Birthday Party

We had a small birthday party for Chance on Sunday afternoon. We only had 3 guests, Chance's Auntie Jen and Auntie Lynne and Uncle Drover. It was a pretty simple party...once the helium balloons arrived, we opened gifts. We should have opened the gifts before the balloons, as Chance was in love with the balloons and the gift opening got lost somewhere in his attention span. So we ended up "helping" with the gift bags. After the gifts were opened, we sat down together and sang Happy Birthday to Chance and ate cake. Well, some of us ate cake. Others, who shall remain nameless, because they are only one year old, shamelessly wolfed their cake. He wanted more cake too...but we offered him yogurt, which was not the same as cake. After cake, it was time for a bath, which served two purposes...one: Chance was sticky, two: it helped him calm right down for a nap afterwards.

We kind of had a funny day too because we thought it was Daylight Savings Time, so we spent the day turning the clocks back an hour and trying to acclimatize Chance...stretching out his nap time, giving him lunch a bit later, etc. No wonder he wolfed that cake down, he was just starving!

Birthday Preparations

1. Make carrot cake and chocolate cup cakes on Friday afternoon.
2. Keep Daddy out of cup cakes all night long.
3. Go toy shopping Saturday morning.
4. Wrap presents while Chance sleeps (take toys out of boxes, put them in easy to open bags).
5. Make orange icing for cup cakes while Daddy snoozes.
6. Send Chance and Daddy to grocery store for more icing sugar.
7. Make cream cheese icing while Chance eats his afternoon snack.
8. Dress Chance up in orange clothes to go to pumpkin party after he wakes up.
9. Take cup cakes to party. Allow Daddy to sneak one. Send Daddy to airport to pick up Auntie Jen and Uncle Paul.
9. Return home from pumpkin party and have supper with Auntie Jen and Uncle Paul

Laundry

Snow Day

It snowed overnight and the snow ended up sticking around more or less all day. Our neighbour's kid scraped up every bit of snow from their half of the front lawn to make a snow man.

When we picked up Chance from the day home we noticed chalk drawings all over the sidewalk. Mrs. G took the kids outside for a bit today but not to run around in the park like usual as some kids didn't have appropriate clothes. As in, they didn't have shoes.

So instead of the park the kids drew on her sidewalk and she loaded Chance up in the stroller and they all went for a walk.

She lamented that some parents often forget to dress their kids for the weather and as a result everyone stays indoors for days until the entire group gets winter clothes, boots, hats and toques. She said that if we wanted we could leave his snow suit with her during the week days. We actually have two snow suits (one hand-me-down and one brand new from my sister, she brought it when Chance was a week old). So we will have a day home snow suit (probably the one-piecer, it fits Chance better right now), and the two-piecer we'll keep at the house. Instead of walks to the park in the evenings we'll be taking Chance for toboggan rides soon!

Dinner Date with Ayla

We had a fun weekend after a week of taking Chance to the day home. Saturday was spent wrestling around in the living room and playing "trucks". A breakfast of French toast started the day off right and Chance was an angel and went to sleep without a fuss for his cousin Kristi, who babysitted for us while we went to our monthly potluck dinner with friends. It was an Italian theme and we made a caprese salad with fresh bufala mozzerella and basil from the Farmer's Market (Cam went while Chance and I puttered about the house).
















On Sunday Chance and I got up and had a breakfast of warm porridge and yogurt and fruit. The porridge was a hit. Huge. We also found that it was a great way to practice using a spoon, as it was sticky and stuck to the spoon as Chance swirled the spoon around in his bowl. We will probably only have porridge on weekends though, as it is quite a messy breakfast! Good thing it was laundry day!














In the afternoon Ayla and Greg and Courtney came over for supper. We had apple-stuffed chicken breasts (I did this a few months ago with pork chops, we just adjusted the recipe a bit). They turned out really well, and we ate them with wild rice casserole and green peas. Chance and Ayla ate toast instead of the wild rice. Dessert was hazelnut esspresso and chocolates and chocolate-mint Girl Guide cookies.

The kids got along so well all afternoon and they both ate like champions. The photos are harder to snap now because they are moving around so much. It was really fun to see how much they had changed since the end of August!

The house is quiet...

We laid Chance down for a nap at 2:30...he played in his crib instead. Cam and I laid down too, Cam was snoring instantaneously, I read. Chance settled down at 3:05. I went to sleep then, and woke up at 4. Cam is still sleeping.

