Just Chugging Along

It's been some time since my last update and I find I forget that I even have a blog. With ongoing problems with my back and not being able to sit for long, it created a problem indeed when it came to trying to produce a blog post.

However, the pain is subsiding and I am most grateful!

Basically the update is this: Hayden's feet are still determined to to turn back in and he will require surgery. We are planning to delay it until the Fall and attempt to do as much as possible to possibly avoid it. This involves physio, home exercise and returning to the boots and bar. I'm sad about this but he seems to accept it at this point. However, he forgets what it is like to sleep in the contraption, so we shall see!

Other than that, things are pretty good. We are all finally over this weird respiratory virus we got and it is desperately trying to be Spring in Vancouver!

Update on Hayden

I took Hayden to a follow up appointment on Monday with his orthopaedic surgeon and it has been determined that his feet are relapsing and he will need to go into casts again.

I can't say I am all that surprised because I had my suspicions way back in January when I noticed he was going up onto the toes of his left foot when he ran. At that time I took him in and when Dr. Pirani got him to run, he wouldn't do it! Of course. It was, however, decided then that he has "tibial torsion" in his left leg, which causes the foot to look turned in. The thing that DID surprise me was that his right foot is also relapsing. Didn't see that one coming.

Basically it just gradually got worse and I couldn't put off a visit to the ortho any longer. So sometime in November (hopefully) he will begin a six week course of casting, with them being changed every two weeks.

So what does this mean aside from the back trauma this is going to cause me? Well, his school will have to be notified so they can arrange for help for him. He will likely be in a wheelchair, so I'm not sure how the school will handle it as the school is not even remotely wheelchair accessible - it is 100 years old, after all! But we'll figure it out I suppose. There's a good chance Hayden will sort out how to walk in the casts because lots of kids have done so. But that will take a while for him, I'm guessing.

After the casting, it will be decided whether he needs to go into the boots and bar again (oh boy, don't even get me started on this one) or if he will require a tendon transfer surgery, which will require more casts.

I'll post another update once I have more information!

Makin' Changes

For a good six weeks at least, probably since I last made a post here, I've been doing my very best to exercise at least five times a week. It all started when quite inadvertently I discovered I had some residual diastasis in my abdomen (the separation of muscles that occurs during pregnancy). I had been cuddling in bed with Hayden and went to sit up. As I did so, I had put my hand on my stomach and was horrified when my fingers sank into my middle. Shudder.

After some research, it became evident to me why any exercise I had done over the last few years had really had no impact whatsoever on my midriff. Any abdominal exercise I had done had only served to maintain the diastasis. Yuck.

I found a fabulous book, Lose Your Mummy Tummy, by Julie Tupler. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is pregnant, post-partum or has a diastasis. Julie's exercises are easy to do and all it takes it a little stick-to-itiveness to get back on track. Of course, be sure to consult your doctor ahead of time.

While it took a little less than the six weeks Julie recommends to repair it (mine was pretty minor as it turns out), I kept at it and have just now begun to reintegrate abdominal exercises into my workout routine. The nicest thing about this is that it got the ball rolling and I am now in a place where I enjoy my workout and look forward to it. In fact, I rarely am able to exercise on the weekend and I find I quite miss it.

I started with just fat burning on the elliptical machine. I had decided that since music did nothing to motivate me to exercise that I would try something different. I carted out my Buffy Season Seven and watched those on the portable DVD player while I worked out. And like magic the time flies by and I barely notice the agony of working out, as long as I am watching something high action. From a year ago when we purchaed the elliptical to now (with huge lapses in between because of my cosmetic surgery), where I could only do about 3 minutes on it, I can now easily do 30 and sometimes more. I am not at a super high level but I am proud of myself for doing this much.

Recently in an effort to head off batwing arms at the pass, I have started doing some arm exercises on the BowFlex. Thanks to Laura, who is my go-to person for all sorts of things, she has helped suggest some good ones for me and I hope they work.

I have done some serious self-talk and convinced myself that this will take time, results will not be immediate. I have set a year deadline before I start to freak out. I want to point out that it has been suggested to me in the past by various fitness trainers that once a woman crosses thiry-five, it "becomes twice as hard" to lose weight/tone up, etc. I feel fitness trainers do women a disservice everywhere by sending them this message, because personally I had the "why bother then?" attitude. If it's going to be that much harder, why even start? But the fact that I can do my entire workout without taking Ventolin, have a lot more energy and generally feel healthier speaks in volumes to me. I have also incorporated my own high fibre/high protein style of eating into this and have significantly cut out refined white sugar (candy and pop) and carbs (chips and other starches). That is not to say that I don't eat them ever. A person has to enjoy their life at the same time. But I am cautious to not overdo it and usually I find I don't enjoy the treat as much because of the guilt that goes along with it.

Not all of this has been terrific. As I have fought to strengthen my abdominal muscles, the layer of fat over my stomach has gotten jigglier. This is because my muscles aren't pooching out as much any more (I consciously activate them whenever I can), so nothing is supporting the fat. I was quite dismayed at this until I figured it out, which is why I am still intensely trying to fat burn as much as possible.

Anyway, I'll try and mark my progress here when I think of it, but I have also been limiting my computer and television time. I have been really struggling with a lot of sciatic pain in my right side (chiropractic has done nothing for it) and sitting for extended periods of time only aggravates it.

In other news, Hayden is now able to spell and I believe is just starting to write letters...and he's not even four yet! I went for parent observation at his preschool the other day and he spelled 16 three letter words as I watched! I was mightily impressed and really hope he will be just as avid a reader as the rest of the family. Boys don't always have the same amount of interest in reading as girls do. By the next day, the teachers informed me he was beginning to spell four letter words. Yes!

