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!

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!

We Interrupt This Regularly Scheduled Blog Lapse...

...to say WHAT THE HECK? Snow. In Vancouver. In March. Did someone wind back the calendar? Because the last I checked we JUST put the clocks forward, which would actually put us one hour closer to Spring!

Ah well, I'm sure the rain will be on its heels and it will all be gone in no time. Maybe.

So I've been very quiet and mostly that is because I haven't had much to say. But one piece of good news: my youngest brother and his wife had a baby boy on February 16th. He came about 6 days early and is absolutely beautiful. I am so happy for them!

Today Hayden and I head to see Dr. Pirani and I am about to ask him something I never thought I would before Hayden turned four. I am going to ask if it is okay for Hayden to stop wearing his brace a few months early. I know! Hayden will be four in about three and a half months, or 101 days if you want to be exact, so it's not like it's a year or something.

We have been having endless problems over the last couple of months with Hayden not being able to take himself to the bathroom in the night because he can't get out of bed with the brace on. And even though we wake him twice a night and at the expense of our backs, lug him to the toilet in his brace, he can still wake up as he is peeing. We also feel the brace is affecting his sleep now. I mean, think about it. At night you tend to swell up from being all warm and cozy. Imagine shoes strapped tight on your feet and think how that might disturb your sleep?

The last visit we had with Dr. Pirani and the more recent visit we had with Lisa (the orthotist), Hayden's feet are showing no sign of relapse.We did have orthotics made for him because of his non-existent arch (you should see them they are so cute!) and those have been fine. He didn't even notice them in his shoes. Lisa pointed out one potential concern that I am going to address with Dr. P today, so we'll see what happens. I'm not going to get my hopes up too high and if the answer is no, then so be it. We only have a few more months anyway. But it would be nice to not have to bring them to Maui with us.

Oh hey! We're going to Maui! On Thursday! Away from the snow! Frankly, all I can think about right now is getting the actual trip out of the way before I can feel relaxed and happy to be in warmer climates. And speaking of that, I had to do the dreaded bathing suit shop. I had heard of a store way in the middle of nowhere that had about 50 different brands of swimsuits. So I rounded up the neighbour and we drove out there yesterday. Thank goodness for Mapquest and GPS is all I can say because it was a long drive. BUT, the store did not disappoint - there were many, many swimsuits! I managed to find a tankini that did not make me look like a sausage and it also has a built-in bra to support the girls, so that was good. My friend managed to find something even cuter. She's quite a bit skinnier than me, so it looked adorable on her. They even had the 2008 models on sale. Did you know that swimsuits are like cars?

I have to say the prices were medium to WTF? Like, for a little filmy cover up skirt, I am not going to pay $50. There is just no way, when I can head to the local fabric store and get a whole yard of the same fabric for $10 or less. But, making an actual swimsuit would be much trickier so I am willing to pay a bit more for that. All in all, a good trip and now I know where it is!

Of course looking out the window and the snow, it feels weird to think I will be wearing a bathing suit in just a few days.

We now return you to your regular programming.

Snow

Snow
It won't be long before we'll all be there with snow
Snow
I want to wash my hands, my face and hair with snow

Snow
I long to clear a path and lift a spade of snow
Snow
Oh, to see a great big man entirely made of snow

Where it's snowing
All winter through
That's where I want to be
Snowball throwing
That's what I'll do
How I'm longing to ski
Through the snow-oh-oh-oh-oh

Last night I went for a walk with my neighbour and friend. It was past 8 o'clock and most people were hunkered down for the evening. It was considerably warmer than the previous two days, evidenced by the fact that it had snowed the better part of the day. Big, fat, fluffy flakes that went on and on. Decorated houses shone brightly and the air was relatively still. It was magical.

I know I often wax poetic about the autumn, but last night was the perfect winter night to be out, enjoying someone's company and enjoying the crisp air. I could have walked on forever, but I'm glad it was only an hour and a half - my legs were quite stiff this morning! I returned to my love and spent a quiet evening with him in our cozy living room.

