Christmas Day

This one is from Santa to Chance!

Special gift from Chance's Ontario Aunties.

Karin's first Christmas - Santa brought her baby sized cereal bars and a toque!

Christmas dress and new haircut.

Chance woke up at 6 AM. He opened his door..."CLICK!" (his door has magnets on it rather than the usual door knobs because he has French doors on his bedroom). He popped his head out into the hallway and listened...no one was awake. So he went back into his bedroom and closed the door... "CLICK!!". 10 minutes later, his curiosity peaked again. "CLICK!.....CLICK!". Another 10 minutes later, he could bear it no more and opened his door again, only this time Cam and I were asleep and didn't hear the "CLICK!" and instead only hear the "thump thump thump thump" of him jumping up and down. I rolled over and poked Cam and said maybe we should just get up, he's doing laps in his bedroom...and then 2 inches from my ear Chance piped up "NO I'm right here! Mom, Santa was here and he left two presents!!" Just about jumped out of my skin!

We made him eat a bowl of Cheerios before tackling his Santa gift and stocking. He was pretty impressed that Santa brought him a Megatron Transformer just like he asked. It kept him busy enough until Karin got up around 9. We got her fed and then got her opening gifts too -- she had a great time ripping paper. Santa brought her a bowling pin set...she spent the whole morning running around the house with a pin in each hand and screaming "OOOOOOO!!!"

We spent most of the day in our jammies. Chance finally had enough somewhere around noon or 1 and got dressed, but I think the rest of us took a few more hours.

THANK YOU everyone for the lovely Christmas gifts and warm wishes.

Everyone seemed to be feeling healthy on Christmas day and that was my highlight. I had been so worried that the kids would come down with the rotten flu that Cam and I had earlier in the week.

We had a ham supper with scalloped potatoes (new food processor sliced 6 spuds in 0.3 seconds) and corn. No room for dessert so the blueberry tarts I made went into the fridge for another night. We stayed up late with Chance and watched his new movie, Toy Story 3.

Merry Christmas to all!

Well, it will be in a few hours here. I still haven't gotten rid of my bad habit of getting up in the night.

This morning Chance and I took Karin for her first haircut. At first we just gave her bangs and trimmed her ends but she looked like she had a mullet, so then we asked to have it all lopped off to be a cute little girlie bob. Photos to come!

We had a very simple Christmas Eve compared to ones in the past, which we have usually had a lobster supper. Tonight Cam and I are recuperating from the flu (touch wood so far the kids haven't caught it) so we stuck with beef barley soup and a tomato salad with balsamic vinegar. Chance and Karin ate well, then Karin demolished an Oreo cookie while Chance hacked into his recently completed gingerbread house. We bathed the kids (Chance showered....a "big" kid thing lately), and then snuggled together on the couch and enjoyed Mickey's Christmas Carol. Karin went to bed at 7:30 or so and we finished the cartoons and then left snacks for Santa and his reindeer. Chance then went to bed at 8:30. We heard him get up once...but he never got out of his bedroom: "Thump. Thump thump thump thump....thump thump thump thump....whump!" He must have remembered 1 step from his door that Santa doesn't come if you're not asleep! Tomorrow is likely going to be an early start as he is VERY excited about opening gifts.

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy Christmas!

5 days of Christmas

I posted a video of Chance on youtube singing his version of the "5 days of Christmas" and included a translation:

Translation:

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me: 5 golden rings, 4 calling birds, 3 french hens, 2 turtledoves and a partridge in a pear tree!!!

I was corrected by a random viewer named Snappy Penguins with the following:

More accurate translation:

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to mmmoorrrghhhh: EURGHHH GOLDEN URGHH, three French hens, three turtle doves, and pah-tree-a-lemon pear TROOOOOOUGHGHGUHAGAWAGAAGAGaaw­ahayyy.......

I stand corrected.

Fuzzy Blanket, I Love You!...and He Shoots, He Scores!

Thank goodness for Karin's fuzzy blue blankie. It has really helped her settle into daycare. She's been there twice now for 7 or more hours each time. Now we just need to convince her to eat her soup at lunch and take her naps and we'll be great. But at least she's not crying!

