Saturday, June 4, 2011

May 2011 review

May was a month of transition. 

I dared put away the snow mittens but still got the winter coats out though - this is Canada after all!  We're finally starting to get to go to playgrounds again, much to the kids' delight.  Sarah is a little monkey and generally does all the things Charly does plus is less timid at them.

Federal election - Prime Minister remains, now with more power to hopefully get something accomplished. 

T-Ball started, with me as an assistant coach.  First session was cold. Second one was extremely windy. Third one was nice except for the mosquitoes, and todays' was cancelled due to rain.  Frustrating but otherwise the kids seem to be having a good time, especially playing Tag. Each session Charly started to become less timid.  He has done well hitting the ball off the T, and runs and catches just like any other 4 year old LOL. Decided to get him a glove for his right hand since he said he wanted to throw with his left.  Before playschool he usually coloured and such with his left hand. But now he's been learning to write letters with his right hand... leaving me so confused LOL. At least with Sarah she is clearly right-handed. When I started letting Charly use the iPad, he was so excited.  It didn't take him long to have the thing figured out.  He likes to open Notepad and type the alphabet and numbers, uses the calculator for adding, and loves to surf Utube.

Mom finally went back home.   As much as we will miss having her around, we understand how hard such a long trip has been for her.

Went to a family reunion. Kids went to the playground, adults conversed, and later Jeff read everyone the entire poem of "The Cremation of Sam McGee" which his great uncle used to be able to recite from memory.  We all had a good time!

Put Charly back on his inhaler and Singulair since he still continues to cough at night.  Been almost 2 months since he had his cold and although his lungs are clear, he keeps coughing.  Sarah is now 21 pounds, one more pound to go to hit the weight Charly was at when he was 18 months!

Celebrated my brother's birthday.  Celebrated my friends birthday (We went to a bar, such an extraordinary event for me).

Tried finding Charly new shoes, size 10, but couldn't find any shoes that he liked in his size.  (Found some in June.)  I did find a pair of runners for Sarah - $7 and fits perfectly :) 

Sarah knows her alphabet letters and can sing the Alphabet song.  Charly drilled the song "Chicka-chicka Bang Bang" into our heads by singing it over and over and over.  By the end of May even Sarah was starting to sing it.  I was beginning to go crazy from hearing that same song so much.  Sarah's vocabulary is growing larger all the time.  I put potty training on hold until July when Charly is in summer camp each day and I have more time to devote to my princess ... she generally is able to use the toilet when she has a bare bum but put any clothes on her and she seems to think they are diapers.

Sarah continues to explorer the world.  She "helped" me bake one day ... when I came back from a quick trip to the bathroom I found flour everywhere (see videos).  If Sarah spots an ant she has to stop and watch it, and since ants are everywhere, walks can be very time-consuming. She identifies everything as being a parent (usually Mommy) or a baby. We were very amused one day when she came up stairs to show us her Mommy and Baby dice!

I started taking Reactin around the beginning of May to help my body prepare for allergy season.  with such a late spring, and right at the start when everything was budding the winds blew so strongly that the pollen didn't seem to bother me.  At the end of May the pollen hit me. I spent 1 day adding Benedryl on top of the Reactin, then started taking one 24 hr Reactin in morning and one 24 hr Aerius before bed.  This have worked well enough that I could stop the Benedryl (which makes me so sleepy).  Last year I was on two 24 hr Reactin and max doses of Benedryl.  Much better this year.  I plan to switch to just Aerius once I run out of Reactin since it seems to be doing a better job.  Haven't had itchy eyes this year, amazingly. I can remember springs where I would like on the couch with tea bags/ice on my eyes since they were so swollen and itchy.

Photos: May 2011 photos

Videos:
Sarah and flour #1
Sarah and flour #2
Sarah and flour #3

Thursday, May 5, 2011

April photos and videos

Photos
2011 April

Videos
Sarah gobbling like a turkey, or something!
Sarah finds alphabet letters
Easter morning egg hunt

End of April catch-up

I didn't expect to take this long to get my blog updated, but wow, what a month April has been.

