Peonies

Probably my favourite flower in the garden.  Too bad they don't last longer.  When we bought our house we were lucky enough to inherit 4 different peony varieties.  I'm going to try to get photos of all of them eventually, for now, here is our most prolific. 

We have 2 "bushes" of these, each with dozens of blooms.

I'm waiting for my fuschia one to bloom.  The ants are at work.  What are they doing anyway?

Here's a little bit of peony envy.  Aren't these gorgeous?

Kira at 17 months

Wow, my baby is growing up fast.  It's not that 17 months is so big.

As my friend recently said, "children don't reach developmental milestones in a gentle daily progression, but in a lurching, daredevil approach filled with moments of sparkling brilliance."  That's Kira.  I think because I was sick for a few weeks, I didn't notice, but suddenly she's speaking in mumbled sentences, jumping, running, cleaning up, bossing Puck around, "reading" books, saying "ABCD", preferring to get in and out of her carseat by herself. She's a independent dynamo.

Her eating behaviour has drastically changed.  My "baby" now refuses to drink from baby cups, but needs to use a big glass with no lid.  She does really well and doesn't spill much at all.  She is amazing at using her cutlery too.  See her eating cake at Grandma's:

She just doesn't seem like a 17 month old, but more like a 2 1/2 year old.  Or at least her tantrums seem that way.

I feel sort of sad, like we missed out on her "toddlerhood" and went straight to pre-schooler.  I guess we'd better start thinking about whether we will be having a fifth baby, and hopefully that one won't be in such a hurry to grow up.

Oh no! Look at what the vet did to my dog...

This is how he has been lying for about 15 minutes, about 2 minutes after I took the picture he fell asleep.  He had his rabies vaccines and he was a big suck the whole ride home, except for when the lady at Wendy's told him how handsome he was.  He was bouncing in his seat for that.  Can I just say that the new all-in-one flea/heartworm/parasite medications ROCK!  They multi-task, just like mommies do.   I remember when I had Maddie and George and I used to have to SPRAY with flea spray, give heartworm pills AND do fecal tests and give more pills for worms.   

Lacrosse is a tough sport!

I told Damon that some internet friends wanted to know what he wore for Lacrosse.  He was thrilled to model his gear!  Here he is about to leave for his game.

Hockey shoulder pads with the black kidney pads underneath.

Arm pads with arm shields over top.

I love the serious look.  LOL  He was so putting that on for show.

A bad day at the track

But I feel like I got some good pictures anyway.  Here is Patrick racing agains kids who range up to age 14.  He's 9.  No wonder he got elbowed in the face at the start.  His head is as high as their elbows.  Even though he wasn't happy with his finish, I am still proud that he beat some of those big kids.
Sizing up the competition.  I love this picture.

The word of the day is...

D I C K W A D


Yes you heard me. I was driving Patrick’s friend home because it was raining and there was a lot of traffic in front of us, so Damon says, “Hey Dickwad, move it” to the cars in front of us.

Me: Damon, we don’t talk that way.
Damon: Okay Mommy.
Patrick: ACTUALLY, I’ve heard Daddy say that before.
Me: It’s still rude and Daddy gets in trouble for saying it too.
Damon: Bob (FIL) says it.
Me: No he would NEVER.
Damon: Yes he does, when he yells at the cars.
Me: No he says "stupid old goat" and "you you you stupidhead"...
Patrick: Yeah Damon, THAT is Bob. And Mommy, don't forget he says "you old biscuit".
Me: That's right Patrick.

Just now, Campbell was helping Kira ride on her little car and he yells out “Hey Dickwad” to the phantom traffic.

Nice.

Getting by

It has been a slow recovery. Thanks for all the get well wishes. I think they must be working.

I've been trying to watch more tv in bed. Here I'm trying to watch Crash Test Mommy, but Puck's big head gets in the way.