Chance is learning to skate. Cam is taking him most evenings out to the frozen pond near our house and they spend about an hour practicing. Chance can pick himself up now and manage to shoot a puck into a hockey net (he falls down after though). I am looking forward to watching him on the weekend, up to now I have been at home getting Karin ready for bed.

Also Chance will be in a Christmas play soon. He has lines and apparently has memorized them. He's kept all of this a secret -- so secret that we wouldn't have brought him to the play had his teacher not told me about it (he usually doesn't go on Fridays). When his teacher told me about the play she also gave me a last minute note that there was an Open House at the neighbourhood school for parents and kids who will be going to Kindergarten next year (that's us)!! Registration is January 15th!!!

Karin's first day at daycare...

...didn't go so well. Karin was there for about 1 ½ hours and then they called saying that there was nothing else they could do. Yet, they didn’t give her the comfort items that I packed: blankie & soother (not that she uses the soother usually, but it might have calmed her down). I know they didn’t give them to her because they were exactly in the same spot I left them. The soother was still wrapped in the plastic bag I had it in, it wasn’t wet, and her soft blankie was completely dry. If they gave it to her and she was hysterical it should have been wet and snotty. Also they didn’t let Chance come visit her like they said they would. Chance was disappointed too, he wanted to see Karin on her first day. They didn’t give her a snack even though when I dropped her off (near 10 AM) I said she should be ready for a snack right away, they said they finished “breakfast” (what I would call snack time) at 9:30….they would see what they could do. So they let a hungry, thirsty, scared baby cry for an hour and a half. Now she’s terrified to let me leave her anywhere, including the pool babysitters that she’s been fine with for weeks. We’re not very impressed, and on Monday when she goes back we’re going to sit with them and talk this out because it was a plain old lack of effort, in our opinion. Cam is the one who picked her up (he was home that day, use your vacation days or lose them). I was at the chiropractor. What also irks me is that I can’t have the daycare phoning me at work in a few weeks saying “we can’t calm Karin down, you have to come pick her up”. Just because I’m not working in December doesn’t mean I don’t have things to do – I have all my doctor’s appointments and personal things to do on the days the kids are in daycare! On the bright side: all of the disappointment with the daycare has overshadowed my emotions more or less on the fact that my time at home with Karin and Chance is coming to an end. And those emotions are affecting my decision making skills too. I have been bringing Karin to pick up Chance most evenings so that the place is familar to her. But the last time I did this I got teary on the drive home and started wiping my eyes without thinking. So...I had just been to a daycare and then started touching my eyes without washing my hands first. Pinkeye. Next time I'll smear myself with hand sanitizer before bursting into tears, haha.

10 months old already!

Well....10 1/2 months by now. The 10 month photo was taken on the first shot, all of the rest were crazy: Karin upside down, trying to jump from the rocking chair, covering her face with a puzzle piece. I gave up and called this one good enough. 10 months old and the girl is finally wearing shoes! They're necessary now, otherwise she yanks her socks off. Tights are pretty amusing...she gets frustrated after a while though.

Along with walking spans of about 10 feet like a little gun slinging cowboy...er...cowgirl, Karin's got a few more skills to add to her CV:

*Imitating noises (kissing, buzzing, etc.)

* "Words": Mammammam, ga?, doe doe doe

* Communicates that she wants a drink by flapping arms like a chicken and moaning

* Communicates dislike of weather (cold) by wrinkling nose and whining (don't we all do this??)

* Thinks anything her brother does is hilarious

* Capable of dealing without Mom for 1 hour at the neighbourhood pool babysitters while I either swim laps or do a deep water workout ("floaty class"). Chance is there so I think that helps.

* Starts daycare Dec. 1, 2 days a week (same days as Chance). I'm a wreck, stressed out, worried that she'll absolutely hate it & the professionally trained child minders will corrupt her behaviour leaving us to deal with a holy terror. Pretty much how I felt when Chance was starting daycare.