I felt giddy again this morning as the packed snow crunched and squeaked beneath my boots. I don't know why I love snow so much. I don't care to be out in it much; I used to ski but gave that up ages ago; I don't really like to be cold. I suppose it is because there is just something so cleansing about it. For a brief time the city is covered under a blanket of pure white. And here in this city, one has to take advantage of it because all too soon the wicked rain appears and turns the city back to dismal grey.

Today it is much colder again, but I hear tell we shall be bestowed with more of the lovely white stuff on Sunday. I plan on another walk and the only thing that would make this even better than last night's stroll would be for it to be actually snowing. Crossing my fingers!

A Meme

I got this one from Megg and really liked the idea. Plus it was fun!



Here´s how you do it: type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr search, using only the first page, choose an image, copy and paste each of the URLs into the mosaic maker (3 columns, 4 rows) Make sure you set up an account first because it won't remember your pictures if you do it after.

The questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you attend?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What do you want to be when you grow up?
10.What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Your Flickr name.

Here are the photo credits:
1. Heather in snow, 2. Butter chicken, 3. 1979 - BC, Clinton.jpg, 4. PURPLE HAZE, 5. Dwayne Johnson_1, 6. Typhoo Tea bags, 7. Not available, 8. Vanilla Bean Crème Brûlée, 9. writer's teeth, 10. Reference Mosaic: Creative Commons Textures, 11. Day 68 :: touch, 12. This Moon shines for you...

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.

I Heart Joss Whedon

Just when I begin to despair over the state of television, Joss Whedon pulls through for me again!

Go here, watch this. I'm too lazy to repost it. I have to wait until next year, but it will make the rest of this year worth it! Whee! (P.S. Naturally I knew this show was coming, but hadn't seen anything about it until now.)

By way of an aside, I got a sunburn yesterday - first of the year. It's tradition, ya know.

Sweatin' the Oldies

Hubby and I got a BowFlex recently and I have to say...WE LOVE IT! It's gotta be the coolest thing around to build muscle and endurance. When we first started out, hubby insisted that we work out together so we could sort of be accountability partners. I didn't want to, because I can be very self-conscious about that sort of thing, but I have to say it's been really great spending some quality time together and actually getting some exercise.

Usually hubby goes on the elliptical machine first and then I come out, do some stretching and then we do our little circuit we have worked out. I'm trying to work myself up to the cardio part of the routine because I find it so hard. People just don't understand how I can get so pooped so fast. Literally three minutes on that thing has me gasping for breath...on the lowest speed. Here's a suggestion to see what it is like to be asthmatic and have reduced lung function - breathe through a straw for, like, an hour and see how you feel. Go on! It's FUN! I've had so many people make helpful suggestions on what to do about that, but it is just going to take time for me to slowly build up my cardio function. It could possibly take years.

Anyway, I'm gonna do my best because I like what I've been feeling already in the "things aren't quite so saggy and jiggly" department. Like when I go to hold my abdominal muscles in, they pull in much easier and faster now. I like!

In other news, we finally got the built in vacuum system and I LOVE IT! Vacuuming is so fun now!

Well, that was boring but things have been really busy here. Not so much with the blog fodder, but REAL busy! Next month will be much the same!

Enjoy the sun while it's here!

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:

Okay, Now I'm Mad!

Am I destined to be tortured by Reality Television for the rest of my life? I found out within the last week or so that two of my current favourite shows - jPod and Jericho - have been cancelled. Now Jericho was kind of corny but at least there was some sort of a story line, paranoia and all. jPod was finally a Canadian program that I enjoyed and it took place in my very own city and was based on the same title book by Vancouver's Douglas Coupland. By the way, the book is slightly different but it's pretty funny. The show was hilarious! Thanks CBC for doing that to me, I appreciate it.

By now most of you know that my world revolves around television and as sad as that may sound, it's what generates my creativity. I'm not really a person who goes for a scenic hike and feels inspired to write poetry, but I can watch a quirky scene in a show or movie and think "oooh, that gives me an idea for...." Darnit all anyway!

To me reality t.v. (uh-oh she's off again) is not really reality. I believe that people feel compelled to act differently in situations or put on more emotions or add drama because they are in front of a camera. Ordinary mundane things are made out to be extra sincere, more painful, more exciting and so on. I truly believe there is a producer behind the camera egging people on for the sake of his padded pockets.