My beautiful Hannah is graduating from high school and will be off to Concordia University in Montreal in the fall! Gulp! I don't know quite what to think of it. She did get accepted into three universities here as well, so we'll see what happens, but right now Concordia is pretty high on her list. And, um, who doesn't want to go to Montreal? I love it there, so I don't blame her!

Miss Kestrel is reading like a house on fire now. Once she got the basics there was no stopping her! She reads well above her age level and I am so happy abou that. She also has flow when she reads and is not stilted, which indicates to me that she is mastering reading ahead. Yay Kes!

The weather here is fantastic, so I am going to go and enjoy it now!

The Neverending Story...

Oh where to begin? I think this is the stage where most parents of a clubfoot kid start to wear down and the whole idea gets a little thin. But when I think hard enough about that, I realize that we are really not even one third of the way through this, since this will be ongoing until he is 15.

On Saturday morning around 3am, I awake to the sounds of Hayden coming into our room. Since we stopped using the brace three weeks ago, this is not unusual. He can make many visits in a night and is usually returned to his room as he drives me completely batshit crazy in my bed. I can hear him muttering and as I open my eyes I realize I can't see him anywhere. I soon discover he is on the floor crawling and complaining about his foot, "ouch.....my foot....hurts so much..." In my sleep deprived state, I figure his foot has fallen asleep from perhaps sleeping on it funny or some-such and haul him into my bed for a quick cuddle before I take him back.

5am. Repeat. This time I let him come into the bed, so I can maybe get some frickin' sleep and he lasts about an hour before husband and I are wanting to axe murder him. There is much tossing-turning, whispering, pulling and breaking of my hair. Husband takes him back to bed, where he immediately and loudly notifies us he is disgruntled. Heavy on the gruntle.

About half an hour later I hear him again. This time he is trying to go to the bathroom and it is abundantly obvious something is wrong with his foot. I get up to investigate and husband joins me. We take him downstairs to check it out. I thoroughly inspect his foot for......what? I see no bruising, no swelling, so sign of anything amiss. I try to think back to the previous day. No easy task when my brain is still mush. Nope. Nada.

He positively refuses to put any weight on the foot and tells me it hurts when I apply pressure to the bone on the top of the foot (the talus). Now I am concerned. He's been out of the brace for about three weeks and I'm thinking it could be a relapse. Husband and I hem and haw about what to do, but we decide to give it a couple of hours. Fast forward to mid morning and there is no improvement. We decide he needs to go to the hospital. Here's where I break into a cold sweat thinking about the fabulous BC Children's Hospital Emergency (heavy on the sarcasm) department where you are guaranteed a surly triage nurse, a three hour wait minimum in the waiting area and a cesspool of disgusting sick people whose kids only have the flu and should not be there, but insist on touching every toy and surface with their germy, snotty hands. Shudder.

Then I twig on the brilliant idea of taking him to Royal Columbian Hospital Emergency because that's where Dr. Pirani's clinic is and if he ends up needing to see him, then the x-rays and whatever are already there! Inspired! It's about a twenty minute drive compared to the two minute drive, but the highway is clear and it's smooth sailing.

Here's where I put in a plug for one of the best emergency departments I have ever encountered. I arrive and check in with the receptionist in emergency. She takes Hayden's medical number and checks to make sure all of our information is still current. She puts a bracelet on him. We are directed to wait in the designated area and a triage nurse will call us shortly. Hayden has to go to the bathroom, of course so we trudge to the other end of the long hallway because the closest bathroom is being renovated. Naturally they call us while we are doing that, but another mother kindly informs me, so I let the nurse know we are back.

We get called to triage and she takes more detailed medical info, asks what the trouble is and takes Hayden's vitals. Back to the waiting area. This is all in a relatively small zone, so it's not like you are hiking back and forth anywhere. After a few minutes the admitting nurse calls us and she prints out the paperwork and directs us to an area called "the minor treatment waiting area". Now think about this for a minute and bask in the excellence that is order and intelligence. Does it not make sense to separate the heart attacks and amputees from the dog bites and minor spills? Sure does to me!

Once settled in there amongst a few others, a nurse comes in and tells another patient her ultrasound is scheduled for 3:30. What?!?! They give you a time?!?!? What kind of magical efficiency is this? Are demons at play? No, I think that somewhere along the way someone figured out that the primary cause of anxiety in the waiting room of a hospital is the waiting. And the not knowing. It seems about five or ten minutes before the kindly nurse escorts Hayden and I to the paediatric area and we are given a room. Hayden is stoked about the "high up bed" and he is content to read his I Spy books and munch on some snacks while we wait.

Presently a doctor turns up and checks him out and decides an x-ray will be in order. Minutes later an orderly arrives with a wheeled chair which Hayden thinks is awesome and he is wrapped in a blanket for the little journey to radiology. Throw Hayden into a room with three cute, young and female x-ray technicians and what do you think happens? The charm is oozing from his pores! The photos get taken and we're back to the little room. Approximately five minutes or so later, the nurse comes in and informs me that she has asked the doctor to look at the x-rays, which leads me to suspect it is the nurses who keep this system flowing since they are the ones who get yelled at the most.

The doctor returns and informs me that nothing has turned up on the pictures, to just keep an eye on him for the next couple of days and come back if it doesn't improve. So, it's a complete mystery still, but I am so impressed with the fact that we made it in and out of there in one and three quarter hours that I don't care! I have never left a hospital emergency before the three hour mark. Ever. Hayden spends the rest of the day and evening crawling around, or having one of us carry him. Did I mention he's about 45 pounds?

