Life lessons - agony of defeat

So Wednesday was a big day in our household. It was the semi-annual Cross Country Meet for our school board. There seemed to be more kids there than usual. Normally, there are roughly 300 kids in each race, but there were at least 450 kids in some of the races. And the kids were competing against schools we've never seen at the meets before. Many of the other parents and I were wondering if they had condensed the 3 day event into 2 days.

Now last time, Damon's buddies finished 1st and 4th and he finished 7th. Here they are finishing 34th, 36th, and Damon was 40th.

He was initially disappointed with this finish and cried, telling everybody he was crying because somebody had punched his back during the race. But then he overheard other kids who were thrilled to have finished 89th, 94th, and even one boy who was calling his dad from his mom's cellphone to proudly announce that he finished 315th. After that he stopped rubbing his back and didn't mind telling all the kids at school that he finished 40th of 450 kids.

Then we come to Patrick. He was extremely nervous and felt a lot of internal pressure to win. But he saw a lot of his teammates who normally had top 10 finishes finish in the 40s or 50s. He was running in a race that was for grade 5 and 6 boys and since he is a very young grade 5 (being born in November) he has a disadvantage there. He didn't have a great start, but by the time they went over the bridge, he was moving up into the front pack of 10 or so boys. When they were coming back over the bridge we could see that he was 6th, and there was no way to catch the boy who was in the lead, he had about 100 m on everybody and he was only gaining speed.

Here he is looking a bit deflated after receiving his 6th place ribbon. He wanted to go home immediately after this photo was taken.

I told him how proud I was of him and reminded him that the competition in this race was much tougher than any he had ever faced and that he had probably run his best race ever. But I'm not sure he was ready to listen to me. Next fall he will have a much better chance when he doesn't have to run against boys who are almost 2 years older than he is. But hopefully this has taught him not to have such demanding expectations of himself.

Mondays

(warning - may contain subject matter that is disturbing to some readers)

So on Friday, I woke up and realized that I didn't feel nauseous. I was sure it was a fluke and that the nausea would be back soon. But hour after hour went by and I did not feel nauseous. Gaggy, yes but as pregnant women know, that is entirely different.

So today, being Monday, me not being nauseous and the first day that all of the boys would be in school after the weekend, I had high hopes of cleaning today. I woke up, got dressed, woke up the kids and went down to let the dog out of his crate and was met with a wall of stench at the bottom of the stairs. Unbeknownst to me, Puck had a difficult night and had quietly pooped all over the inside of his crate and on himself. One look into the room and the nausea made a quick comeback and before I could help out my poor dog, I was vomitting into the bathroom sink. I let him out and tried to do a quick clean up, but I wasn't able to be very thorough because I had to keep running to the bathroom for more retching. I got the kids ready for school and dropped them off and with all the windows in the house open, I was able to finish the clean up. In the meantime, Puck had another round of diarrhea. After I was finished cleaning, I went over to his "bathroom" area to inspect and see if I could find any towels or length of rope thinking we probably had a repeat of our Halloween Horror. But instead, I found a whole stick from a fudgsicle (that was eaten by the kids in the backyard on Saturday). I had a flashback to around this time last year when I was laughing at this post at Dooce, Dear God Almighty, Lord in Heaven, Everlasting Father. So far *I* haven't taken a picture of it yet.

Puck is feeling much better now, but I think I'm going to need a few more hours before I can eat.

Harassment

For Kathy

To go along with your barn cat post, here are a couple of photos of my "gun dog". I was never happy about the boys having toy guns, and worse yet, that they just leave their toys lying around. But one by one, Puck has been taking care of them for me.
In the evening after dinner, he holds them tightly in his mouth and tries to shine them against the wall. Then he chases the reflection. His favourite is the Star Wars "laser" gun. After a couple of days of play, the brittle plastic starts to crack, and OH NO, for safety reasons mom needs to throw out yet another toy. Tragic.