And of course, I am not totally immune to it. I still watch ANTM. I've had the sketchy experience of watching Scott Baio humiliate himself and I feel sad for him. Dude: get over yourself and grow up now. Otherwise we will be watching Scott Baio is 78 and Still Trying to Decide What to do With His Life somewhere in the future. Salt 'n'Pepa? For real? Do these has-beens really need the money so badly? How about a regular job? Try being a mail carrier in the rain or something. Oh, wait - celebrities have done that. Never mind.

Anyhoo, hopefully there will be something decent coming up in the new season. Or I'll just keep watching reruns of Law & Order, I guess.

What's new? I got to go away for a couple of days to hang out with my sister. That was nice, way too short and over all too soon. While I was away, Kestrel got her cast off and her elbow is doing quite nicely. I was surprised at how little I missed everyone! Complete sentences and thoughts were a total novelty!

Everything else is the same. Still making blankets and I have to take a bunch more photos to post on the Etsy site. Need to get some things printed up to go with them and order clothing tags for them.

That is all for now.

Update!

Sorry folks, last week was a bit haywire and my computer has also been acting like a dork again. Sometimes I hate technology.

So I took Kestrel out to see Dr. Pirani on Tuesday and we surprisingly didn't have to wait very long. Believe me, I had packed like we were going to be there overnight. But we really only waited a half hour beyond our scheduled time. So the cast technologist Milt showed us in and I gave him the x-ray disc, which he set to work getting to load on the computer. Dr. Pirani came in, I gave him the lowdown including her history with Nursemaid's elbow and once the pictures finally appeared, he walked over to the screen, and immediately said "there's the fracture right there", pointing to the finest dark line you could ever see! In addition to that, he showed me the dark areas around her elbow where a hematoma was forming already to fix the break. So I think the actual break is called "subluxated supracondylar humerus fracture", apparently the most common elbow fracture for kids her age. It's right at the elbow end of the humerus (bone in your upper arm) and likely goes all the way through. Thank goodness we got that and not the exotic break! He told us to keep the cast on and come back next week for further x-rays and a cast change. Big sigh of relief! He was so gentle with Kes and most kind, too. And once again I am awed by his professionalism and knowledge. By the way, the "other"place wasn't even going to be able to see her until the 12th!! WTF?! Um, what if it wasn't fractured, but popped out and was being held in that position for TEN DAYS? I have zero faith in that hospital's orthopaedics department.

So much of the rest of the week was spent controlling my allergies and trying to get Kestrel not to run around like a psycho! She unfortunately fell today while we were out doing a bit of shopping and landed right on the cast. She cried and said it hurt her, but she was fine later. I suspected her knees and other hand hurt worse than the casted arm. Nevertheless, I shall have to mention this at our follow up on Tuesday.

I purchased the game "Guess Who?" for Kes in case we were stuck in waiting room hell, and she's been pretty stoked about playing it. I'd say she gets it right about 75% of the time. The biggest confusion for her comes from the subtle differences in hair colour and also the differences in facial hair. I can remember playing this game when I was a kid and it's been like a trip down memory lane. It's fun to pass on tradition!

I DID finally get down to some sewing and it's been baby blanket bonanza around here! I've finished four more, have five more half sewn and three more cut out. Whooo!

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.

You Know That Day?

You know that day when:

- you wake up feeling like crap for the 37th day this year (wait that's every day this year) and think maybe if you just cut your head off, everything will be ok?
- your five year old daughter wants to argue with you about everything?
- you have an appointment and you don't want to drive to it because the parking in that area is atrocious but once you drop your son off at daycare, it's too late to run back home and get transit, so you park four blocks out of your way and pray you don't have an asthma attack walking to the building in the cold air?
- the appointment is with the ophthalmologist and they stick drops in your eyes to dilate them and then you feel nauseous for the next three hours from it because your eyes are so dilated they aren't filtering anything out?
- you've hurt your neck, but you aren't sure how and you've taken so much pain relief that you fear your liver might shut down?
- but by the time you get to the night, it's so painful that you feel you might die from that anyway, so you pop more pills?
- your teenager calls you from the school trip to Ottawa and sounds so homesick you wish you could slide through the phone to be with her?
- after you've put the kids to bed, unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher and wiped down all the surfaces, you're so tired you want to slip into a coma for real?