The next morning he manages to put weight on it, but is limping heavily. He's doesn't seem to be in tremendous pain, but it clearly is bothering him. Poor little fella. It would help if we knew what it was. In the meantime I have contacted Dr. Pirani's secretary (who is also a friend) and have told her I am going to have to bring him to the clubfoot clinic on Monday. She says that is fine, but warns me it might be especially nutty there and says I should come closer to the last appointment. This works out fine because husband needs the car and can drop us off on the way.

But for the rest of Sunday, I am scrutinizing Hayden's foot and worrying and wondering. Husband and I are already deciding he has to go back in the brace and a few things actually twig in my mind. First of all, Hayden has had major growth since September. He has grown two sizes in clothing and although his foot size hasn't changed much, I feel it would still affect his Achilles' tendons. I remember that an experienced mom once told me to watch out for the growth spurts because this is a common time for relapse. And now am I just being paranoid, or is his foot actually looking curved after only three weeks out of the brace? Second, I remember that the style of orthopaedic shoes Hayden wears has developed a quick release system to remove the bar from the shoes. We haven't been using it because we still have the old style of shoes that don't work with this system. But since part of our reasoning for taking him out of the brace has been that it is really hard to haul him out of a bottom bunk that has a side rail when he is dead asleep and wearing a dangling contraption from his feet, this would alleviate that issue somewhat. *palm to forehead*

The actual wait time on Monday ends up only being about an hour, which is fabulous. Dr. Pirani checks him all out and asks a bunch of questions about the foot that was bothering him. Hayden performs wonderfully and seems to have no pain at all even though he has still been favouring the foot. Dr. Pirani asks about the bracing and I tell him we did take him out of it but are going to put him back in. I also mention that the foot looks curved to me and his expression says everything. Dr. Pirani is a person that can give you a look and you know exactly what he is thinking. So now I know - the foot is curved slightly and bracing is back in order. Considering I am prepared for the worst, such as casts again, this is okay with me. We still do not have an answer as to what occurred with his foot on Saturday. My best guess is that when he hopped out of bed that morning, he turned it and strained it. One would expect a kid to cry if that happened, but time and again, Hayden has proven he's a tough kid. He will often not cry at tumbles and spills. I'm so used to girls who cry over paper cuts that this is definitely a new experience.

In the meantime, putting his brace back on last night proved to be an exercise in heartbreak. He was devastated. His cry just pierced my heart and I found myself promising him everything under the sun, just to make it ok. We have set up a reward system for him and we'll see how that goes. Around 11:30 he woke up and wanted them off, and the way he asked in such a tearful voice I almost removed them. But he was satisfied with me loosening them slightly and made it the rest of the night. I am happy if he gets ten hours a night in them. I am less than pleased that this will no doubt affect his (and my) sleep pattern again, but for this kid to have straight feet and no surgery I will undergo water torture if I have to.

So for now, back to the drawing board.

Update on Yesterday

Hey, guess what? 4:40 am still feels exactly like 3:40 am when one is disturbed! (mutters..."stupid time change"...mutters)

Well, two posts in two days? I'd better not get your hopes up!

Since it was snowing like a mother trucker yesterday, I decided it would be best if Hayden and I caught rapid transit to the hospital as it goes straight there...if you get the right train. Not having been on the Skytrain in some time, I was merrily riding along and then suddenly realized I was on the bridge over to Surrey in the complete wrong direction of the hospital. Sigh. Get off at first available stop, walk across platform, wait for another train, get on and ride back to previous stop where I should have transferred were I not on the correct train, which I was not.

As that particular stop is not a walk across platform, I had to drag Hayden down a flight of stairs, walk across to the other side, back up another flight of stairs and wait for the next right train. We made it to the hospital about 15 minutes late. No big whoop since we would never have gotten in at that time. That's what I am telling myself. At least, thankfully, the overhead walkway has returned to that stop. They had removed it to put in a building and had erected a steel staircase forcing you to go down about 50 steps and then walk up an excruciatingly steep hill.

Registration was a nightmare. I have never seen it backed up like that before. Where I usually pluck number 5 or 6 from the box, I got number 31 and they were on 23 when I arrived. In fact, it was so busy it took me quite some time to notice the man who was handcuffed and shackled sitting in the corner with his two corrections officers. I wondered why I didn't spot his bright red jumper earlier on? While waiting, I took a peek at the clubfoot clinic waiting room too see how bad it was and it was bad. Basically the waiting area is a hallway and it was full to capacity.

Once we finally got into the waiting zone it was almost 12. Our appointment was for 11. I proceeded to feed Hayden all of the snacks I had brought and ran to the gift shop for some other things. I was too afraid to head over to the Tim Horton's as I kept expecting them to call for us. Turns out, I could have gone there a couple of times because we didn't get called in until 3. Yep, in the afternoon. Let me fast forward this a little bit.

More waiting inside the clinic, doctor comes and shows in two students who he leaves with us for awhile, finally he returns. After examining Hayden's feet, he informs me - to my absolute shock - that Hayden has lost ground since the last visit in July. WHAT??

It turns out that Hayden has lost about 5% of his dorsiflexion on both sides, which is not good. It's not dire either, but it will have to be monitored. (To know what dorsiflexion is, stick a foot out in front of you and point your toes up - you are now dorsiflexed) There were even some changes in his x-rays and that was surprising, too. We haven't changed anything about what we have been doing over the last 8 months, except for very recently he was having the occasional night out of the brace. We can only guess it is because Hayden has grown quite a lot in the last six months. At the beginning of the school year I bought him size 4 pajamas and he could now easily wear a 5, if not a 6.

