!"Unfortunately, the other kid didn't speak too much english, but he seemed to understand the sentiment. And of course, they had little tables and chairs and couches, for test driving the books. John would bolt off into the stacks, and emerge with new books to read. In the end, he had a few favourites, so we got library cards to take them home. They charge for library cards here, which is unthinkable to me - $12 a year! But I guess for the value you get, it's pretty cheap. They do run lots of programs - they do a lot of ESL training, and lots of kids programs, like puppet shows and sing-a-longs. They even have a preschool program, which is half an hour without parents, which I think John would enjoy. He needs a break from mom now and then.

That said, if a city in southern ontario proposed charging an annual fee to use the library, there would be riots. But in Calgary, it kind of fits. They're so incredibly cheap here! Did you know that Calgary has no curb-side recycling? They have dumpsters scattered throughout the city, and people save up their recyclables, and haul them to these bins. You can't even just dump it in - everything needs to be flattened and sorted into the proper bins. And people actually do this. If you peek in, everything is perfectly cleaned and sorted. Though, we're getting curbside recycling next year, which will be nice. Speaking of how cheap this city is, I don't think they own a single street sweeper. The streets are still caked in sand and dirt from winter. On windy days, it's like a dust storm rolling down the streets. I really think they just wait for the rain in summer to take care of it.

Then there's healthcare. We just got our first bill - $260-odd dollars, for the first quarter. We had our bill even before coverage kicked in! But I intend to get my money's worth. Joan and I are headed to the doctor tomorrow on Alberta's tab, to discuss some concerns. Apparently, he's the only guy with the power to step up her ECG, so he's the guy I'm going to see. My concern is that he doesn't know that there's a history of big heart problems on both sides of my family. I know some of it is in her chart - a couple members needed pacemakers at a young age, and the pediatrician considered my dad to be very young to have the surgery he did, so both of those are in there. But I know there's more I didn't think to say at the time, that might be relavent. I know I had a great aunt on my mom's side, who was born with a heart defect, and died in her early 20's as a result. It doesn't hurt to make sure Joan will be safe under sedation for the MRI, without knowing exactly what's up with her heart first. I'm sure it's fine - heart defects are the main cause of these strokes, so I'm sure they've dealt with it before. But it doesn't hurt to make sure. I get the sense from the nurses and admissions staff that the departments in this hospital are very disconnected from each other, which is a big concern to me.

John's doing well, but is getting nostalgic for family. He's been asking to go to Dryden for a visit with his grandparents these last few weeks. Some days, he's so insistant, he says he's going to go by himself! Mike's trying to think of a way to get us there - he's thinking he might drive us up on a weekend, then pick us up on another weekend. But we'll see. One of the things John misses is the Walchuk's apple trees, so I'm thinking April might be a wee bit early! John's getting impatient for all his usual summer activities - camping, swimming, picnicing. He's been asking for a picnic with Jeremy's special peanut butter cookies. But it's not quite summery enough for any of those things yet. In fact, we got a little bit of snow a couple days ago - 10 cm, that they didn't even predict. (They can't predict the precipitation here, because of the mountains. Apparently, only Denver is harder to predict.) John had fun shovelling again, but got bored halfway through...so he took off to the park! I turned around, and he was gone! Luckily, there was snow, so Joan and I just followed his tracks, and found him on the swings. It's just across the back ally, so if he's going to take off anywhere, that's the safest place for him to go. But still! Sheesh!

Mike's turning 30 is a few days! It's going to be pretty low-key. He wants to watch Logan's Run, which is what we did for my 30th, too. He asked for a black forest cake, so the kids and I headed out to pick up some whipped cream and cherries so we can make one. John and I are going to try to make ice cream, too, which Mike doesn't know about. John is so excited! he just can't wait for Dad's birthday! I let him pick out the candles at the store - he had a choice of three, and picked the diamond patterned ones. "They're so beautiful!" he keeps telling Dad, even though it's technically all supposed to be a "surprise". John even has a hiding spot all picked out, where he's going to leap from and yell "Surprise!" when dad gets home from work. He's been practicing - he's already started yelling "surprise!" every time dad comes home. It's very cute. I think John is getting way more enjoyment from Mike's birthday than Mike is.

Making the cake should be exciting - I've never made a real cake before, but I've been trying to make everything from scratch now that I'm at home, so I'm getting better at cooking. John's been enjoying it. We've completely given up the grossly overpriced commercial bread here, so every few days, we bake bread together. I let John dump ingredients and punch down between rises, and he thinks it's great fun. I think a lot of people cook from scratch here - we can get neat specialty things that you'd never see in a store down south. Instead of yeast being in a little box on the bottom shelf, it's a huge section, with all different kinds, right at eye level. There's a mill in Olds, and they sell all sorts of neat things right in Safeway, like barley flour, which makes a neat tasting bread we all like. People seem to do a lot of preserving here, too, judging from the giant wall-o-preserving supplies at every groccery store. But I'm not sure what they're preserving - they don't seem to grow produce here. Maybe we'll be surprised, but Mike thinks people must stock up in the Okanogan every summer, then can it for the winter.

Anyway, I should go. I'm tired and rambling, and have to feed the brood. But I'll be back!

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.