That was my day yesterday. Today is a little better. All I seem to do lately is complain, but the fates have conspired to make this my "sick and in pain" year. That being said, I feel that this is my year emotionally and mentally and I am going to try not to let it get me down. Try.

Oh, and on a good note, I sent "something" "somewhere" last week that may or may not earn me a rejection letter. Either way, I hope I hear from them. It will take about 9 weeks before I do, so I'm just going to put it out of my head for now.

AND...my hubby ordered me a little point and shoot camera with his Air Miles, so I can start taking pictures and movies of the kids again, without feeling totally intimidated, so YAY!

P.S. My eyes are very healthy, I just have this little thing on the eyeball that is technically "normal", so I wanted to get it checked out. It's just that when my allergies are bugging me (which is pretty much continuously right now!) I can feel it and it's like I have a grain of sand in my eye.

Slump

Man, I have been in a FUNK for the last few weeks. What with being sick and allergic and irritated and tired, I just have had no energy or motivation to do anything beyond the absolute necessities. I've even fallen short on some of my regular daily activities. I hope February brings a little relief for me before the SPRING allergies kick in. I've been doped out on Benadryl for weeks now. And it sucks. I wake up in the morning with a drug hangover, zero tolerance for the kids and I drag my butt around for hours before the caffeine from my tea kicks in. Not good.

I DID consult with a local mom recently about managing hormones naturally and had a great chat with her. It is her passion and she had loads of information and great suggestions for getting things on track. It all comes down to the adrenal glands and their healthy functioning. I suspect if I can get that on track, I'll feel a whole lot better. Just gotta pick up some reading material and get some tests done first.

Anyhoo, I am still experiencing computer problems where I can no longer turn it off because it takes forever to get it to come back on again, or if it does come on, it freezes and you have to start again. Argh!

On the knitting front, many projects on the go and many planned. I am becoming more and more interested in hand-dyeing some wool and perhaps will even be thinking about spinning one day. But one obsession at a time.

I also met with a girlfriend that I used to work with and she gave me an order for FOUR of my baby blankets! Whooo! Truthfully, I haven't put much time or energy into developing this business, but I should get on that because people are interested in them and seem to really like them. Also, now that I actually have a sewing room, there is no excuse to not be doing them. Other than lack of time. Of course, if I spent less time on Ravelry, that might help!

C'est tout pour maintenant! Au revoir!

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:

Theme Songs

You know when a song just touches you to the core and you can't help but cry every time you hear it? The song "This Woman's Work" by Kate Bush is such a song for me. The words just pull at me and I can't explain why. You can find the song on imeem. You'll need to sign up for free to hear the whole song.

Pray God you can cope.
I stand outside this woman's work,
This woman's world.
Ooh, it's hard on the man,
Now his part is over.
Now starts the craft of the father.

I know you have a little life in you yet.
I know you have a lot of strength left.
I know you have a little life in you yet.
I know you have a lot of strength left.

I should be crying, but I just can't let it show.
I should be hoping, but I can't stop thinking

Of all the things I should've said,
That I never said.
All the things we should've done,
That we never did.
All the things I should've given,
But I didn't.

Oh, darling, make it go,
Make it go away.

Give me these moments back.
Give them back to me.
Give me that little kiss.
Give me your hand.

(I know you have a little life in you yet.
I know you have a lot of strength left.
I know you have a little life in you yet.
I know you have a lot of strength left.)

I should be crying, but I just can't let it show.
I should be hoping, but I can't stop thinking

Of all the things we should've said,
That were never said.
All the things we should've done,
That we never did.
All the things that you needed from me.
All the things that you wanted for me.
All the things that I should've given,
But I didn't.

Oh, darling, make it go away.
Just make it go away now.