So here's where we stand. I felt that based on what Dr. Pirani said to me that he was going to release Hayden from the brace in June anyway. The risk of relapse falls only another 5 percent after age 4 and never drops to 0, until they have reached skeletal maturity (age 15). There will always be a risk of relapse for Hayden and what the doctor said was if he is going to relapse, he's going to relapse, whether we take him out of the brace now or in June. He left it in our hands, basically. He also cautioned that taking him out of the brace now would make it harder to put him back in it later. I am okay with this as I am well versed in the machinations of preschoolers and their torture methods. My skin is thick if that ends up being the case.

Now, after I saw him, I had a discussion with Lisa, the orthotist (who I love). She was a little more optomistic and said that she felt Hayden is a 50/50 kid and there is no guarantee that he is going to relapse. She suggested stretches and exercises designed to stretch out the Achilles' tendon, which we will definitely do. Also, running around on the beach in Hawaii will be excellent for him, so maybe we can write this trip off as medical? Har.

Here's the thing. Hayden's feet were terrible at birth. Here is a photo:

We are lucky to have come this far without more complications. If it is the case that he will relapse, I am 100% confident that Dr. Pirani will do everything he can to avoid surgery, as he has already done. He would recast, re-do the tenotomy if necessary and re-brace him before he ever cut open his feet. So, whatever happens, happens. We will do our best to avoid it, but it really is out of our hands.

...snow...Snow...SNOW!

I seem to be the only person in my universe that is getting a kick out of all the snow here. I mean, c'mon people - this only happens once every FORTY YEARS here! Forty years ago I was a newborn and therefore could not appreciate this kind of fantastic weather.

Admittedly, we are not equipped for this type of weather here in Vancouver. We have, what? Six snowplows to service the whole city? And I think I've seen only one of them go by, ONCE. (and it was not on our street) I know you're part of a union, City of V, but hire some folks with their snow blowers or something, m'kay? EVERYONE IS FREAKING OUT!

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't enjoy being OUT in the snow other than to take a nice brisk walk and enjoy the quiet. But I could sit at a window, while it's dark and all the street lamps are on, and watch it for hours. Of course I got immense entertainment from watching the drivers frantically trying to get up the steep main drag by our place the other night. Well, I felt bad for them anyway. What ponders me is why go out? What is so important in their world that they can't stay put? I'd love to be able to read minds and find out.

Several days back Laini Taylor (my favourite author) posted a video of what was going on in Portland. It might have been hilarious had it not been so horrifying! I haven't seen any of that sort of thing here on our street, but many many people have been stuck. We've broken the windshield wipers on our van and have to wait a jillion years for the parts to come in. (aside: Why is that? Why is it that the dealerships NEVER have the piece you need?) My husband is having a stroke that the snow isn't gone yet. I claim he has PTSD from all the years he had to deal with this in Montreal. A kind of snow shellshock, you might say.

In other news, I finally got Hamster Boy the proper boy haircut he needed (photos will follow when I find a camera to take some). It was getting really bushy and long and we hadn't really been giving him proper haircuts yet, more like trims. And then a bunch of our friends came over and two of the boys (age 9-11 range) that came had such long hair they looked like street urchins. It kind of sicked me out. It might have looked better if it was washed or combed, but I decided then and there that Hayden was getting his CHOPPED. And boy is it ever!

On the knitting front, I finally finished a project I started over three years ago and gave up on. After many hours of struggling to complete it, it's done. And I kind of hate it now. I'm not happy with how it turned out at all. Sigh. Waste of yarn. This is why I don't make things for myself. The amount of time and love you pour into it and you could have bought it at Winners for one nth of the price it cost you to make. Bah!

Back to school today! The last couple of days have dragged considerably and Momma needs a break. And what fun thing do I get to do today? Go to the dentist! I have a tooth that's driving me nuts and it has to get fixed NOW. Wheee!

I'm off then.

Heather 4.0

I notice it has been a long time since I last blogged. To be honest, I have developed a love-hate thing with blogging over the last while and hate seems to win out most times. But the last few weeks have been eventful and I felt I should share.

First off, Hamster Boy turned three on the 19th of June. There was no real celebration, but he has deemed it necessary to step up his bad behaviour to acknowledge it. Actually, he has his moments and the best times are when he is alone with me. But we can still butt heads and timeouts are common.

Next, I hit a milestone birthday on the 23rd of June and turned 40 (hence the title). I can't say it feels all that different from 39, except that I feel this decade will be pretty good as it means that ten years from now my kids will be 13, 16 and 27. I think 50 will be even sweeter. Some of my lady friends took me out to make it all official and we had dinner and saw Sex and the City. I enjoyed the movie more than I thought I would.

I had a procedure done at the beginning of June. Well more than a procedure, a cosmetic surgery. I struggled about whether to blog about it or not as it was a fairly personal thing and since I am still technically in the healing process, I think I will delay blogging about it fully. Stay tuned for that.

Sleep, Or the Lack Thereof...

When she doesn't get enough sleep, anywhere will do:


When he doesn't nap, an injection of Spiderman 1 works:

About Time Spring Got Here!

Aside from the hail, that is! This past weekend was wonderful. The sun was shining, the air was sweet with blooming flowers and everyone was happy. The kids were getting along and my sanity stayed intact for once. It was a bit chilly, but a hoodie was almost enough to keep one warm. Life is good.