To add to my stress, I was trying to tackle Mount Washmore on Sunday night and a sock got stuck in the drain and we had a flood. Second floor laundry room flood, BAD. It flooded the laundry room floor, the family room floor and down onto the kitchen below. UGH. The worst part is that it got into the cat litter box! EWWWWWWWW. So I cleaned up what I needed to. I still have to wash the floor in the laundry room, but that can wait until I'm 100%.

Monday afternoon, I noticed that my phone isn't working. I can dial out, but nobody can dial in. Annoying. I try a few times to get through to the phone company. Finally I talk to a lady who tells me that due to a strike, it may take a week before somebody can fix my line. In the meantime they forward all my calls to my cellphone. As in the one that charges me by the minute. I want to get my calls, so I just bear with it.

On Wednesday, a man shows up to fix our line. He looks at our wires outside and the first thing he asks me is if there is a jack attached to the wire that goes up to the back of the house and could there be any damage to that jack because it seems to be shorted out. Umm, yeah there is an outlet in the laundry room...uhh a flood...oh my, yes, yes. Well, it will be an extra charge of $85 for him to come into my house and disconnect that outlet. I think that I can manage a screwdriver thanks.

I saw my hairstylist on Thursday. I am embarrassed to say that it had been 10 months since I last had him do my hair. 10 months! It was in awful shape. He cut off 5 inches and had his girls straighten it. The man is a miracle worker. I have the thickest, frizziest hair in the world and he makes it seem smooth and silky and manageable. He wants me to come back next week for another complimentary straightening. Cool.



I saw the doctor on Friday. I'm doing much better, but she reminded me that it takes 4-6 weeks to get over pneumonia and that I still needed to take it easy. I am not able to overdo things without suffering for it with fatigue, body aches and nausea. Kira started breastfeeding again and she seems greatly relieved.


I had a pedicure today. I had to postpone it when I was sick. Not crazy about the colour of my toes, but it is nice to have human feet again.

Oh but it's GOOD for the planet hunny.

My husband went golfing and on the way home he almost picked up one of these Volvo XC90 V8.

He's seriously considering it anyway. BIL can get us a good deal. In the meantime, I'll keep driving my 6 year old Dodge van into the ground.

Anybody need a bed?

So at the auction yesterday, Matt bought a new bed set for us and for Kira. It was a great deal for $200. Only problem is trying to find places to put the other 41 bed sets that came with them. Yeah, my husband went out and bought 43 beds (a mix of doubles/queens/kings). So he managed to sell 5 of them to his fellow bidders for $20 each. But that still leaves us with a LOT of beds. He didn't know what to do, so today I called The Good Shepherd Centres in hopes that they can put them to good use, either in their shelters or to give to women who are starting a new life and moving into second stage housing. They seem interested, I just have to wait to hear if they can manage to pick them up by Tuesday evening.

Kira seems to be okay. She never started a fever or vomitted. She still has loose stool and it continues to cause a rash, but I think it is just the lack of breastmilk. She takes particular pleasure in kicking Matt and I in bed. She is mad at us because there are no more boobies so she kicks our heads. She does it hard too! I'm going to end up with a black eye before this week is through.

I'm still feeling pretty weak and tired today, but I am breathing better. I am improving more slowly than I had hoped. I expected that after 48 hours on antibiotics I would be feeling almost normal. I forgot what a long recovery pneumonia can be. Now I'm flashing back to 11 years ago when I had it the first time. A month later, I was still having sweats (day and night). I think it took me about 2 or 3 months to get back to full strength. And that was when I was 23, 20 lbs lighter, pre-asthma diagnosis and without kids! Oh yeah and I didn't have a house to tidy up! A week without anybody taking care of things has left my house and yard in shambles! This sickness has cost me months.