First Steps!

Karin took her first steps today!! And I was starting to ge worried that I would have to go back to work before it happened!! She was standing holding on to the dustpan while I swept the porch, and then took 4 or 5 very cautious and deliberate steps, grinning at me the whole time. She looked so impressed with herself for about 20 minutes after!!

YAY KARIN! WE ARE SO PROUD OF YOU!!!

Tiny Toons

Good looking kids!

My company had artists that would do cartoons of your kids at the Christmas party. They drew Karin first as she was wiggly, but Chance sat nicely the whole time. I think he was pretty impressed!

Karin's first Birthday Party

Tasty blocks.

Chris the birthday boy and Karin, still trying to figure out that block.


....happy birthday to you....happy birthday to you....



Awesome cake!

Big kids and moms got their choice of eggless vanilla cake or good old chocolate cake. Big brother Matthew (green shirt) did a great job helping his mom bake, decorate and make loot bags for the birthday guests.

Karin and Chris really enjoyed swishing the tissue paper around.

Karin attended her first birthday party this week, I think she had a great time. I know she was at Chance's birthday party but you know, being the birthday boy's sister, she had to be invited, haha. This party was more geared for babies as the birthday boy was turning one year old, I think the pared down version was more enjoyable for her. Chance was also invited and he also had a great time playing with the older brothers of the birthday boy and other guests.

As we were leaving, Chris & Matthew's mom jokingly sobbed "I can't believe this year went by so quickly!!" and I think that really got to me because later that night while doing the dishes, it was me in tears thinking about all that has happened this year. I am going to be a right rotten teary snotty emotional mess come January. Sniff, sniff.

Dear Santa

Snow snow snow

No pictures of this, but we've gotten a good douse of the white stuff. Spent a good portion of the afternoon playing outside with Chance and a neighbour's son who spent the afternoon with us.

I've been going to the pool that is a block and a half from our house on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Chance and Karin go into a little babysitting room they've got set up and I swim laps for about an hour. The first morning Karin got quite upset and so I've learned she can handle that amount of time before freaking out. She did just fine the 2nd time around and today she was just starting to get cranky as I walked into the door. It feels great to get the regular exercise and super convenient. I just wish that I was a stronger swimmer for all my time in the pool....oh well it will be good training for when Cam and I go on vacation in the spring.

We are going with a group of friends to Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. We booked our trip 3 or 4 days before there was a natural gas explosion, which killed 5 Canadians. The news tonight did a poll and asked whether this explosion affects whether people would consider traveling to Playa Del Carmen or not: 43% said no, but 57% said yes. I have mixed feelings.

The resort we have booked at is not a typical beach resort, in that it is actually constructed on a rocky portion of the coast. There is a man-made shallow, protected, sandy lagoon that you can swim in, and this is encouraging for me (I'm a sinker, and slightly prone to panicking in deep water with rocky/weedy bottoms), although I was a bit saddened at the fact that we won't be lazing on lounge chairs staring out at the Caribbean....oh well. Let's face it, if they sent me to the Sahara dessert with no kids and booze, I'd be happy. :P

My first portrait

Chance drew a picture of me, the house, and Grandpa's new boat at playschool. I have some guesses about the others in the picture too. I just howled with laughter and then realized I was crying too because I was touched he had drawn a picture of me!

Playground Drama

We have several parks in the neighbourhood. Chance has names for all of them to tell them apart: the tire swing park, the green park, the dog park, the car park and the merry-go-round park. His favorite being the latter, we frequent this park often. Last night we were out for a walk to said park and bumped into neighbour friends with kids and they decided to join us. They avoided the merry-go-round park (which their kids call the bouncy bridge park) because their smallest one took a spill off one of the playground structures last year. But she is a big girl now, so the merry-go-round/bouncy bridge park is open game now.