We FINALLY got flower boxes done up for the wrought iron window boxes on our house. We've had the empty boxes for quite some time and we finally got it done. The plants don't have flowers just yet, but will soon and since our friend who did them forgot to write down what was in them, it's like some sort of surprise party, waiting for them to flower! I'm so excited! And our house will look pretty! As long as I don't kill every last little green thing, that is. I am sadly a plant killer. The only plant that has survived in my house is the beautiful papyrus that was a house-warming gift from our former neighbours and it lives because you HAVE to overwater it. It lives in water. And it just happens to be right by the kitchen sink, where there's water.

The Hamster Boy has been quite a peach lately. And by peach I mean right F**king A**hole. Is it my imagination or is he just downright sophisticated in his backtalk? I am scratching my head. At least he comes back round to Dr. Jekyll once in awhile and demands that I "sit down, Mommy, sit down" - which is code for "I want to fondle your hair". He is growing up so fast now. Sigh. Seems like just yesterday, he was this:

We Interrupt This Message...

So, my happy little glowing post yesterday was brought to an abrupt halt when my five year old was injured by my two and a half year old.

I was talking on the phone when I heard Kes start to cry and say that Hayden hurt her arm. I told her to go sit in the living room and I put him in time out, which he promptly ignored. Anyway, fast forward to about fifteen minutes later when I finally hang up and I go to check on Kestrel and she says in a teary voice "how am I going to dress myself with my arm like this?" I asked her where it was hurting and she pointed to her elbow. I asked her what happened and she told me "Hayden sat on my arm and twisted it". I think "Great. Nursemaid's elbow - AGAIN." I inform hubby and we decide that I should take her to the hospital and he'll hang with Hayden.

Okay. I guesstimated three hours and we were there for three and a half. Now not all of that was waiting, but it was torture nonetheless. There were obvious infectious kids in the waiting area (can't they quarantine them?) and I was squirming in my seat every time a kid hacked or sneezed. Thank goodness they had antiseptic gel everywhere.

So we consulted with the doctor and I explained what happened and that this was, like, the fourth time. He tried to "reduce" it (as they call it) twice and she screamed her head off. I told him that it wouldn't go in the last time either and they had to x-ray, blah-de-blah-de-blah. He decides it should be x-rayed. Back to waiting room, wait some more. Get escorted to x-ray. Wait. Try to console child as she screams her head off for the x-rays (three different positions). They give her a stick-on tattoo and a bendy pencil. Back to waiting room. Get called back into room by another doctor who asks some questions, like "was the arm pulled?" I say no and at this point, Kestrel's story has now changed to "Hayden was twirling around and fell on my arm". He decides since she is kind of old for nursemaid's elbow and that it wasn't pulled that it should be casted. They can't see any fracture on the films, but tell me that doesn't mean it isn't fractured. At the very least, since it hurts so much it will be immobile. Back to waiting room while another kid gets a cast on his foot. I promise her a pink cast and cross my fingers that they have that colour. Previous kid comes out with blue so it looks promising.

Help doctor by holding her arm in position as he applies cast. Bright pink as promised! Then he tells me that he is referring us to the Orthopaedic Department. Giant alarm bell goes off. Brain goes "HELL, NO". In case you are wondering why I will never ever visit the ortho department at BC Children's again, please read this, the clubfoot saga. I leave and immediately spring into action (bit slow on the uptake that girl she is) to get an appointment with our beloved Dr. Pirani.

Most of today was spent obtaining a referral and the x-rays to take with us tomorrow when we see him. So I will be putting aside the sewing yet again to attend to this, but hopefully it can be resolved by the end of tomorrow. Plus, if she needs a different cast, I totally trust the cast technologist there - Milt rocks!

Poor muffin. She woke up crying tonight as she was in pain. We gave her some pain relief and I reassured her that it will be looked after tomorrow. Pray God it is so.

Gearing Up for Spring

The days the drift by in a haze of allergy medicine and itching/sneezing fits, but in between the nose blowing and eye-rubbing, good things happen, too.

My five year old daughter requests that dad buy mom purple tulips (my favourite colour), a sweet gesture.

My son may actually toilet train himself. I am stoked. It's about time one of these kids made things easy for me. This is the same child who weaned himself, mind you - so it should not come as a surprise. My mother has already been off to the store to buy him "big boy underpants". I am going to look for Spiderman ones, too.

And I have been busy! Finally, after four years I feel that my baby blanket business is getting off the ground! I have been cutting and sewing for a couple of weeks, filling orders and producing actual stock. This was my problem in the past. I really could only make them on demand. I had no sewing room and little time to get organized. Now I have the room and more time and I am actually getting things done! In the absence of a website (I'm going to wait a bit until things really start to move, if ever), I have set up an Etsy shop. They can be purchased through the website, or if you are interested and contact me, other arrangements can be made. I definitely take special orders, they just may take a little longer.

Also, to see others I have made either as orders or as gifts, you may view my flickr site. The same ones are there as in the Etsy shop, but others too. Excuse my photography. I find that a lot of the fabric I use reflects light (therefore I cannot use the flash) and am trying to get the perfect spot in my house for taking pictures of them. So far, that is the stairs! I may have to enlist Laura's help!

Just to reiterate, here is what the Hamster Boy's blanket looks like. Hubby thinks that I am not charging enough for them, but unless celebrities start buying them, I'm leaving them as is.

Happy New Year?

Are we already almost halfway through the first month of 2008? Is that possible? The time, she flies!

I recently got my computer back from the hospital - it was down for about a week and half and I can't say all the bugs have been fixed yet. Evidently I fried the mother board and thanks to my bloodhound nose, I quickly turned off the computer when I smelled hot plastic and managed to not lose any of my data. I have a plan in place to back up all of my stuff!