Happy Birthday Matt!

Daddy, call home! Kira needs to wish you a "Happy Dird-day" just one more time. The kids and I wanted to send you more birthday wishes!

We hope you had a great day even though you were far away from us. We love you and we miss you and we wish you were here with us.



Damon wanted to make sure that I included this photo of you. He loves it and thinks you look so cool. He is hoping that you still have those glasses so he can wear them.

Matt at work

You can watch him work at Amherst College - Museum of Natural History

Matt is away with work for the next 2 or more weeks.

Hockey tryouts are officially over for us! Woohoo!

Patrick was happy to be chosen to return to the AAA team. He looked pretty good at the tryouts. He has his signing on Saturday. His track club training starts this week and he has been invited to join a summer hockey team.

Last night, Damon was ecstatic to be chosen for the Novice Hub team. It is the highest level of hockey available for Damon's age group. Hub is the equivalent of A hockey. Because our area has so many competitive hockey players, a league was set up just for A level hockey within the local area. So that means close travel! YAY.

After the cuts had been made, the parents were called into the dressing room where all the boys who had been chosen were sitting. All of the boys were sitting quietly, except Damon who was grinning from ear to ear and pumping his arms in a "YES! I just scored a touchdown" gesture. It was cute and embarassing all at once. Then they "signed" him and he even had to sign his own name. Now that the whole team has been chosen, they will use Sunday's tryout time to have the team go out for a skate. He also has a lacrosse evaluation this week, but we have turned down the rep lacrosse coaches who would like Damon for their teams. We were hoping to have some freedom of movement this summer.

So after the weekend I move on to ONLY juggling lacrosse, track club and Campbell's soccer schedules.

A Sneak Peek at Baby #5

I had a 12 week ultrasound yesterday as part of my Integrated Prenatal Screening.

The tiniest little feet I've ever seen

There is the baby's profile.  Baby is measuring about 3 inches long right now.
Here's a view of Baby's little tush.  See if you can guess Baby's gender.  It's a bit early to tell, but gender differences are already visible at 12 weeks.

Scenes from a warm spring day

The perfect spot to watch for critters and catch some rays.

"I love the mud!"

(You are supposed to notice the training wheels lying on the patio next to his bike)

Spring

Sharon O'Neill Fair

September 22nd, 1942 - April 11th, 2006


Sharon was a Teacher, Artist, Activist, World Traveler, Explorer, Puff Ball Hunter, Dreamer, Daughter, Aunt, Friend and Inspiration to all of her family and those that knew her. I have always felt a special connection to my Aunt Sharon. I learned so much from my aunt. I think many of the choices I have made in my life were influenced by the experiences and times we had shared together.

Sharon and I shared countless memories. Some of my fondest memories are as follows: travelling to both the East and West Coast on summer vacation; staying in Ottawa with Sharon and Gerry; the many trips to the CNE and food pavillion, dinner at restaurants in Toronto where Sharon often could not decide what she wanted to eat so she would order several dishes that we would all enjoy;
walking through fields looking for Puff Balls; taffy at the Highland Games; fireworks at the Beach; drawing pictures on the floor; building a pink and blue castle in the backyard at my parents' house; taking photographs at the dinner table; spending time at the cottage in Wawa; and of course, building The UP-SHACK with Andrea, Kent and Barclay.
Last summer, under Sharon's supervision, I got a chance to build the UP-SHACK 2 with my kids. I was able pass down some of the same memories to them that I shared with Sharon after building the first one. This summer the kids and I will gather the materials and build a wing in her honor.

Sharon with Patrick and Damon - Wawa 2002
Sharon, thank you for everything you gave us. We will miss you forever and never forget you.




Turtle Island Sunset - Wawa 2005

Happy Birthday Campbell!

Today is my little man's 6th birthday.  Campbell is a fun and quirky guy.  He is a diligent hard worker with an upbeat attitude.  He is very eager to learn. We all love him a lot and hope his birthday is a special one.