Anywhoo...there was a bigger girl there, about 7 or 8 years old, much to Chance's delight. He loves older kids. He is constantly trying to impress them. He had been in the merry-go-round for quite a while with the girl when a second older girl arrived, maybe 6 years old. This girl also wanted to impress the bigger girl and insisted they go faster and faster and faster and then have a contest to see whether anyone could still walk "properly". Meanwhile, Girl #2's dad and I struck up a conversation, he wanted to know how we liked the neighbourhood and whether they should move here. During this conversation, Girl #2 decided it was time to get off and check everyone's walking ability...only she wasn't feeling so good after all that spinning and tossed her cookies next to the see-saw. I felt bad for her, all I had in the stroller were kleenexes and gummi bears. She and her dad left after that.

Rant

I am so mad. We were nearly sideswiped on a busy road in Calgary by a woman with long brown hair in a light grey BMW with a burned out front headlight last night. She was talking her cell phone. When I turned around to get a good look at her, she was picking at her mascara.

I don't know what I'm going to do, but I do know I'm going to do something. Write a letter to the Herald, look into petitions to abolish cell phone use while driving, SOMETHING. This has happened so often to us and people we know. Shame on Alberta for not treating this issue with more respect.

Halloween 2010

What a busy Sunday it was! We had a great birthday party for Chance on Sunday afternoon, he had a lot of friends come & I think everyone had a good time. We played Monster Bingo, Musical Chairs with Halloween music (Monster Mash, Thriller, Ghostbusters, etc.) and bashed in a pinata that Chance and I made over the course of the month of October. We had a Transformer cake (Omega Supreme -- very Eighties, thank you Retro Channel). We ordered pizza for supper and then went trick or treating with Chance, Karin got left behind with Gramma Jo and Grampa Phil. Next year she can go out with the big kids. We teamed up with some neighbours so Spiderman Chance was joined by Buzz Lightyear Landen and Delaney the Monkey. He came home an hour and a half later with 4 pounds of candy. 4 pounds!!!

Pumpkins were carved with a "superhero" theme this year: we had Spiderman, Batman and Ironman (everyone thought it was a Transformer).


We didn't get visited much though, and we were warned of this. Because we live on a busy street, families tend to stay within the centre of the neighbourhood. So we got 11 little "spooks" as my neighbour calls them. The last one was a little tiger that took home the remaining helium balloons from the party.

Everyone waiting for the cake to be cut.

Love this one - he looks happy.


"Mmmmmmm!!"

Chow Time.

Poor Blue Monster - he really got whacked around. Eventually we had to switch to a baseball bat because the play broom wasn't doing enough damage. He was done in by a 22 month old girl (Fred's daughter Pebbles).

Musical chairs. Optimus Prime won the game (the Kitty gave him a run for his money though).

Chance trying out my witch's claws.

The Haul.

Our pumpkins! We had so few visitors that we burned them in the living room -- we might as well enjoy them!!

All decked out for Trick or Treating! I painted his face so that his mask wouldn't get in the way, also I decked him out with reflective tape and bike lights that I got from a cycle shop.

Cowgirl Karin didn't really know what to make of all the action.

Counting down the days...

Chance is getting very excited for Halloween. He decided to wear his Halloween shirt because Karin was wearing hers (which used to belong to him when he was a baby).

9 month roundup

Yep, it's corny but true: babies grow up fast. Taking these monthly update photos has been getting trickier and trickier. You'll note that the latest photo shows the chair covered in drool. This is because our Darling Girl refused to sit still, instead she preferred to climb the back of the rocking chair like a chimpanzee and leaving a slug's trail behind her. Slime bucket.

Other new developments: Karin can stand now. Not only can she pull herself up to standing position using furniture, legs, Chance, etc. but she can freely bring herself up to standing in the middle of the room. And she can pick things up while doing it. A favorite is the diaper wipes box.

Also, she has moved on to finger food. She still has some favorite mushy foods that I am allowed to spoon feed her (butternut squash, oatmeal, etc.) but she LOVES to eat bread, cheese, tomatoes, finely diced chicken and fish, hamburger, pasta, etc. Also we have begun the weaning process. Karin now enjoys a sippy cup of whole milk just like Chance does during meal times and morning snack time. We'll likely be getting rid of the afternoon nursing in the near future and then she will be ready to start daycare in December.