First Few Days at Work

Well I am now 2 full days into being a working Mom. I am sharing an office with a geophysicist, but it is only temporary as the office circuitry doesn't allow for adequate power to run a PC and a UNIX machine, so I will be moved in a few weeks to another office. The new office doesn't have a window, and comes along with two room mates. Colour me unimpressed.

The work, however, seems exciting and there is a lot to learn. There will be lots of opportunities for on the job training and perhaps even the possibility of a field trip or two. We will be sure to get established with Chance's morning routine before tackling any challenges though.

So far our mornings are like this: At 6:10 we wake up as a family. Cam showers and I change Chance's diaper and get him dressed, and start breakfast preparations (toaster set up, bananas chopped and cups of milk poured). By this time Cam is done dressing and we switch off, I go take my shower and Cam eats breakfast with Chance. While they are eating and cleaning up, I get myself ready and then wolf down a slice of toast and drink my milk just before heading out the door. We pack Chance's lunch and snacks and formula the night before, so it is as simple as pulling the lunch sack from the fridge. We leave the house at 7:00 and within 3 minutes we are at the day home door, a quick drop off and then we are parked and walking to the C-train platform within an additional 5 minutes. We arrive downtown around 7:35-7:45, depending on speed of train, and Cam has about a 5 minute walk to work and then Dani has another 5 minutes before she arrives at work. We both leave at 4:30 PM and head directly for our respective nearest C-train platforms and take the first train available. This means that sometimes we are on separate trains, but it is a much more efficient way of getting home because we don't have to worry about cramming 2 people onto the same train, it is easier to slip onto the packed trains if you are alone. Also this way if the train breaks down, hopefully at least one person will make it to the parking lot to pick up Chance from the day home. So far it has worked well and we both enjoy being there together to drop off and pick up Chance.

Well it is bed time again, already. The evenings really slip by quickly, with only 2 hours between Chance's bedtime and ours. Tonight he went to sleep a little later than usual, he seemed upset. I think the fact that he is at the day home and not together with me is sinking in, as he seemed quite clingy tonight, and wanted lots of holding and back rubbing before going to bed. We did not over indulge him, though, as we don't want him to get hooked on these methods for going to sleep. He cried for about 10 minutes, the whole time I felt a lot of guilt guilt guilt guilt. I am trying not to dwell on it too much. When Chance was born I felt guilty and over time I came to understand that guilt is not a productive emotion, it is destructive and sucks up energy faster than anything. Right now I need all the energy I've got, so guilt is not an option.

3 hours until showtime...

I'm up in the middle of the night. Again.

6:00 AM will come around soon enough. Time to wake Chance up, feed him breakfast, and drop him off at Mrs. G's. The New Routine.

It will be hard not being there to rub his back when he's sleepy and kiss his owwies when he falls down. I will miss sunny afternoons chasing him around the house, playing hide and go seek. And I think I will miss my naps, cups of tea when I feel like it, curling up with the kitty when Chance is asleep. It will be easy letting someone else change the diapers. I worry that Chance will feel hurt that I am gone from him for 85% of his day.

We are officially done with breastfeeding as of 3 days ago or so. There were no tears for either of us, it was just something that neither one of us wanted to continue doing. After cutting out the morning feedings, it felt strange doing it every 24 hours at bedtime. I can't even remember the last time I nursed him properly, maybe in Regina before we travelled home.

Chance received a parcel on the Greyhound Bus this weekend. It was a pumpkin grown in Meadow Lake, just for him. He was very impressed and tried to pick it up, but I think the pumpkin is heavier than he is! He was satisfied with just rolling it around for a while, until he got distracted and then we sequestered the pumpkin into the basement where it is cool and it will keep until Halloween. Thanks Grampa and Grandma Demmans.
























For supper we ate a ham with scalloped potatoes and glazed carrots. We invited a friend over for dinner, he is a bachelor so a big Sunday meal is always a treat. We were supposed to have Ayla and her parents over, but with Chance and I being sick, we didn't want to risk passing it on to another baby. We postponed to next Sunday. After Cam and I got the kitchen cleaned up, we put a couple of containers of the ham stock to cool on the counter. We put Chance to bed and I started putting his lunch bag together. I reached into the cupboard and BLAMMO! his sippy cup bombed off the shelf and right into the container of stock on the cupboard below. The cupboard doors, the backsplash, the crockpot waiting for tomorrow's meal, the floor, the wall, ME, everything was covered in warm, greasy, gelatinous ham stock. GROSS. The floor is still oily feeling. Cam washed it twice, I mopped with hot water and then with lemon juice. What a dramatic close to the evening.