Out of the frying pan into the fire

Bad development. Now Kira is getting sick. She has had loose bowel movements, but this morning, she had the foulest smelling diaper ever. I haven't smelled anything but the awful smells inside my own head for almost 2 weeks now and it was knocking my socks off. It made me think of Kathy D's discussions about the smell of Rotavirus. I'm not assuming yet, because she has had a terrible dietary change. She has refused to try the formula, or milk. She prefers to sip on bottled water. And she has been very clingy and lethargic, which I have to say works out kind of nicely for me. I'm trying to get her to eat something. I think she is starting a fever because she feels almost as hot as me. I'll take her temperature after lunch.

Where is my husband do you ask? Oh, well, there was this really cool old hotel, and they are auctioning off the contents, and you know it's a moment in history. So much of a moment in history that he came back and picked up Patrick and took him too! DUH that was my lifeline here. I'm married to a child, my mistake, if I think of it that way, I can understand the egocentrism and not murder him. For now.

I went to the doctors on Friday. Thursday was pretty bad so I booked an appointment. My back was hurting whenever I coughed and I was losing my voice. Friday I woke up feeling worse, feverish, headachey, disoriented and I couldn’t even cough anymore. She listened to my chest and said, “Oh, Adri, this is bad, you have fluid all through your lungs now.” I asked her to check my tonsils because I was feeling some swelling there and she said that was because my larynx was infected now too. She said I had to take antibiotics and the only kind she could give me was toxic through breastmilk, so I would need to wean Kira. I begged her to try one I had already had an allergic reaction to that was safe during breastfeeding. I said, well you know the reaction I had with that one wasn’t so bad, let’s try that. Nope, apparently that doesn’t treat lung infections. She reminded me that if we waited any longer I would need hospitalization. OMG, I burst out crying. You are telling me that I have to wean my baby when I am feeling this shitty? Kira is not a delicate little thing. She’s a beast, and I was literally afraid of saying no to her in my time of weakness.

So I got my antibiotics, picked up my kids and came home. I hit the bed and I thought I was going to die. My mother called me and I told her that if the drugs did not work by morning, I would be going to the hospital, could she drive. I was drowning, there was no more room left in my lungs for air. Thankfully, I was able to cough a bit on Saturday, but I’m still pretty bad. I'm not eating much even when I try because everything tastes like vomit. Tonight I actually had to throw out 1/2 my bowl of ice cream. My boobs are KILLING now.

My kids have been pretty good to me. Even Kira. She isn't happy about our new arrangement, but she seems to have accepted it. She cries herself to sleep in my bed, but doesn't ask for the boobies. My husband is still an asshole, I don’t even want to tell you the bonehead things he has done. I have decided not to fight with him about it until I have gotten my full strength back. Then he’d better start sleeping with one eye open.

I had to miss my high school reunion, but before I left for the doctor's on Friday, I made sure to remind my girlfriends who were going to say 'hi' for me and to let everybody know how youthful/thin/successful/rich I am these days. And I didn't even have to diet!

Just what are the British teaching their schoolchildren?!

The Sun Online - News: Meet the kid sisters: "Moaning mum Julie last night insisted their school was to blame for them getting pregnant." Did she really say that? WTF?

I should have just listened to that inner-voice and stayed home and rested. By the time I left to come home, my eyes were burning into my brain (and all the other good stuff that comes with high fevers)and when I got home, I took my temperature and it was at 104 F.

At first the doctor wanted to treat me for a bacterial infection but when she remembered all my drug allergies and I told her that antibiotics scared me now, she decided to send me for a chest x-ray instead. It showed that my lungs were clear, so instead she is treating it like viral bronchitis and doubling up on my inhaled steroids and doing the rest and fluids thing.

Oh and instead of chasing her, I kept Kira in a stroller and let her scream. It was fun.

You know you're a burnt-out mom when...

you go 4 days with a fever, wheezing and cough, and then consider not seeing a doctor because the thought of dealing with your 5 year old and your 16 month old in a crowded waiting room is a worse fate than suffering at home with pneumonia.

