Still growing, but not gaining weight

Update from our June 10 visit to health nurse.

They don't even bother to read Chance's numbers off the chart anymore. I was asked (squinty eyed) if he was a picky eater. My paranoid side wants to know "What's that supposed to mean?"

This stair-step growth pattern is typical of Chance. Next time I go in, I bet he'll have gained weight but not grown.

Interesting developments....

If you listened outside our bathroom door a few nights ago, you would have overheard this conversation between Chance and I:

Chance: Dis?
Me: That's your foot! There are your toes! And there are your toenails!
Chance: Dis?
Me: That's your leg! There is your knee! Where are your toes?
Chance: (points) Toes?
Me: Yes, good job! Can you remember where your knee is?
Chance: (points) On? [Knee?] (points to different area) Dis?
Me: Um...that's your....peter.
Chance: Pee pee!
Me: Um...yeah. Your pee pee.
Chance: Pee pee! Pee pee! Pee pee!

I just about died laughing.

________


Another interesting observation in the park today: some kid left a red plastic bucket in the gravel so I gave it to Chance to play with while we were there. He went off into the trees to collect pine cones, came back and I watched him count them. He dumped them out on the ground and then one by one dropped them back in the bucket, each time "numbering them". He even got the right numbers for 1, 2 and 3, then it was something like "vie, six, nine, nine, nine, et, nine, tent, nine". My jaw just about dropped.

Joy

A kid at Chance's day home was diagnosed with some strange skin virus called molluscum contagiosum over the weekend. Chance has a red spot on his knee that looks similar.

1) So, he's got molluscum contagiosum.

2) Maybe it's chicken pox?

OR: maybe he kneeled on something and managed to get a little scab on his knee.

As an additional bonus bit of good news: our camping weekend forecast has deteriorated to light rain and sub freezing temperatures.

Oh, P.S.: Chance is cutting molars again.







Kill me now.

Rainy Weekend

Well we had another rainy Saturday spent indoors today. We are so sick of rain! The forecast is still good for next weekend for our camping trip, that will be so much fun.

The baby robins hatched on Thursday or Friday, Cam peeked over the nest and took some pictures, but we have been leaving them alone since then. Mama Robin is always gone worm hunting, and I was worried that she was leaving them alone too much but today I saw her sitting on the nest, keeping the babies warm.









We baked up a batch of Rhubarb Muffins today, Cam says they are his absolute favorite and Chance seems to like them too. I actually haven't had one yet but I remember them from last time I made them, they are good.

Rhubarb Muffins

2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar

1 egg
1/2 cup melted margarine
1 cup buttermilk (or soured milk)
1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups chopped rhubarb (I picked mine the night before, washed & chopped)



Topping:

1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon melted butter
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
A couple of handfuls of rolled oats


1) combine flour, baking soda, salt & sugar.

2) in another bowl, beat egg, stir in butter, buttermilk & vanilla.

3) make a well in dry ingredients, add egg mixture all at once. Stir until just mixed, then stir in rhubarb.

4) spoon 2/3 full into muffin tin, either greased/sprayed or with paper cups.

5) topping: combine all ingredients and sprinkle a level teaspoonful over each muffin. (I think these would be good without the topping too - better for you anyways. I'd only recommend making enough of this sugary stuff for what you're going to eat fresh out of the oven and then the next day - with the heat/humidity it all melted off within 1 day).

6) bake at 350 deg F for 20 to 25 mins (I baked mine for 25 mins).



We took Chance for a swim at the Y this afternoon and the poor kid was shivering and his lips turned blue, so cut our swim short. Just our luck, the hot tub was shut down for maintenance, but we took an extra long warm shower. Chance kept on asking for "more" each time I turned the water off, poor kid was freezing. We didn't think it was that cool in the pool, but a mom I ran into in the locker room said her son did the same thing when they were in.

So we came home and had a supper of pizza, Chance ate a whole 4" wide by 8" long wedge pizza (his usual portion), with milk and half a muffin for dessert. Maybe only a quarter of a muffin...he squished it pretty good and there were crumbs all over the kitchen.

I learned something today at lunch today -- grating a carrot for your toddler is a good way for him to enjoy raw carrots without them being a choking hazard. But you will be picking up grated carrot for the next 3 days.

Pictures!

Pictures coming later!

Wow, what a busy weekend! While it wasn't hot out like the May Long weekend (30°C), it wasn't pouring rain like last weekend either. Instead we had off and on showers throughout the afternoons, but AM's were good and I even got to dry the laundry on my clothesline, everything smells so good!