I took him and his best buddy out for lunch at their FAVOURITE restaurant.


Then they played before going back to school for the afternoon.  Tonight we will have a quick dinner before Patrick's tryouts and then we'll have cake when Patrick gets home.

I think that my grandfather Bert's farewell was all that he could have hoped it would be.

He died peacefully at a nice old age, with his children at his side, and without much suffering.

The newspaper coverage continued all week and his death was eulogized by all of the major Canadian newspapers.

Yesterday we had a celebration of my Granbert's life. It was a beautiful sunny day by the river. The canoe club building was packed with people who knew him or admired him. The walls were lined with his artwork and photo collages of various aspects of his life. Some funny stories about him were shared by his friends and children. Food and drink were enjoyed by everyone. Damon asked me on the way home, "Why wasn't everybody crying?" I tried to explain to him that even though we will miss Bert a lot, we were there to celebrate what a great life he had lived.

It was as it should have been, and as I wish it could be for all of us. I think that somewhere Granbert is sitting on a beach with the biggest grin on his face.

Kira's new knock-knock joke

Kira: Knock Knock
Us: Who's there?
Kira: Me.

All of us giggle when she says it. It sure beats her old knock-knock joke.

Kira: Knock Knock
Us: Who's there?
Kira: Knock Knock
(repeat)

She laughs when her brothers tell her knock-knock jokes and responds with the appropriate "who's there" and "banana who".

He would have been thrilled

I picked up my morning paper to find a hunky photo of my grandfather in his youth and a headline on the front page, "Olympian Bert Oldershaw of Burlington dies at 84 page A3". This article was on page 3:
Beach-loving Bert spawned a canoeing dynasty

Bert Oldershaw 1921 - 2006

Last night my Granbert passed away. Today, I'm just remembering him. He was an athlete, a salesman, a gardener and an artist.

Canadian Olympic Committee

Bert Oldershaw

Born in Toronto in 1921, Bert Oldershaw has demonstrated an unparalleled passion for the sport of canoeing that began during a childhood spent paddling around Toronto Island where he lived for 35 years. Oldershaw won national titles in canoe and kayak from 1939 to 1956, and competed in the Olympic Games in 1948, 1952, and 1956. He holds the distinction of being the only Canadian to reach three successive finals in Olympic paddling competitions before retiring from racing at the age of 38.

Oldershaw founded the Mississauga Canoe Club in 1957, a paddling powerhouse that sits along the banks of the Credit River. 'Missy' paddlers have long dominated the Canadian canoe/kayak scene with countless athletes representing Canada in international competitions thanks in large part to Oldershaw's numerous contributions as a coach. In 1976 Oldershaw cemented his dedication to sport by building a training facility at his home, which included an indoor pool, adapted with weights and pulleys to simulate outdoor water conditions, and used by national team members to train.

Oldershaw's community contributions include 12 years as a member of the Board for the COC representing canoeing. He created Canamtur Ltd. to assist in amateur-sport fundraising and development, and in the process raised more than $1.25 million from the private sector. These days Oldershaw is working to restore Native canoe culture, by re-establishing canoe and canoe-building in Six Nations' communities.

Oldershaw's most important legacy in building the sport of canoeing, however, is evidenced through his family. He is the father of five children, Dean, Reed, Scott, Lee, and Lynn - all of whom have competed in canoe competitions, and three of whom have represented Canada at the Olympic Games. Two of his grandsons continue the family sport tradition, and are currently strong hopefuls for Athens 2004. Should this happen, the Oldershaw family will have sent three generations of canoe-kayak athletes to the Olympic Games.

The Curse has been broken!