Breakfast in bed

well actually, I'm getting EVERYTHING in bed. I'm spending my 34th birthday in bed. That's because I'm really sick. I haven't been this sick in about 7 years. I have been really wheezy and having pain when I breathe. Then last night the fever started and has stayed high ever since. This morning the upset tummy started. I'm starting to wonder if it is pneumonia. The last 3 times I felt this sick, it was bacterial pneumonia. I'm going to wait and see though.

My husband went to the trouble of making me eggs benedict for breakfast and he and the kids gave me cards, chocolates and some earrings. It was very sweet, then I rolled over and went back to sleep. The boys have been very good about getting me drinks.

BTW, I am terribly behind on emails and reading blogs, but if I did happen to email or respond today, please forgive the pissy tone.

Hoping we "Gute Besserung"!

My husband came back from 2 1/2 weeks in Germany last week and spent 2 days recovering from a nasty cold that he had for over a week. (Matt has only taken 2 sick days in 15 years of working at his company, one of them being last week.) Well he gave it to Campbell, who told me today he that he was finished with it, so he gave it to Kira. Kira still has it, but she is sharing with me. I am feeling like death warmed over and I'm afraid that if I go to bed I will wake up feeling much much worse. Or worse, I will have to wake up to a feverish croupy Kira. European colds are terrible!

Of course the day I come down with his cold, my husband has left for Amherst, Mass.. UGH

I've been replaced

Yesterday, I came home from picking the kids up from school.  My husband's truck was parked out front, but he wasn't at the door to greet us,... or reading the paper in the living room, ...or even more likely trying out the new microwave on last night's dinner leftovers or the Bagel Bites I picked up for the occasion.   I ran upstairs.  "Matt, is something wrong?  You didn't 'nuke' anything!  Are you feeling okay?"

This is the scene I discovered 
I'm all for the dog sleeping on our bed, but after 2 or 3 naps with Matt, Puck has decided that his new favourite spot is my pillow.  UGH.  Now when Puck is in his crate, the cat tries to sleep on that pillow, even if I am on it.  They are having a turf war on my pillow.  I wouldn't mind it as much if I wasn't allergic (especially to the cat).

I miss my baby *WARNING - sappy blog post*

my firstborn baby that is. Patrick is away with a friend for the night. But I missed him today. He is such a great person and I love spending time with him. This boy is so good, he parents himself and often reminds me to be a better person.

Matt's aunt had a cancerous tumour removed from her colon 2 weeks ago. A few weeks ago, Patrick chose to go home with MIL which we thought was odd since my FIL was taking Campbell toy shopping. Well apparently my sweet little man was trying to get more details about the aunt's cancer from MIL (a recent cancer survivor) who had gone up to help take her to some of her appointments. Last week when his dad called hom from Germany, he got a turn to talk to him on the phone. Right after his dad congratulated him on winning his race, he says, "OH yeah, Daddy, did you hear the great news about Aunt G? Her cancer didn't spread to her lymph nodes and she doesn't need chemo!" I thought that was especially sweet that he was so excited about sharing this good news.

He played hockey this morning and then he was getting ready to have a shower and he showed me a mark on his leg. He said it had been there a few days and he didn't recall anything happening. It was a very weird looking bruise, at first I didn't look too close because of his post hockey smell, and I told him I'd look at it closer when he was out of the shower. He was in the shower and was saying it might be cancer because at school they had a presentation on leukemia (they are doing a fundraiser) and they said that the kids had lots of bruises. Poor kid has a bruise and he's worried that he has cancer!

He's growing up so fast and understanding so much, but he's just 9. I hate to see him worried about such serious things already, but I guess that's just his way.

I need to go to bed so when I wake up it will be tomorrow and my baby will come home.

New Roof

I have to get a better picture of my roof, but here it is. 