Ultimately the song is about birth to me, but at the same time it could be applied to anyone going through a tough time, with the refrain "I know you've got a little life in you yet, I know you've got a lot of strength left". I'm dedicating this song to a special friend of mine. You know who you are.

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):

How Old Am I?

Man, I'm starting to feel 79, not 39! Something dire has happened to my back and it's one of those things where a nerve is being pinched, so everytime I make a move or take a deep breath it grabs. It's painful, but annoying moreso. There's a certain dull pain that I can tolerate, but each time I make specific natural body movements, I find myself suddenly speaking Pirate:

"Argh!"
"Urgh!"
"Har!"
"A-Hoyyyyy!"

My son thinks it is hysterical and no matter how much I try to explain that "Mommy has an owie", he still jumps on me and giggles when I wheeze out air in interesting vocal patterns.

At least it is better today than it was yesterday.

Oh, and it seems to have occurred when I hoisted Ten Ton Tommy out of his crib yesterday morning. Well with all the strikes we've been enduring or hearing about (believe me the writer's strike is way worse in my world than the garbage strike we had), it makes sense that my back would jump on the bandwagon, or at least hobble over to it and gingerly perch there.

I'm off to find appropriate drugs and conk out. 'Night all!

I'm So Bad at This

Inspired by several people, I've been pulling out some old writing and reviewing it for potential movement forward. And...it bites. I have all the ideas in the world and can't seem to translate them to the page. Do I need to take a course or something? I found one piece of work that I had obviously worked pretty hard on as it was up to 46 pages and over 13,000 words, but it was boring as hell. It was intended as kidlit and had I been an eleven year old, I would have burned it. I'm so much better at channeling my creativity into physical gifts that I can give to people. The knitting, for example. I can create things in relatively short order that people like. My baby blankets are another example and it would be nice to get that off the ground one day - that whole business. Hello, web page? (Something I know nothing about) Oh, and in case you're wondering what they're all about, have a look at the one in this picture that I made especially for Hamster Boy.

Okay, you can say it: "awwwwwwwww...!"

The blanket is made with some GORGEOUS Toile de Jouy that I imported from France and some lovely butter yellow terry cloth on the back (which you can't see). To date, it's my favourite blanket for him. I'm not sure he feels quite the same way, but he'll see my side one day! Sadly, the website where I was ordering the fabric has stopped selling it and is strictly a quilting site now. Boo. On the upside, it might mean a little shopping trip to "La Belle Pays", country of my heart, La France! In the meantime, I've got some of the fabric left in a variety of colours, so email me if you are interested!

I received my tiny, tiny knitting needles today that came all the way from England and boy are they tiny!

I can make cards until the cows come home, but can't seem to get coherent sentences onto a page. Argh!

I shall persist, but SOMETHING has to change!

Trivial Pursuit

On the subject of completely trivial topics and your need to know them, I've been wondering for some time what the coins were called that accompanied the Euro. I had never heard anyone refer to them before and, well quite frankly it had been puzzling me off and on. I mean here we have pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, loonies and toonies (which I think should be twonies, but it looks funny) - all ultimately referred to as "cents". The UK has the penny and 2, 5, 10, 20, and 50 pence pieces as well as one and two pound coins (also called, I believe, "quid"). France had the centimes (formerly "sou") and the francs (which could be coin or paper). Uganda has cents and the shilling and it goes on.

Consult the Great Oracle Google.

Apparently they are called "cents" and that includes 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50 cent coins. There are also 1 and 2 Euro coins. Aren't they pretty? They pretty much look like Canadian coins, with the exception of the 2, 20 and 50 cent coins, which we don't have. I have to say that the 2 Euro coins resembles the toonie an awful lot.

So there you have it - completely unsolicited trivia that may or may not be important to you ever.

On a side note, I finally got around to trying the bleach kit my dentist gave me for my teeth two years ago. I couldn't use it for awhile because I was either pregnant or breastfeeding and I admit I was worried that it might taste yucky. That can be a big deterrant for me. BUT...I am VERY pleased with the preliminary results I have to say. My teeth looked considerably whiter this morning. I could make out tiny fracture lines in my teeth though, which was a negative. I'll keep the world aprised ('cuz I know you all care!)