The not-making-it-to-Super-Saturday Curse.  In the 8 seasons we have had a child playing house league hockey, this year is the first time that any of them have made it to Super Saturday.  Campbell's team made it, just barely.  There was a 3 way tie for second place, they were tied for wins, tied for goals against.  It came down to goals for and Campbell's team was ahead by 2 after Sunday's game.  Here he is in the center, warming up with his team.

We are amazed at how much he has improved this season.  Sometimes when we are watching a game, we don't recognize him because he is skating so well.

Damon's team did not make it to Super Saturday, but at least they went out with a 5-1 win.  Damon plans to try out for a rep team next year.

Kira is better now.  Last night as she was going to bed, she told me "I all done with my sick now."

The kids are back in school today!  Now I have to clean up the messes that were created in the past week.

Oh, something else I'm doing for the March Break, cleaning up Kira's vomit, washing all of her bedding and mine and bringing her drinks in bed. I think I'll save the really fun part (renting a carpet cleaner to clean up some "didn't make it to the bathroom" spots) for next week.

March Break happenings

It is "March Break" for us. While our friends from the school go to Disneyworld, or Myrtle Beach, Matt is installing a slate floor in our kitchen, Campbell's hockey team is in a tournament here and I'm enjoying the while early pregnancy nausea thing. If Campbell's team is eliminated early we can get away to go see Grandma and Grandpa for a day or two, but we need to be back for Thursday because Matt and Patrick have tickets to an NHL hockey game in Buffalo.

Don't be too jealous.

My grandfather is in hospital again. He was released from hospital about 2 weeks ago after recovering from bacterial pneumonia. Last week he started having problems with hemmorhaging in his colon and was diagnosed with "Septic Colitis". His prognosis depends one which of his doctors you ask. I am going to visit him tomorrow.

Thanking my lucky stars

I let Puck out a few minutes ago. He ran out into the yard and went on point. I figured there was a cat in the bushes and I picked up the broom, prepared for some hissing. Instead, I could make out a creature darting away, as it passed under a bit of moonlight I saw it, a SKUNK! Thankfully it beat Puck to the fence, rushed through the neighbour's yard and off into the night without spraying anything. PHEW! Then it took me 10 minutes to entice Puck to come back in after all of his excitement. He was oblivious to the misery that could have been.

Going Squirrelly

The view from my laundry room.

This brazen guy is one tough nut!  Note all the bald patches.  He/she has been living in and around our property for many years and has tried to have many "stand offs" with Matt.  And he/she loves to watch Puck go bonkers trying to climb a tree to get him/her.

Two for one

Last week, when Matt told all of the kids that we were having another baby, he showed Patrick the card that I made for him. Patrick immediately said, "why does Daddy have to do that? That's not fair." Matt said it was no big deal, and joked that maybe he would go with Puck to the vet and get a "two-for-one deal" on neutering. Yesterday on the way home from school, Patrick told me that it was just wrong for Daddy to be neutered. I explained neutering to him and told him that was what Puck was going to have done, not Daddy. He said, "No, Daddy said he was going to get neutered too." I told him that Daddy was only joking and explained what a vasectomy was, he was still skeptical though.

Poor guy, for 5 days he's been worried that his father was going to be castrated.

Damon is just ecstatic about having another baby. When Daddy told him, he turned to me and said, "Did Daddy tell you about the new baby?" Later that night he woke up and came and told me how happy he was and he hopes it is a girl "so that Kira has somebody". This morning he said,
"It's really weird, you don't even look pregnant at all." hee hee.
"Give me some time and I will look pregnant" I said, "right now the baby is the size of a piece of rice."
"Seven weeks?"
"Yeah about that."

Campbell is coming around. It just takes that old man time to get used to change. 34 more weeks will probably do it.