Super trip to Canmore

Great family photo, I'm so glad I remembered my camera!!

Chance enjoying the skateboard action with his little buddies.


Canmore Nordic Centre. Simply amazing sunny day, perfect!


Practicing his photography skills with his "new" camera. Chance inherited my first digital (2 megapixel) camera this year. I paid $600 for it back in 2002. I dropped it somewhere along the line and now it needs masking tape for the battery case to stay shut. But it is simple and small and produces high quality photos.

Chilly girl, runny nosed and rosy cheeked.

We escaped the city last weekend for a mountain getaway. We piled into the car first thing (OK, maybe not FIRST thing in the morning...more like 9ish) and drove out to Canmore. We realized that we forgot Chance's jacket at home when we passed Cochrane, about 1/2 way there. Luckily, we have friends who have three boys. They also have a condo out in Canmore and they were there that weekend and so we were able to borrow a jacket from them. Cam borrowed a jacket too. It was chilly.

We spent the rest of the morning walking around on the paths at the Canmore Nordic Centre and also got to see cross country skiiers using their newly laid snow circuit. Apparently it is the earliest they've ever had it out there. We saw biatheletes shooting, Chance enjoyed that. We stopped to have a snack....but I left it in the car. Chance had to settle for a box of orange juice. We had an amazing pasta lunch at a restaurant called Luna Blue, and Chance and Karin were so well behaved. Karin just sat in the high chair and ate bananas and oatmeal and Chance coloured with the provided pencil crayons until his pizza arrived.

After lunch did some shopping. Cam bought a hat and we got some larger winter boots for Chance. He said this was his favorite part of the day.

Then met up with our friends to watch the local boys practice their moves at the skate board park. There had to have been about 20 boys of various ages ranging from 4 to 20 doing daredevil stunts on bikes, skate boards and scooters. Most were wearing helmets. One kid, who was not wearing a helmet, but was wearing skin tight acid wash white jeans with the bum pulled down to mid-thigh could pull off some pretty amazing moves. Cam and I got the giggles because we couldn't imagine walking in those jeans let alone doing skateboard flips. We were there for nearly an hour and a half and the only words I heard out of Chance's mouth were "Cool!!" and "Whoa." and "How does he do that???".

Take that, Evil Bacteria!!

Chance's ear infection is almost cleared up & the doctor says no more meds!! Yay for no more antibiotics! It's been a month of 2x and 3x a day doses of syrupy, runny, thick, bitter, super-sweet and gritty meds for Chance and he has been a real prince about taking the stuff. So glad that his ears are better!

Another gorgeous day here in Calgary. Took Chance and Karin out for a run in the late afternoon and poor Chance fell asleep in the stroller. Karin snuggled in with him a few times but stayed awake the whole way.

Ear infection 2, Chance 0

The zippy antibiotics weren't zippy enough. On to Biaxin. Just hope c. difficile is not in order for poor Chance's gut. It is gritty and tastes like someone smashed up antacid tablets and put into a warm milk shake. Chance prefers the plunger (syringe) with this one instead of the medicine spoon. LOTS of yogurt going to be eaten last couple of days.

I asked to look in Chance's ear with the funnel thingy. Our doctor obliged. Chance's ear looked more like the picture on the right than the one on the left, yet he is no longer complaining of sore ears (although fights like a caged cat when I produce a Q-tip). Poor guy.

From Wikipedia: "Clarithromycin may cause false positives on urine drug screens for cocaine." So I don't need to send Chance to boot camp rehab if he fails a drug test. Haha.

Busy fall days

We have been doing quite a few projects lately in this house. We started building a pinata for Chance's birthday party. It is the first time I ever built a pinata and the last time I did paper mache I think I was eight years old. It turned out OK, but I have to figure out how to hang the thing without the string ripping a hole in the paper mache. Scarlet has been enjoying the ladder immensely.

"Remember to clean up when you're done!"

We got some gardening done also. A friend didn't want so many lilies in her yard, so I dug them up and hauled them home in the wagon. Karin ate no less than 2 leaves and a handful of dirt during this process.