I also have to dig out a picture of our house when we bought it.  It will be an interesting before and after.  This summer we will be tearing off those concrete steps and replacing with wooden and a wooden handrail.  We will probably also repave the driveway before our van falls into a sinkhole.  Seriously.

Day of Reckoning

Well despite his obvious stomach flu, Patrick decided that he would rather race and potentially not do well. So off we went.

Damon raced first.


He finished 31st which he was pretty proud of.  Keep in mind that he finished 164th last time and there are over 300 kids in his race.


Then Patrick raced. Here he is heading into the woods, he is about 4th at this point.


He had a strategy this time.  He knew to stay behind the leader until he could see the finish line.


He won! It seemed to be effortless too. Not like in the past when he crossed the finish line and he couldn't talk.


Here is Patrick with his friends and a very proud little brother.

It was so cute, Damon kept hanging off of Patrick's arm and basking in the glow while all the kids, parents and teachers congratulated him.

Here is the note that was written in Damon's agenda:

Please remind Damon that touching his eyeball is not sanitary or safe.

Mme.

You see what I'm up against? This is his new "thing" that he does to gross out kids and irritate adults. As with all novelties, it will wear out if we ignore it. Great news, except that I am sure it will be replaced by something new and equally disturbing.

She's just rotten!

I'm speaking of my little princess. My baby. She has had a cold this past week. So have Campbell and I and it seemed that we were all getting over it. But tonight Kira took a turn for the worse and woke up coughing. So I picked her up, nursed her, tried to calm her down and let her sleep on my shoulder. Then she turned toward my face and coughed. Oh..MY..good lord...WHAT is that stench? Has something crawled into her mouth and DIED? I must be imagining this. I wait for the next cough and YES that WRETCHED smell is coming from my little cherub. And she can't stop coughing for longer than 30 seconds. That doesn't make for good sleeping for anybody. Something inside of this little child is rotten, well infected anyway.

My mother is watching her for me in the morning, and the game plan was that after we were done with Patrick's "signing", I would pick up the kids and take all of them to visit my grandfather for his birthday. I'm rethinking that one. It is looking like I will be waking up my sick baby, driving all of them to my mom's for 8 am, leaving them there for about 2 hours, picking them up and going over to the walk-in clinic. Maybe my mom can take the boys to visit Grandpa at least.

Campbell, ready for take off!

We had his party at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum.  Our guide Don, a veteran, was very kind and patient!  Things got a little wild, but a good time was had by all.  Especially all the big kids, I mean, dads, who wanted to stay.

Campbell is 5!!!

Campbell started his special day with a trip to the golf course with Daddy. 

Then we had a small family party.

He had asked for a Shrek Mask

He loved it, but he and Damon especially loved that my sisters kids were horrified by it and hid their faces in my sister's lap whenever he put it on.

I took a picture of Kira and her cousins playing in the toyroom and she looked up at me and posed.  When I saw the photo, I had a feeling that I can't really explain, except to say that I can see the girl she will become.

dooce: Nothing is cute the second time, or the 400th for that matter

I loved this entry. This is my daily struggle with Kira and Puck.dooce: Nothing is cute the second time, or the 400th for that matter

Here is Kira hamming it up.  She loves to say cheese whenever she sees the camera.

Now it's time for smooching.

The after pics

Isn't he just gorgeous? I just love him so much.

As promised...

cat/dog fight photos.  LOL  This is what I was talking about! 

Kathy's right, only a blogger would grab the camera.  I love these action shots, there were more too.  As you can tell, the cat must enjoy this, because he has ample opportunities to get up and run.

I know now that he will run when he feels threatened.  Today my friend was over with her husky and Buddie was out on the porch as they were leaving.  He arched his back and looked terrified and when he got the chance he hightailed it around the neighbour's house until the coast was clear. 

Kira: 15 months

Kira had her 15 month appointment the other day and I neglected to update on it. She got a booster.