Kira's baby

Recently Kira has really shown an interest in playing with baby dolls. After her daddy shared the news of our pregnancy, Kira has developed her own concept of what it all means. If somebody asks her if mommy is going to have a new baby, she says, "no, my baby". When asked where the baby is, half of the time she says the baby is in mommy, the other half she tells you that the baby is "asleep now in my room. Shhhhh" In the past 4 days, she has obsessed about this Pooh doll. She takes him all over the place, she tucks him into bed, when I took this picture, she had to show him the picture on the camera's display. "Look baby, that's you baby, so cute baby." I am starting to think that she thinks that THIS is our baby that everybody keeps asking her about. (I love that his pram is a pink pillow on top of a dump truck.)

Matt,

You've probably guessed what I'm trying to tell.
I'm in shock, and I'll bet you are as well.
"5 kids? are you crazy!" others will say.
But crazy or not, a baby is on the way.
Phone the doctor by November, make it fast,
So that this little baby can be our last.

I love you.

This is Damon the night of his first reconciliation.  He was so happy to confess all of his sins to Father.  He stood up there with his laundry list of nasty deeds.  He told us that one of the things he confessed to Father was that he sometimes beats up his brothers.  Father told him that he used to beat up his brothers too until his mother caught him doing it and hit him over the head with a frying pan.  That made Damon smile, probably because he was thinking about how lucky he was to have been absolved of his sin before a frying pan connected with his skull.

Happy Birthday Charlie!

Charlie is such a sweet-natured old cat.  He has always been a bit shy, especially around kids and dogs, but once caught, he tolerates so much torture with nothing more than a call for "MMMMMMOMMMM".  He is 14 now, although I don't know his exact birthdate.  I got him as a 5 month old kitten, when the Humane Society brought him to the hospital I was working for after he had "fallen" more than 6 floors from an apartment building.  He had a bad break in his hind leg and a broken nose.  He wore a cast for months, and was left with a significant limp.  But he still likes to play with mice.

a glitch in my system

Being sick and being a mom don't mix.

I was feeling really nauseous on Friday afternoon, and could feel something worse coming on, so I pushed ahead to try to FINALLY get Damon's birthday planned and invitations sent. I think the oncoming headache and nausea was creating an additional sense of urgency, but apparently not an urge to pay attention to details. Damon wanted to take his friends to an AHL hockey game. It has been a month since his birthday, but we have had conflicts between the AHL schedule and Patrick's schedule. But Patrick has a relatively light schedule over the next week, I was trying to take advantage of that and emailed the team to book a birthday party for next Friday night. I printed up my own "tickets" that actually looked quite real and handed them out to the chosen guests at the end of the school day. All I had to do was go to the ticket booth to pay for the package and pick up our tickets. Great, right?

I got an email this morning from the nice lady from the hockey team telling me "That wouldn't be a problem, except, the 24th is an away game. We do not play at home again until March 10th. If this date would be alright for you, please let me know." So now I'm going around frantically trying UNINVITE people and trying to convince Damon that a July birthday party would be a GREAT thing.

Patrick's team was eliminated from the playdowns in a sweep (eliminating the need for games #5-7) and now they are waiting to see who wins a series. That meant that the game times they had previously scheduled would become practice times. The team manager emailed the parents to say this was her assumption until further notice. Well she emailed all the parents later giving them a list of this week's ice times. I quickly scanned the list of 5 practices and noticed that they now had a Friday practice and wrote it down on our calendar. What I didn't notice was that the time and location of the Monday practice had changed. It is totally my fault, but sometimes when the manager puts out a new schedule with any changes, the changes are highlighted with asterisks. This time there was nothing jumping out at me. So tonight when Matt and Patrick were getting ready to go to practice, Matt asked Patrick where and when the practice was, he told him the original time which was on our calendar and the calendar that the manager prints out for us each month. Obviously neither of them looked at the email that I had read over. Matt called me from the original arena and asked me to check the schedule. Well the computer was closest, so I just opened the email and there it was, the practice was about a 15 minute drive away and it was already underway.

Now, I'm waiting for them to come home so they can tease me.