We started out on Saturday AM with Cam making muffins for Chance and then going to Home Depot. There, Cam bought a garden shed, and Chance and I stayed in the garden section and bought annuals - wave petunias*, impatiens, pansies, fucias, sweet williams, flowering portulacca, some ivy, there's more, I'm just not sure right now what it was...budget was $50 and spent $70, but that also included a huge bale of peat moss and some potting soil and a bag of basket moisture retainer (helps out to prevent dehydration.)

Chance was great during this shopping trip, I ran out of room in the cart for flowers and had to put some into the upper basket with him, he did not rip out a single leaf or flower. Just touched gently. He also got !! very !! excited when we passed the display of garden fountains. We stopped and he got out and splashed around a bit.

We did not get potatoes at Home Depot. They were out.

We went home, had lunch, and put Chance down for a nap. Cam went right back to Home Depot for a rototiller and potatoes at Canadian Tire, along with some other stuff. He came back with the tiller but was disappointed with the rest of his shopping list. No potatoes. This was a problem, as 60% of our garden is potatoes.

While he was gone, I got down to it mixing soil, filling pots, and planted them. Chance's wagon came in really handy, Grandma and Grandpa Demmans! I planted about 12 pots, whew! Just then Cam came back and we tilled the garden, mixing in the peat and our compost that we made over the course of the winter. The soil looks as best as it ever has! I am really enthusiastic that we will get a better garden out of the extra TLC (tiller, compost, etc.).

Now the garden was planted, but we had only seeds left from last year, and no potato seeds! When Chance woke up we went to the Superstore garden centre and found a few boxes of white potato seeds left. Grabbed those and went home, Chance helped plant the garden for a while and then was content with playing with a couple of onion seeds (the onion set type), chucking them around the garden, loading up his dumptruck with them, etc. Last I saw they were in his sand box....

That was about it for Saturday...sounds busy right?? We ate Chance's favorite meal for dinner - smokies for Mom and Dad, hot dog for him. He can clearly say "hot dog"!! Cam cooked, Chance and I set the patio table outside, it was nice.

Sunday AM we started out by declining a bike ride with friends so that we could get our garden shed constructed. But the first thing we realized we needed was 2X4's for the base. Was hoping to use the leftover 4X6's from the gate construction a few weeks ago but it turned out they were a foot too short! Whoops! Cam took Chance to the closest hardware store, called Totem, and I got the laundry hung up, and was supposed to read the garden shed instructions, but only got to page 2 and then my sister called to confirm our camping site for August long.

Cam and Chance got back, and we got down to it measuring and cutting, and within 10 minutes realized we were ONE 2x4 short. Both Cam and I were kicking ourselves because independently we had thought...."geez, they're only a few bucks, maybe it's worth grabbing an extra one..."! Hindsight is 20-20.

So Cam went back to the store, Chance and I made lunch (he snacked and I made) and then we returned to work 30 minutes later. We worked for about 2 minutes more and then realized that we were getting NOWHERE with Chance -- he wanted into everything!! So we packed up and got groceries, came back and enjoyed lunch, fired Chance off to bed and THEN got to work!

Then the drill ran out of juice. AAAH! We got 90% of the work done and then the battery on the cordless drill ran out. So we put the drill on it's charger and started counting pieces. A few times we thought we were short on shed pieces, giving both of us cold sweats/heart palpatations!! Turned out all OK.

The instructions said the shed takes 1.5 hours max to build, for one person.

We started at 1:30, and still needed to finish some stuff at 4:30 when Chance finally woke up. Usually we like to wake him up by 4:00 but we LET HIM GO yesterday.

So, cleaned up and a good thing too because it started to rain.

Frantically got dinner together while our friends Lynne and Matt were entertained/horrified by our toddler-dodging antics in the kitchen. Burgers, salad, bean salad, etc. was dinner along with some jello for dessert, very gourmet.

Chance ate his weight in bread and burgers and then only ate the whipped cream and berries off his jello. After attempting to steal berries from everyone's jello, he left. He was successful with Mommy's and Daddy's berries. He curled up with Matt on the couch to read a book while we cleaned up. Poor Matt didn't say anything but it was obvious when we finally sat down with them that Chance had pooped. I'm sure they can't wait to have kids.

Chance went to bed, we finished the door on the shed, folded laundry and watched a movie before bed. Was a good, but busy weekend. It should be noted that we did not start any of our days before 8:45 AM, thanks to a strangely sleepy child this weekend. Got so much sleep that I almost felt like I was on a holiday again, you know, except for the garden and shed-construction extravaganza....



* Wave petunias are a story for another blog entry.