The festivities side tracked me from checking whether our timer is set correctly, so I have now set it to go off at 6 AM, so will check in the morning whether I remember how to use it to get our slow cooker to go off or not. We have an insane slow cooker. Recipes that say cook for 5 hours on high of 10 hours on low mean cook on low for 4 hours unless you want a hockey puck for dinner . When I was at my sister's house she made the most amazing tender beef (chuck!) roast for dinner in her slow cooker. I got a tougher fattier roast this time. If it turns out the same as it has in the past I might try begging, borrowing or stealing another slow cooker, to see if that makes a difference. Jen pointed out that she used farm beef, not store beef, which is leaner these days. The roasts I have produced from that slow cooker are perfectly fine...it's just the one that Jen served me last week opened my eyes to what we have been missing.

Well, I've killed 20 minutes. I should probably go back to bed.

Healthy Eating with Uncle Paul

In this video, Chance's Uncle Paul is feeding him BBQ potato chips, much to Chance's delight! We decided that Chance would have to wait a while before he could try the Pepsi, though.



Auntie Jen and Uncle Paul stopped overnight (briefly) before heading off on their honeymoon in Mexico, and they brought my camera back to Calgary with them. So there will be a few videos and photos to upload from our trip to Saskatchewan, but for now, I am going to bed.

Filling Out

When I saw Cam changing Chance's diaper the other day, I thought to myself, "he doesn't look so skinny anymore...". After stepping on the doctor's scale to check his weight, now I believe it. Chance has had a huge growth spurt in the last few months!

Along with packing on the pounds, Chance has been busy honing some new skills over the last few weeks:

* Clapping hands on command. Clapping hands spontaneously. Clapping hands when he hears applause on the television or radio.
* Waving bye-bye and hello. He will wave when he hears these words, even if no one is leaving or arriving.
* Giving low-fives. We're working on the high-fives.
* Trying to "wear" grown-up shoes, even if they're backwards.
* Blowing bubbles in the bath water.
* Dunking cookies, potatoes, meat, whatever, into his formula before eating.
* Pulling things behind him. Right now his favorite is the belt from my bath robe. Sometimes he wears it around his shoulders like a boa.
* Playing "I'm gonna get you!".
* "Catching" you by belly flopping on top of you when you are lying on the floor.

Chance got me!

OK, now we're both sick. Somehow, Chance managed to pass on his nasty little parainfluenza virus to me. Maybe it was when he sneezed for the 40th time right in my face? I am going to sleep now, Chance is napping too.

We need a new doctor....

Another disappointing visit with Dr. W. Sometimes I swear that he has no clue what's going on, like I'm just some random woman who walked into his clinic for the first time with her snotty kid.

When I mentioned some of the symptoms that I had talked about with the nurse on the phone, he wasn't too concerned at all. Until I did an impression of how Chance had been breathing. Then he smartened up a bit but didn't really give much information. I also asked for a weight and length check, which he did grudgingly (weight only, on the big scale b/c Chance is so wiggly. Chance is 22 lbs.). The whole time he grumbled that he was in a rush to get away to his walk-in clinic at 5 PM. Chance's appointment was at 4 PM. I was there at 3:55 PM. I woke Chance up early to get there on time. We waited until 4:20 PM.

Some of my other experiences with Dr. W:

* he arrived 45 minutes late for an early morning appointment, claiming that he thought it was Sunday, not Saturday.
* he has written the wrong prescription for me, so when I got to the pharmacist, he gave me an antifungal instead of a corticosteriod. Meanwhile my eczema RAGED until I got the right prescription.
* he has forgotten to bring equipment in specifically required for a visit (Doppler to hear Chance's heartbeat when I was pregnant). Cam had taken time off work to come with me. He made patronizing comments when I shed horomone-crazed tears of disappointment.
* he always admits me to his office, then makes me wait a few minutes while he finishes up the last patient's records. Awkward silence.
* he exclaimed in exasperation, "didn't you think of wearing something else to this appointment???" when I came in to see him about a rash on my calf. I was wearing nylons.
* he always spends the first few minutes of our visit jovially talking about his grand-daughter, who is the same age as Chance. Then he rushes me through our visit.
* normally there has never been a problem with waiting to see Dr. W, until this year when his practice started to expand. Now we can almost always count on a 15-20 minute wait. Not so easy while toting around an active toddler.
* he poked (!!) my throbbing red breast when I had mastitis and wrote me a prescription for a topical ointment. When I came back 5 days later and the red patch had spread to 4 times its original size, he wrote me a prescription for the wrong kind of antibiotic. I had to wait 2 weeks to get into the Calgary Breastfeeding Clinic to get a proper antibiotic.


I think I'm going to start looking for a new physician.

Croup

Chance is feeling yucky. He came down with a runny nose yesterday and he has progressed to a croupy cough. He was up at least six times between 8 and 10 PM last night, and then up again at midnight and 2:30 AM. He slept from 2:30 until 8 AM, but Cam heard him around 6, wheezing. The nurse that I phoned this morning called that "stridor". It is scary to listen to him breathing like that.

I have an appointment with our doctor at 4 PM. We will do his normal 12-month check up too, so I will get an updated weight and length. On the bathroom scale, he is getting close to the 22-lb. mark now, so it will be interesting to see what the doctor's scale says. When Chance is 12 months old and 22 lbs we can turn him around to face the front in the car seat.

Home Sweet Home 3

I forgot my right arm in Moosomin, Saskatchewan. At least that's how I feel, because I left my camera at my sister's house! She will bring it to us on Friday, she is sleeping overnight before her honeymoon in Mexico.

We arrived home from our Saskatchewan trip yesterday at 12:30. We had a family lunch of vegetable soup and toast, then Chance played while we unpacked. By the time 2 PM had rolled around both Chance and I needed a nap. We slept until 4 PM, then I went to get some groceries and Cam and Chance stayed home.

Even though there is no time difference between Alberta and Saskatchewan right now, I felt jet lagged after our trip. Maybe it was just a busy 2 weeks, who knows. I didn't feel "normal" until supper time. We pulled one of our freezer meals out for dinner, easy-peasy.

Chance's diarrhea is better, it lasted about a week. Not sure if it was Regina tap water in his formula that did it, or maybe just a bug, or teething (not really sure of this one, as there are no new teeth). Anyways, we tried switching him to bottled water and gave him the BRATY diet: lots of bananas, rice, applesauce, toast, and probiotics (yogurt with acidophilus bacteria). I read on-line that temporarily switching to soy based formula can reduce the number of days when babies get the runs, so we did that too. It didn't make the diarrhea worse....

Cameron had a run-in with an edge on the dryer door somehow and ripped about 50% of his pinky fingernail off. He says it doesn't hurt but it sure looks painful! We steri-stripped the nail in place (it is still hanging on by a thread), and then covered it with a band aid. We'll be putting on lots of polysporin to help with infection. :( I bought him 100 latex gloves today for showering. Hopefully his nail grows back quickly, we'll have to up his calcium and feed him lots of jello.

Chance and I went to the passport office twice today, trying to get our passports reissued (they expire at the end of October). Chance wore his brand new green Roughriders sweatshirt over his T-shirt. The first time we went to the passport office was at 9 AM, and there was a line wrapped around the building. So we just continued on to the grocery store, I thought maybe there was a back log of people lined up early in the morning. We went again at 12:30. The line was shorter, but still there. I asked the people at the front of the line how long they had been waiting. They said an hour and a half. Jeepers! Maybe we will try going at 8 AM tomorrow...I'll bring Chance's breakfast in a brown bag and feed him while we're in line!

Chance has been sleeping for a while now, supper is on the go (stuffed peppers bubbling away on the stove). Cam's coming home at 5 and I'm going to the YMCA for a spin class, it will be the last one I go to at this location as I will be going to the downtown Y during my lunch breaks while I am working.

Wedding Day

Chance woke up at 6:15, a nice change. The Big Day has finally arrived, and Auntie Jen and Uncle Paul are getting married today!

Currently we are hanging out in the office which has been acting as Chance's bedroom this week. Chance is running around in his PJ's and we are feeding him crackers and water to hold off the breakfast tummy.

Very Cranky

Both of us.

Up at 5 AM.