I met with the local ped dietician at the beginning of March. Focusing now on getting rid of formula, and having Sarah try new food (especially legumes). got to keep her fibre up while still maintaining her iron and getting as many calories into her as possible.

That afternoon I ended up taking Charly to the walk-in clinic for his cough. He was coughing so hard that he'd vomit. Yuck. Doc gave us some antibiotics. No improvement over the weekend, back to clinic Tues, doc says we haave to wait for nature to do its work. Frustrating to sit by and do nothing.  My husband has had the same cough for at least 2 months by then so we weren't sure if it was the same and hoped that it wouldnt last as long!

Soccer ending in March. Charly is very proud of his medal he got for participation. I am proud of him for not quitting and doing so well.  Next time we'll need a much better coach though.

Moved Sarah from formula to completely Oat milk. This process had taken about a month to slowly introduce it to her.

Managed to get the kids a babysitter so I could go with my husband to the Womenn's Shelter fundraiser supper & auction.  It was great to have some adult-only time :)

Then I decided it was time to have Sarah drink out of a sippy cup instead of her bottles. At this point she was only getting a bottle before nap and before nap.  The problem was that she'd take juice and water out of a sippy cup, she absolutely refused to take milk out of a sippy cup.  She was a very sad little girl for at least a week and then she finally started to accept life without her bottle (clinging more to blankie though), but continuedd to refuse milk.  Sigh.

Went to a couple kids birthday parties. First one was at the Collicutt in one of the fields with all the balls, sticks, hoops, ride-on toys, etc.  Charly was still coughing but only vomited at little once, just as we were leaving.  Second was at a bowling alley.  Kids had a blast. But I'd never take 2 kids there alone again. Third party was at a swimming pool.  Great variety!

Started to move Sarah into size 24 month clothing. Hard to find clothes that fit Sarah's tiny waist - most are too wide, but she had lots to choose from.  And I moved Charly into size 5 shirts. This was hard because I didn't have many long sleeved size 5 shirts and didn't really want to buy long-sleeved shirts so close to Spring. But I did.

March 22 my grandma passed away.  Although it wasn't much of a surprise considering all the medical problems she'd been having lately, it was still rough.  Next morning I drove to the airport to pick up Mom and her sister.  Drove them to meet up with the other siblings. A couple days later a tiny funeral service was held for close family members.  Charly had started running a fever the night before but with no other symptoms we decided we could still attend that.  Next week took mom and aunty back to the airport. The plan wasthat they would return around April 12 and then there would be a large service for all of Grandma's friends and relatives to attend.  The delay in timing was to let people have time to arrange to be there.

Plans changed a bit when on April 3, my uncle passed away. This is my mom's brother-law. Uncle's death was a shock (stroke).  Back another trip to the airport to pick up Mom.  his funeral service was delayed until April 15, mainly for people traveling so they could attend both Uncle and Grandma's services in the same trip.   Went to the cemetery on the morning of April 15, then to uncle's service.  The next morning was spent packing ...my husband had arranged to host a guy's night on the 15th, like 3 months ahead of this, so I was packing to take the kids elsewhere.  That afternoon travelled to Grandma's service and back to have a sleep over at my in-laws place.  By this point the kids were completely off their schedule, had been eating at McD's too much, and were tired.  I ended up sleeping with both kids - an interesting experience!

During all this Sarah had been growing taller.  By April 11 she was able to reach and turn the doorknob so she practised that new ability lots.  I moved her up to size 6 shoes. Charly was hovering between size 8 and 9. Sarah was becoming more adventurous with food - finally eating sweet bell peppers, apples, cereal with a little milk, etc. 

I had slowly been weening Sarah off her Laxaday. At one point she was up to 15 mL a day, but finally got her down to 5mL.  Increased her benefibre. Overall things have been going well for her, health-wise.  She still needs to gain weight - seems like any calories she consumes she wears off.  And with summer playground coming this isn't going to change.  

And with all of the above going on, there were still playdates, grocery shopping, playschool, etc to keep us busy.  And I decided to start potty-training Sarah.  Well, she made the decision to be just like her big brother, so we began that progress.  She's slowly getting the concept but it is going to take a while before she learns to control her bowels long enough to get to the toilet and to get comfortable using it.  She's too small to push the button to flush the upstairs toilet - so I don't have to worry about her doing bad things to it,. But the downstairs one ... she's already painted the tub brown! 

