One of these days I will stop deleting all the photos with me in them...

"Women are innately self-conscious. This is not a choice; it's a genderwide condition. On a bad day, I look in the mirror and see my ten-pound-heavier alter ego. Her name is Bertha. On a really bad day, Bertha sees her two-hundred-pound-heavier alter ego. Her name is Brian Dennehy." -- Alyssa Milano

Just look at that hair!!

Karin's hair has really grown and now we can do all kinds of fun hairstyles on her. I discovered a great website called Sarah's Bowtique, it is a little business out in BC and I just received my first order from them - one yellow and one lavender bow, similar to the pink one that I bought for Karin at the Calgary Farmer's Market when Karin was only 4 days old. I think I could get addicted...

And so it begins...

When I was a kid, I remember my mom and I spending what seemed like HOURS and HOURS cleaning my room, sorting out toys, etc. I never understood why she would bother. And then I became a mom with a 3 year old.

Height & Weight Update

We had Karin's shots today and she did quite well. Chance accompanied us and he was also very brave and reassuring for Karin. She fell asleep within a few moments of getting her shots, all three of them.

They weighed her and she is now 11 lbs 10 oz (5275 g) and an amazing 60 cm long (23.5 inches)!! She is progressing very well on her growth chart and I'm so proud of my growing babe!

While we were at the public health office I got Chance to step on the scale -- he is weighing in at 36.5 lbs (but he was wearing his new transformers shoes, good luck trying to get them off his feet!).

Chance has had a fever the last 2 days and a runny nose but is dealing well with it. He was not feverish today until bedtime, it is low though, I didn't even dose him with Tylenol as I figure his body is just fighting a bug.

March 18th rolled around quickly...

Karin has really grown!! There is no newborn photo in the chair as I had not thought to do it, but wow, just look how she's filled out!! Her hair is (somewhat) tamer too (on one side, anyways)...

Little Miss Rashy and Flaky

Karin's really broken out in a head-to-toe rash...it's actually just dry chapped skin, Chance developed something similar around the same age. It is worse in her elbows and backs of her knees, as well as under her chin, where the skin rubs. She loves being in her bath, it must feel good on her skin but when we take her out we put a fragrance free kids' formula lotion specifically designed for skin prone to eczema and she just howls, it must sting. We'll try something else, as it obviously causes her pain -- I know that stingy feeling when my hands are dry, I can't imagine what it would feel like if it was my whole body. I am going to wash all her clothes in fragrance free soap, etc. and see if that helps. She is already using gentle baby wash, not even shampoo. We cut out using the lovely baby lotion given to her by her Auntie Rennal...Cam started using it as hand cream for himself and I told him to stop as I was leaking milk every time I caught a whiff of it!

On top of being rashy, she is flaky -- dandruff. I spend the good part of most nursings with a fine tooth comb picking out flakes from her hair, it makes me feel like a mama ape.


Chance also has a rash....but it's self-induced. Carpet burn above his left eyebrow, from tumbling down the last 2 steps as he as heading downstairs to look for a toy car. I half-suspect that he actually fell down on purpose, as he had been scolded for pestering me to find it for him. I ordered him to go downstairs, as I knew he had been playing with his cars down there, and said to go look for himself, I wasn't his slave. Now when he is going down the stairs he always gets a stern reminder to hang on to the railing, unless he wants another face rash.

Condo Fire

A condominium complex in our neighbourhood caught on fire today around noon. Chance's dayhome is about 1 1/2 blocks from the blaze. He is safe, and apparently along with the other children, being entertained by the fire trucks, police cars, helicopters and news vans.

It is a strange feeling to have driven past these condos this morning with Karin, returning from our grocery trip. Half an hour later they were on fire. A neighbour working downtown heard about it and phoned me to let me know she had been in touch with our dayhome (her son goes there too) and that the kids were fine. I hadn't noticed anything, but as soon as I opened the windows the smell of smoke hit me and I could hear several helicopters hovering.

I really feel for the people who have lost their homes today.