Speaking of bugs, I've been struck by another. Nothing serious and it was unavoidable, since the wee ones have been coughing and sniffling for well over a month. This one is affecting the asthma more and that is a bit of a drag because I end up feeling like a crack addict with all the Ventolin I have to take. Bah! I'm sure I'll recover nicely, though. Lots of indoors for me (oh darn, since I have about a skillion knitting projects I'm working on!) and plenty of Typhoo tea! Oh, and mom brought me back some lovely Australian tea recently. It's very creamy tasting and a nice change. Thanks, Mom!

Speaking of knitting, I've completed several projects lately and am pretty satsified with the results. A hat for each sister and a scarf for the brother-in-law. I am working on something else for my twin that's secret, but I'll post photos when the time is right. All I will say is, I have made my first foray into the world of felting and it went very well! Oh no, another addiction for me to worry about!

Speaking of photos, hubby finally bought a new, state of the art, ultra-fancy, super-de-duper camera. Of course I feel like a complete tard trying to use it. Whatever happened to point and shoot? That's my formula and it has worked well for me for many years. Ah well. Once I figure it out, I'll put photos back on here.

On the Hamster Boy front, Hayden has been a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde lately - I'm just chalking it up to illness and the fact that he is two. most of his nasty behaviour only occurs when his sisters are around, so I get the feeling that he is very possessive of me and doesn't want interference. His language is developing more and more each day, but I still find that he does not talk as much or as clearly as the girls did at this age. That's okay with me as I find I still think of him more as a bay at this point. I want his babyhood to last as long as it can, because all to soon it will be gone. That being said, I visited a friend this week who just had twin boys (she also has two girls). They were brilliantly beautiful and so tiny, even though they had decent birthweights. I held one and thought "nope, not for me anymore"! WOW! Love holding them and cuddling them, but I am so over the sleep deprivation and whatnot.

Anyway, enough of my boring news. There's way more important things going on the world, such as French matchmaking....

Oh, and I went through the pictures archives and found some Hamster Boy sweetness for you:

The Old Boy

So, one thing I forgot to mention in the last post was that when I had Hayden at the doctor, I asked her about his skin. I've had this ongoing battle with it, pretty much since he was born. I thought to begin with that the skin on his legs was bothered because he'd been in casts for so long, but it would appear this is not the only area of his body that bothers him. I've tried every cream in the book, changed to Seventh Generation baby detergent and use only half a sheet of fabric softener, or one that's already been through the dryer once. Believe me, I've been trying my darnedest to deal with this issue because he literally scratches himself to the point of bleeding. He constantly looks like he ran through a bramble bush! I had him checked previously for eczema and the doctor told me it was only contact dermatitis, but this time she agreed that it is indeed a kind of eczema and gave me a prescription for a lotion with cortisone in it. This will be about the nine millionth time he's had to have cortisone on his skin, so I'm thrilled.

Here's the deal. The first time I began applying the lotion I started coughing from the fumes and the smell of it. It smelled like something an old man or woman would wear. Sure enough, there's camphor in it. Ewwwwww! He actually kind of smells like my mother-in-law - I think she has a real fondness for camphor. So my son smells like an old guy now. Delightful! I can only hope it clears up quickly!

P.S. Sensitive skin kind of runs in our family - I tend towards dry skin and hubby sometimes wakes me up scratching. Not a pleasant sound!

Snow Candy

Well, the snow has come and gone here leaving behind no evidence of its visit whatsoever. I guess we can look forward to at least a month of rain now. Nice.

Just before the rain struck and eliminated all of the wonderful white stuff, I scooped a bunch of it up, placed it in the freezer temporarily and then got to work. I melted about two cups of white sugar (that was way too much, by the way), added a little vanilla and then poured it on the snow to harden. The thing with heating white sugar until it melts is that it tends to have this slightly burned flavour to it, but I don't really mind that. Unfortunately, the "candy" also had a tinge of "Vancouver Smog" flavour to it, so I ended up chucking it all out. It was fun, though! The kids had a blast in the snow while it lasted. They got all geared up (I was exhausted by the time they went out the door) and played for quite some time out there. It's nice to see them get some great activity outdoors.

While it was still snowing, I was sitting in the living room and started noticing this odd noise out the front of my house. I thought someone was on the front deck, so I looked out the window and lo and behold! Our neighbour was busy shovelling off our steps! We truly have moved into the twilight zone here! In our old neighbourhood, a scary drug addict came to the door asking for money to shovel our walk. I do give him credit for wanting to actually do something for the money, but I wasn't about to support his disease, so I sent him away. Things like that were a daily occurrence for us there. We can't believe how different it is and how un-stressed we are now. Later our neighbour took Kes along with his daughter (who is in her class) and his son over to toboggan at a nearby park. How much do you love a neighbour like that?

It's been a little while since I posted and I wanted to share something that happened to me. Just over a week ago, I had this very strange "attack" on my system. It was late at night and I had been laying on the couch, drowsing. I'd had a couple of drinks, but was by no means drunk. I got up to go to bed and brushed my teeth, etc. When I rounded the corner to my room I suddenly got this very tight feeling in my chest, couldn't breathe and my arms went numb to my elbows. I instinctually started to breathe slow, deep breaths (one of the times that being asthmatic actually came in handy because I am so practiced at it), found my husband and sat with him for around ten minutes until it began to pass. We thought perhaps it was a physiological event, where I was maybe slightly dehydrated and then standing up to quickly made all the blood rush down from my head. I have fairly low blood pressure and tend to get head rushes all the time when I stand up. While it was happening, I was quite scared and thought the word "ambulance" more than once. It was hard not to panic and took quite a lot of effort to keep my breathing slow, rather than giving in to hyperventilating.