What else? Had a wonderful visit with my friend Julie; my Dad stopped in one day and fixed our gate (so now the kids definitely can't get out).  My husband's father and wife were back from their wintering in the US. 

Oh, and in April was Easter.  Easter morning Charly was delighted that the Easter bunny had come. He had a grand time unting for the eggs.  Sarah wasn't sure what was really going on, but enjoyed unwrapping all the chocolates.

Time to wrap this up and go wake Sarah up from her nap (I so love nap time) to pick up Charly from playschool.  Will try to post photos and videos tonight.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Winter is over ... maybe!

April has been such a crazy month that I haven't been able to do a proper review of it, and for Feb too. So as soon as I have time, I'll create another posting with all the details of what the kids have been up to.  For now, here are some photos and videos :)

2011 March photos

Videos:
Super Spy - part 1
Super Spy - part 2
Sarah with new drum
Charly's last soccer game
Spring snow

Cute video (nothing to do with the family, just liked it)
Cokie the Penguin

Monday, March 7, 2011

Feb 2011 in Review

February started full of excitement and it didn't stop for the rest of the month - got to love life with two young kids :)

Feb 1 - I took Sarah for allergy (skin) testing in Edmonton. Reconfirmed that she reacts to milk (cow and goat), and to cats, and to eggs. The rest of us react to cats also so that wasn't a surprise, but eggs was. I have had a feeling that there was something that wasn't agreeing with her but had no idea what ... and now I know.
Clarification on these results - this is a milk allergy, not a lactose intolerance. She reacts to the milk's protein, not to the lactose. At least 80% of people who are allergic to cow's milk also react to goats milk. She has shown tolerance to trace amounts in foods, but we are avoiding it has much as possible. Same with eggs. I read a study that suggests if the egg is cooked/baked at high temperatures for a long time then allergic people react much less to it. And if you put one egg in a cake batter, the amount she'll be eating is small enough (and caked long enough) for her to handle. But no scrambled eggs or omelets for for breakfast for her! In baking, eggs can often be replaced by oil, apple sauce, etc so that's what I'm doing when I can.
Since we've know about the milk allergy for a while, she's been on formula until she was two years old (as ped physician recommended). Since then we've slowly started replacing the formula she gets with oat milk (yes the plant). She's doing well on it and I am just using up the last can of formula - yay, no more mixing! I chose oat milk because it has the most calories per ounce over rice and hemp milk, and is fully fortified with vitamins; I'm allergic to almonds so didn't want to keep almond milk in the house, and soy milk research hasn't been conclusive enough for us yet. So oat milk it is! It can be purchased as Safeway.

Swim lessons continued for both kids. this time they were at the Dawe pool, which I think is a better pool for kids their age. Unfortunately it is across the city and isn't salt-water. Both kids enjoy the lessons there. Charly is getting his confidence up in the water and will now jump into the water (a big leap for him, pardon the pun).

Charly has been taking soccer on Saturday mornings, half hour of practice/drills and then a game with one of the other 3 teams. Once Charly started becoming familiar with the place he started to have more fun.

So with playschool, swim lessons, soccer, grocery shopping, Valentine's Day, getting the mail for the grandparents who flew south for a while, playdates, and shoveling snow, the month passed quickly. The weather kept roller coasting on us - changes of 20C weather overnight, both up and down. One day the kids are out helping me chip ice/snow off the driveway, the next they'd have to be so bundled up to protect them from the coldness. Lots of wind, of course, driving the warm air in and then out again.

All this month Jeff has had a nasty cough, and toward the end of the month Charly got it (or something similar) which hasn't been fun for any of us. Often if Charly starts coughing after he drank/eat something, he'd be coughing so much that his stomach would try to empty itself. Ick.

After lots of consideration and discussion, and a tour of the school, we've decided that Charly will go into French-immersion kindergarten in the fall. We have little doubt that he'll be able to handle it and it won't be long before he'll know way more than us! Unfortunately Spanish is not offered in our city so we couldn't choose it.

Photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/snowite73/200102##

Videos:
Kids with chalk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO6JHOQPAo4
Snowballs at Mommy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrmoSNs0k5I
Jello time on Valentine's Day http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJkbse2G8pU
Sarah wants bath http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_EdrRRMFwc
2 year olds sharing (rare moments!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1zzaYGkzVc
Kids playing outside wit shovels http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeJIMoIU-zc

Monday, February 7, 2011

Jan 2011 review

The most exciting thing of January was the weather .... well it wasn't really exciting but definitely mentionable. Once it started to snow, there seemed to be no end to it. For a week and a half we got lots and lots of snow. Of course this was when my husband was away so I got to shovel most of it. The snowbanks kept growing larger and larger, to the point that in some spots I could not add more snow to the pile. I'd push the snow further and further away to where the piles weren't as high. And then when it finally stopped snowing, it got so warm that it all melted. Then it dropped to -37C and then got warmer and snowed. And then got colder, warmer, and so on.

Playschool resumed on Tues & Thurs afternoons for Charly. Then I signed both kids up for swimming lessons at the same time, Wednesdays at 5pm. Charly is showing improvement and is becoming more and more comfortable in the water. Sarah loves the water, but doesn't like lessons where she can't just go play with the ball that she can see other kids playing with across the pool :) And then I signed charly up for soccer on Saturday mornings. The first soccer event he got on the field and just stood and watched everyone else running around him. The 2nd time he joined in the fun of chasing the ball.

Our townhouse had been empty for a few months and in January we finally found a renter for it. So add showing the townhouse, getting final fixings / cleanings done, inspections for new tenant, etc. I had little time to spend around home. But I finally started spending time on genealogy, something that I've always loved to do but has been put on hold for the past 4-5 years. So I have years of info to go through and catch up on - a never ending jigsaw of people, events, and dates.

Photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/snowite73/201101##

Videos:
Charly on sled: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKxpRDkxrLg
Charly with laundry basket: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4WoyG0Zbvs
Daddy's welcome home: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xcmyIuRc8A
Soccer warmup: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HT7zXn5taY
Soccer game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHY1b7-JBDU
Throwing snowballs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX5S9jLmwLw

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Dec 2010 review

Another exciting month. Charly finished another set of swim lessons and participated (err, kind of) in his first Christmas concert. We were all happy that he entered the room with the other kids and didn't hide or anything during the performance.


Took Nana Ellen to the airport so she could return to Ontario and then visited with our Diamond friends. After Christmas they then came and visited our place.


We attended many Christmas functions - a kids' birthday party (14 kids under age 6), staff party (supper out and then back to our house - 24 people was cozy), family get-togethers (so good to see everyone!), spent lots of time shopping for presents, wrapping them, and enjoyed Christmas morning a lot. First one that Charly could anticipate coming - exciting for all of us! Kids got new bath toys, which they loved, along with clothes, DVDs, Charly got a remote control airplane (stays on the ground), and Sarah got a tea set. Plus lots of other items, too numerous to mention!

I hosted Christmas Eve supper at my house for my family (was thrilled that my Grandma could join us). Christmas Day & Boxing Day supper at Jeff's Dad's house. Too bad Jeff was ill (fever) for Dec 24-26. He was better Boxing day so got to enjoy a bit of the festivities. Dug out the Wii again and now that Charly's old enough for it, will likely keep it out.

Had a few adventures with the kids outside when the weather co-operated. Sarah loves it outside, Charly prefers the comforts of being inside, LOL!

Lots of videos this month, since they helped to capture those precious Christmas memories!

Photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/snowite73/201012#

Videos:
Sarah fixing Mommy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZMyEOK4_c4
Xmas concert pt 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c10LTae72TY
Xmas concert pt 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ap3rQjDKll0
kids with wrapping paper roll http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWGK-sFll44
Sarah jumping on couch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LzvFtj8Wzw
Xmas morning 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrjGTira5js
Xmas morning 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NkwonlKyA8 (re-uploaded)
Xmas morning - Diego http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zO2H73O-iM0
Xmas morning - car http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj55PHEyuo0
Xmas morning - keys http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLzaassNlkI
Xmas Day - pushing pan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3XUqEjAwZQ