Weight: 24 lbs (she stood up on the big kid scale)
Height: 34 inches

Words (as we know them): Hi, Hello, Bye bye, Thank You, Woof, Dog, Puck, Bad, Sit, No, Yes, Shoe, Boot, Pop, Momma, Dadda, Grandma, Grandpa, Patrick, Damon, Campbell, baby, bath. She does a lot of babbling in between which may be words but we aren't sure. lol

Here she is in one of the outfits Daddy picked up in China. She's trying to get a piece of tape off her fingers. lol

Bad guys are stupid.

on the way home from grandma and grandpa's house -

Damon: Bad guys are STUPID, like Hitler, he killed all those people, that was stupid, and then he killed himself because he didn't want to get caught. Now that's stupid!

Patrick: Well the soldiers were going to find him...

Damon: Yeah, he was underground hiding, he shot himself...

Matt: How do you know that?

Damon: I read a book about it.

Matt: WOW, that's impressive, how does he know that?

That's his answer for everything he purports to "know". I read it in a book. Well since the extent of his reading ability these days is still pretty much "Dick and Jane" I highly doubt that. When my kids ask me questions about world affairs, I tend to use it as an excuse to do some homeschooling. I do recall having a conversation about a year ago with the kids about the holocaust and WWII. The things they learn in the van. LOL

Animal House

It has been a little while since I last updated. I have been running around like crazy this week. We are getting our roof done, which has thrown the house itself into turmoil. They had to strip 100 years worth of shingles and put new plywood and shingles on. That's a lot of mess and a lot of hammering.

Puck is not happy with the situation. They have used his "bathroom" area as a place to store roofing nails. So he won't use it and he refuses to pee or poop on the grass. So I walk him and walk him and he doesn't go. He convinces me that he doesn't need to go pee. I take him in the front door and he runs to the backdoor and pees in front of it! ARGH. Or worse, he runs to the backdoor and poops. I take him out to finish, and he doesn't. We get back inside again and he goes again! Not his fault, but still frustrating.

To make matters worse, Matt's buddy is staying with us this week, which means that the boys get all wound up (especially the biggest boy). It is like trying to raise 4 kids in a frat house.

Last night the 2 men took some beers out to the roofers. They all sat in the backyard and drank them. The kids and the dog all wanted to go out with them, so I asked Matt if that was okay and he said yes he would watch them. It all seemed fine, except I could hear them downstairs coming in. "Where's Kira? Has anybody seen Kira?" "oh she's still outside." Great, the 1 year old is out alone. Then the men and Damon went out to Patrick's hockey tryouts.

As soon as they left, Puck threw up some rather interesting items. The undigested dog food wasn't surprising, but I was surprised to see 2 wads of gum. I figured that the gum had made him throw up and that was all there was to that. nuh uh. He throws up again, this time there are leaves in it. Bulb leaves actually. I go outside to see what kind of leaves, are missing and my best guess is Daffodils. ok, well those are poisonous. Not good. He keeps throwing up 10 more big piles. I didn't realize that his little belly could hold such quantities of poisonous leaves and kibble. If it wasn't so gross, and I hadn't already worn myself out cleaning up his pee and poo, I might be more impressed. Then the diarrhea starts...in the backhall.

The boys called to share the news that Patrick has made the cut (I'll post more about that later), and I share my news about Puck. I ask what exactly he ate outside and they tell me a chunk of rubber. Ummm no, wrong answer. I ask which poisonous plant the puppy ate. They don't know. I explained to my darling husband that I don't let the puppy outside alone for that sort of reason. He is a baby and lacks the sensibility not to kill himself out there. Just for fun, I ask about the gum.

Matt "Patrick where did the dog get gum?"
Patrick "Kira must have given him hers."
Me "ohh of course, but what was the BABY doing with gum?"
ummmmm

Anyway, the dog emptied himself out and showed no ill-effects today. He is still having bathroom issues. My husband is still acting like a 17 year old. But my roof is breath-taking.