Research showed up a few things. The thing about the internet is it can give you too much information that may or may not be correct. All of the symptoms I had matched the criteria for angina or a heart malfunction as well as a panic attack. I knew it was neither because a) I was not having pain in my heart or on that side, I was only slightly numb and b) the cognitive part was missing for anxiety or panic. I am quite the opposite since hubby and I have been more in love than ever and therefore happy. Laura suggested it was heartburn because she said she had something similar happen to her once. This made some sense to me since I have been having a lot of digestion problems lately. But looking around on the internet did not turn up these symptoms in association with heartburn. Unfortunately, I was so freaked by the event that my anxiety was high for the next few days and I kept feeling like it might happen again. Curse my overactive brain!

I had to see my doctor yesterday to get a flu shot, so I asked her about it. Turns out that Laura was correct. Or at least close. It wasn't heartburn, but in fact an esophageal spasm. Apparently the acid rises suddenly to the esophagus and it seizes up, causing all of the symptoms I had! So the combination of alcohol with a caffeinated/carbonated drink and my current reflux problems made this all happen. Phew! Thanks Dr. Laura! I shall be taking a stronger antacid now to prevent that from ever happening again. Oh, and if that is what a panic attack feels like minus the mental panic? I NEVER want to experience that EVER!

So I got my flu shot and Hamster Boy was due for some vaccinations as well. Or should I say overdue. He's always been behind because of the whole casts on his legs for seven months thing, but we are now officially caught up! I thought that he needed one more vax and was thinking I'd toture him with the chicken pox vax since Kes just got that one too. Ahem. He needed two more shots and our doctor suggested the flu shot as well, so we skipped the chicken pox one for now and I'll get it done sometime before he goes to preschool. The first shot went well and he barely noticed it. The second one he started screaming "owie! owie!" and pummeled our doctor's stomach with his feet (sorry Sylvia!). By the third one he was hysterical and she barely got it in. That one bled because I was trying to control all of his limbs at once and he was kicking so hard that the needle moved sideways slightly. I am so glad he is the last of my kids. Really.
Poor guy is limping today on that leg.

Here's some yumminess:

I Shouldn't Be Blogging Today

I am in the worst mood. My day is hideous so far and it's only just after 8 am. It's probably all the fault of a little someone with the initials P, M and S. I am feeling much like going on a murderous rampage. Hide the axes.

The last week or so has been pretty fine, I guess. Nothing major to report. Actually there are a couple of things. On Monday, November 19th, Kestrel woke up on her fifth birthday and announced that since she was five, she was now going to throw out her "uggies" (soothers). In fact, once we got downstairs, she handed them to me and requested I chuck them out. I complied, expecting immediate regrets, but there were none. In fact, even though she mentioned them a few times over the next day or two, there were no tears, there was no whining and there was no asking for them back (good thing because I did NOT want to go garbage can diving!) She's been promised a pretty special present if she lasts a week, which is tomorrow. I think she is going to make it!

Remember when Hayden smashed his front teeth? About two weeks ago I had looked at the displaced tooth and thought to myself "well, it looks like it's going to stay there". That was okay with me because at least he HAD the tooth. A couple of days ago I was changing his diaper and he was giggling at me for some reason and I realize that the tooth is back where it should be! It is almost exactly back to normal! Yippee!! I was so excited I had to phone my hubby and tell him. Give it up for the human body! We really ARE regenerating miracles aren't we? I guess that was why he'd been so miserable for a few weeks - maybe the tooth was repositioning itself and it was bothering him?

The last bit of news is that I converted Hayden's crib to the toddler bed. This is a bit earlier than I might have done it ordinarily (I wanted to say for Kes, but she never slept in the stupid crib), but I am so fed up with being "paged" to get him out in the morning that I thought I would just make it easier for him and me. We are on day four and each night he has gotten out of the bed about three times and then settled down. Interestingly, when I've put him into it for his nap, he has stayed there?!?! That kid is weird.

I've got several knitting projects on the go right now, but I finished my snowflakes. I think they turned out GREAT! Have a look:


I also made these guys from the Mochimochi Blog. They're blades of grass and I named them after shades of green: Jade, Olive, Fern and Myrtle (if you don't believe me, check Wikipedia):

Hello Again!

Man, I've been a lazy blogger lately. Well, actually a busy one.

First of all, I got totally caught up in a certain project which pleased me to no end. I honestly didn't want it to end, but I was starting to get a tad kooky with the ideas I was dreaming up and I had promised the recipient I was sending it soon. I'm happy to say that Persephone was extremely well received and even earned a little fame. My favourite thing about Persephone? Well, aside from he stunning pink hair and her skull bag, I'd have to say her miniature copy of Blackbringer, complete with the first chapter. I also got a real kick out of knitting the tiny skull, flower for her shirt and the heart tattoo for her behind (see picture below)! I had to use really small knitting needles for those and have been inspired to go even smaller and have ordered some 0.5mm needles from my favourite website in England, called Buttercup Miniatures.

In addition to that, hubby and I managed to get away for five glorious kid-free days to Montreal. It was hubby's 30 year high school reunion and I had a total hoot! (of course I had to ask the DJ at the banquet to make sure he played something for the one 80s child in the room!) We also got in some quality visits with his parents and some close friends of ours. My mother, brave woman that she is, willingly looked after my spawn and naturally they were almost complete angels for her, sleeping in, eating everything she served them (except mysteriously Hayden has gone off potatoes in any form but French fry) and generally behaving. Of course, Mom was happy that the noise level was going to go down in her house and her dogs were even happier to see the back end of Hayden who never stopped following them around! When we arrived to pick the kids up, I got the BEST reception from Hayden. He wouldn't stop hugging me, putting his hands on my face and fondling my hair. And yes, I begrudgingly admit that I missed the hair twiddling. I have to say that I missed him the most out of the three, partly because he is the youngest and has never been away from me for that long and also because the girls are very independent and I knew they would be fine. But I only missed him at brief moments during the trip. When people at the reunion found out this was out first time away from all three kids for more than a day, they asked if I was worried or nervous. I merely informed them that my mother has six children, and no.