Under the weather

Well it turns out that the calamari was fine, that Damon really had a stomach virus. Matt came home on Valentine's day and tossed me my card and chocolates as he ran upstairs to be sick. He spent the whole night in his bed and even contemplated staying home from work the next morning. He dragged his sick-self in late, but only because he didn't want to ruin his perfect attendance record. No sooner had his truck pulled out of the driveway, than Kira started vomiting. When I was getting the boys ready, I started to feel woozy too. So we took the boys to school and came home and slept it off.

Yesterday morning we awoke to an ice storm and all of the schools were closed. By the time school would have started it had all melted and turned to rain. But the boys enjoyed their day off of school. This morning, the weather was bad again with blowing snow and terrible winds. The front window of the local Canadian Tire store even blew right onto a major street. But the schools were open.

So this morning it came as no surprise when Patrick started feeling sick. Kira is better now, but I'm still feeling sluggish.

Happy Belated Valentine's Day

Shhhhh

Kira was playing in her room while I finished sewing. I could hear her singing and talking to herself as she played. There was suddenly silence. I (as in me and my shadow Puck) went to make sure she was okay. She has been sleeping that way for an hour now. Moving a sleeping Kira is an impossible task, so we have learned not to bother. If you want her to stay asleep, don't touch her.

Princess Kira and her loyal subject

Note the new (well old) princess bed.

Around the house this weekend

Something we learned when we moved our laundry room to the second floor was just how much old top-loading washing machines shake. No adjustment seemed to help. Twice a day, the earth seemed. We had gotten used to the "ding ding ding" of the pot rack in the kitchen and our wrought iron bed. Then the thermostat stopped working and for the past year I've been washing in cold only. We don't even have the benefit of using "Cold Water Tide" as Matt, Patrick and Kira are all allergic to Tide. So, I have been soaking my whites in buckets of hot water before washing them. Our dishwasher quit last week and we decided to pick up a washing machine at the same time. After it's arrival, Matt eagerly waited for our first load with our NEW washing machine. When the spin cycle started, Matt grinned as he said, "Quiet kids, I'm trying to listen to the washing machine."

While watching part of Titannic, I heard Campbell turn to Matt and say, "Okay, that's it, I'm NEVER going on a boat again." Damon was quite impressed by that movie and for 2 days straight he has talked about Rose and Jack as if they were members of our family.

Let's see, what else did we do? Hockey, hockey, playoff hockey. Oh, Patrick had another trip to the ER for a hockey head injury. He was fine.

While Matt was out with him, Kira bonked Campbell on the nose and I've never seen a nose bleed like that. It was like a scene from Monty Python and I had a big clean up after. (The new washing machine did a fabulous job on my white towels.) Luckily the nose wasn't broken. "I soy Cambo."

Damon, the human crayon-maker!

Damon went for his annual check-up. He is healthy and growing well, but has been having a problem with his ear ever since last summer when he had swimmer's ear. I knew he had a problem with wax and dried up blood in there ever since, and he had started rubbing his ear in his sleep. I looked in it the day before his appointment and it was clogged. I asked the doctor to flush it. Damon was very brave as she stuck the tube into his ear. In an instant we heard a "CLUNK" as something fell into the bowl. The doctor blurted out, "What did you put in your ear?" Damon looks confused and just shrugs. I looked into the bowl and it looked like a 1 inch piece of a brown crayon. The doctor examined it a bit more and declared that it was impacted wax. The boy really couldn't hear me half the time! But now he has no excuse.

Happy 8th Birthday Damon!

You are a wonderful little boy.  You are so smart and analytical, strong and athletic.   And you have the singing voice of an angel.  You are always eager to share with your family, friends and unfortunate strangers, you are the most generous child I've ever seen.  I just hope that you always know how important and special you are to everybody.

Hamming it up with his cake.

He was thrilled with his new guitar.  He'll be starting lessons soon.

And here he is teaching Kira how to cheer for him.