"But Mom, it's organic!"

Chance and I had a crafty afternoon during Karin's nap after we scoured the neighbourhood for fall leaves. We made birthday invitations with his leafy creations.

Proud soon-to-be-four-year-old.

People say we look alike...

Making good use of those 6 teeth...

Karin loves to eat:

bread cubes

grated cheese

baby cookies

chunks of carrot

chunks of banana

diced tomato

chopped up grapes

"Mom, you've been holding out on me!!"

Only a mother could love this present!

This is the hideous gourd that Chance chose just for me while he and Cam were at the farmer's market. I was speechless.

Ear Infection 1, Chance 0

Well, last week's pesky ear infection was not phased by amoxicillin. Chance woke up last night complaining of a sore ear...actually, sore hands at first, and then he clarified it was his ear that was hurting. At 1:30 in the morning, after his hollering woke up Karin, I admit I was skeptical whether he was telling the truth or just making an excuse for waking up in the night (ie. having lost his blanket and panicking and then saying his ear hurt so that Mom didn't get mad about the screaming baby next door). No fever. I have been impatient with him for the last few days because he hasn't been listening to me when I'm talking. He does it with Cam too. The doctor at the walk in clinic said his ear was quite plugged and eardrums are quite red....reason for (some of his) selective hearing. We were given a prescription for something "zippier" than amoxicillin. I have dubbed him "Pluggy" and have been doing a lot of arm waving to get his attention.

We brought Karin too and had her ears checked for good measure. She has been waking up in the night basically since July when we were on vacation and last few nights has been up to 3 times in a night, wanting to be nursed. And lately she is putting up a royal fuss when done nursing and is placed back in her crib. When the doctor announced her ears were just fine, I looked at her and said "You, Miss, are cut off." The doctor laughed. Karin laughed. I didn't.

Improvement on eczema

Protopic. Exlixir of the gods, if you ask me. The first time I ever heard of Protopic was in a book about a new mom who was losing her marbles due to her colicky eczema-laden child. They had tried everything. And their kid was allergic to anything edible. At one point in the book she lists about 3 things that the kid can eat without going into a full body rash. Poor woman.

My second encounter with Protopic was when Chance had a pretty bad rash on top of his foot. The doctor gave us a sample of Protopic, a tiny tube that looked like toothpaste for a Barbie doll. I was skeptical. How was this tiny eensy bit of cream going to fix my son's raging red oozing foot? It did.

After dealing with Karin's eczema in her elbows for 4 months, I went in and asked for the Protopic. This stuff is Amazing (capital "A"). Tell your friends with rashy kids.

Day Zero. Poor little baby.

24 hours and two applications later.

48 hours and 4 applications later.

Day 4...almost gone!

So now it's about 2 weeks later and there is a small pink spot but it is all healed over and she can be left unsupervised in short sleeves or even shirtless without ripping her skin open with her sharp little fingernails. That's nice.

Cleaning out the stroller...

I was cleaning out the stroller and found a paper stuffed in one of the pockets. It was an interview conducted by Cam with Chance and the Pawsey children while Aimee and I were out running together.

How many kids do you want?
Payton - "One."
Em - "Five. Three girls, two boys."
Chance - "Six. Seven girls, three boys."
Noah - "Ten. Five boys, five girls."

What do you want to be?
Payton - "Dang?"
Em - "I want five babies."
Chance - "Fireman."
Noah - "Policeman."

What would you like to do one day?
Payton - "Dang?"
Em - "Ride an elephant."
Chance - "Turn into a dragon."
Noah - no answer.

What sport do you want to play?
Payton - no answer.
Em - "Ride an elephant."
Chance - "Be a spaceman."
Noah - "Baseball."

New Favorite Photos

It was absolutely gorgeous this weekend and we took full advantage of it. Saturday we walked and ran 11 km and Sunday covered 14 km. Stopped for parks and photo shoots in leaf piles. Next weekend if it is nice would like to tackle walking all the way around the Glenmore Reservoir (15 km).