Fall is upon us and the trees are turning, the air is cool and it's time to start pulling out the gloves and hats. Probably the umbrellas too, but we won't go there. After twelve weeks of nasty garbage hell, it looks like the sanitation strike might be over with. I think the final vote is tomorrow. It was starting to look like it would go until January, so the city was hyperventilating a lot. Let's hope they can achieve something productive tomorrow, after having turned down TWELVE previous offers!! We're tired of the stench already! (Not to mention the fruit flies)

Here is the promised photo (click on it to get a bigger view)(thanks to Laura for her photography):

Lost in Translation

Both of my daughters began talking at an early age, with first words being around 9 and 10 months respectively. The boy took a lot longer in my opinion, but certainly didn't fall outside "the norm". Right now, his speech is a mixture of gibberish and totally clear statements. He also has some quirky words and phrases that I love and admittedly don't try to change just yet. Gimme a break, he's my last baby and I want to keep him that way! While his slightly older sister (who starts Kindergarten on Tuesday - yahoo!) speaks perfectly clearly, she has some pretty funny replacement words that make me wonder if she just doesn't hear them properly. A couple that I can call to mind right now are:

She calls the fast food restaurant A&W, "Alien and W"
While away in Tofino, she was calling the anemones that we found "sea enemies"

But Hayden has some good ones too. In the mornings, he'll say to me "I want offa shoes on", which means "take off this stupid orthopaedic brace!" He has a plastic toy wolf and donkey and he calls them his "rain-dogs" - occasionally he actually will say "reindeer" - either way it is funny! If he actually uses the word "donkey", he means "doughnut" (it comes out more like "done-key" - but we laugh at the irony of it since he has the above toy. "Mighty Machines" and "medicine" both sound like "my shee-sheen", but with a subtle difference that only I can detect. He calls my mom "Nina" (all the other grands call her "Nanny") and my dad "Gumpa" (all the others call him "Grandad"). He has some pretty normal pronunciations of things, where the letter k is replaced with a t (kitty=titty, Kessie=Tessie), etc.

Every once in awhile he'll surprise me and come out with a sentence that is clear as a bell. For example while we were away, he had to sleep in the same bed as us (it was torture and I don't even want to talk about it) and one morning he head-butted me in the face and said into my ear "MOM WAKE UP, I'M HUNGRY!"

All in all I'd say his speech is right on track and there is only the odd time where he says something that I just cannot translate and he gets very frustrated with me.

In other news, Kestrel starts Kindergarten next week (as mentioned above) and she is pretty stoked. It's the end of another era in my life and also hers. She will now be in the clutches of the school system and everything that I say will have no value against what the teacher says. not that that isn't happening already tho'. I hope things get more normal around here now that school is back on track.

Oh, and we still have a garbage strike on here with no other community services. Nice. I guess it's a good thing that I don't frequent the library and would rather buy books instead!

Blergh.

Still feeling kinda icky today - but my son has been reading me stories. Nothing cuter than when he finishes and says "end end" before closing the book. His current favourite movie is Hoodwinked and I don't understand why except that maybe it's because there is action in every scene. At any rate we watch it up to three times a day here. I can recite it by memory now!

Sigh. I gotta get a life.

Hooo!

Wow - I started this a few days ago and all I got was the title! This'll indicate how grand things have been going lately!

Revelstoke was fun and we stayed at the Canyon Springs Resort where they have "hot springs". That is to say, they pipe the water into a pool from supposed hot springs and then have to reheat it because by the time it makes the journey, it is no longer all that hot. But no matter, the kids LOVED the water and we spent quite a bit of time in it. This required me to suck it up and wear a long t-shirt over my bathing suit to try and hide all of the flaws. I hate the summer.

We bailed a day early. By the fourth day we just decided we'd had enough of "roughing it". We were staying in a cabin that was basically bunks on either side of it with a sink that ran only cold water and a tiny closet that contained a toilet. It was cosy and when the kids went to bed, hubby and I were left outside to battle the mosquitoes. There weren't as many of them as I expected, and we had plenty of repellant but were still bitten nonetheless.

We left around dinner time the night before we were to check out and our son sang "ABCDABC" for about four straight hours until I was wishing I had either a stun gun or a dart gun to make him stop.

The week went by fairly quickly. Daughter One returned from Montreal on her 16th birthday (old enough to drive now, gulp!) and I am having heart palpitations of disbelief that she and I are that old. Thursday I went into my old office to help out as they are having somewhat of a staffing crisis right now. After two years of being away, I was surprised at how much I actually did remember, but other stuff came slowly. I'm not sure how much help I actually was. The ventilation system in the office immediately made me sick and here I am today, still trying to get over it. Bummer.

So there it stands. I'm sorry there is not more Hamster Boy news, but my poor brain is just trying to cope. That's it for now!

Distress

So basically the big bad allergy monster (uh-oh, here she goes again) has laid me flat. I wake up in the morning feeling, congested with a runny nose (how is that possible?), shakey, sickly and dying. I've tried several medicines with little result. I'm ready to cut my head off.

But enough about me. Hamster Boy got his first official haircut on the weekend. I'm so sad about his curls (I saved some), but it was time - it REALLY was time. Poor guy couldn't see!

Before:


After: