Size is relative

The girls went for a doctor's appointment today.

Hanna is much better. She is 24 1/4 inches long and weighs 11 lbs 7 oz, which means she is a long and lean little lady. She cried for her needles. She has been pretty cranky, a bit feverish and flushed. Nothing a bit of Tylenol won't help.

Kira had her 3 year check up. She is a gigantic 3 foot 3 inches and weighs 33 lbs. Patrick had EXACTLY the same stats at 3 years old, and at the time I thought he was so skinny. Kira seems beefy by comparison. The difference is probably that at that time I had a 10 month old 29 lb Damon in my arms, rather than my dainty little Hanna. The appointment came to an end when the doctor used her "Magical Fairy Dust" to help make Kira's "nipple" (wart) on her hand disappear.

A conversation with Grandpa

Dear Grandpa Bob,

Kira really enjoyed your visit yesterday.

Do you remember the other day when Kira put Hanna on the phone to talk to you? Well here she is listening to your voice.

We also thought you would like to see Hanna moments later when Kira took the phone away from her.

So even though she may not add much to the conversation, we know that you would want to know that Hanna really does enjoy "talking" to you.

Love,

Kira, Hanna and their Mom

Memo for Kira

Dear Kira,

Sock puppets are great, and sock puppet shows are fun. I don't mind you using your big brothers' socks, they are so big they make great puppets, but from now on please find your "puppets" from the clean laundry pile.

Thank you.

I love you,

Mommy

An update

Things have been hectic around here. I've had lots of appointments lately and I haven't had time to sit down and nurse Hanna in front of the computer until now.

We were offline for a while because Matt wanted me to install a wireless router so that he can have access to the internet on his laptop too. Well with a house full of sick kids and hockey, I had to install and configure it all in small steps. It took many days, but finally we are online.

We have all been fighting off a cold virus. On Friday, Hanna started with it, she had an awful post-nasal drip and gaggy cough. Saturday, Kira spiked a high fever and bad cough. On Sunday, I tried to decide whether she needed to be seen by a doctor or not. On Monday morning, I called our family doctor, but they were all booked up. By Monday afternoon, she had a low fever, and by the evening she was coughing so hard she couldn't catch her breath. We rushed to the E.R. and after 5 1/2 hours there, the pediatrician said it was RSV, but that she was doing well enough to be cared for at home.

She is such a doll. Despite how lousy she must have felt, she tried really hard to be social with the nurses and doctors. When the staff pediatrician finally came to see her, he leaned over her, cupped her head in his hands and "talked" to her. He has a wonderful way with babies. She responded by gurgling and cooing and flashing her dimpled smile at him.

She is dealing with it well, especially for one so young.

Campbell and Damon were really excited about the Primary Division from school going on a series of skating trips. They got to show off their prowess on the ice. Damon really enjoyed giving lessons to the other kids.

On Tuesday night, Patrick's team won their 4th game this year. That doesn't sound great to most people, but it's all relative. They won 1 last year, so 4 seems like winning the Stanley Cup to these kids. The final score was 4-1. Patrick really contributed to the win, he played amazingly on defense and got 2 assists!

In other news, Damon has been assessed for dyslexia. I had a pretty good idea going into it that he was dyslexic, so the results were not much of a surprise to me. Damon had been struggling with reading, despite being obviously bright. When I stumbled across some websites (like this one) about dyslexia, I was struck by how closely he fit the profile of a dyslexic. So many of the stories I read were just like Damon's, it was as if it was scripted. Dyslexia, while it hinders reading, is also an amazing gift. Many of the worlds great thinkers were also dyslexic, and this is no coincidence, a fact that thrills Damon. Dyslexia is the most common cause of reading difficulty and it is estimated that 1 in 6 people deal with some degree of dyslexia. Damon said something very prophetic during his testing, before he began a spelling test, he told the tester, "I have trouble reading because I never know what the vowels are going to say." (That explains why many of his spelling tests at school came back with NO vowels, but the consonants were perfect. For example, 'chalkboard' was spelled 'chlkbrd', 'ruler' was 'rlr'.) Damon was measured in three areas, dysphonetic, dyseidetic and dysgraphic. His results indicated that he is mildly dysgraphic, moderately dyseidetic and markedly dysphonetic. This is good news as this is the type that responds most quickly to the type of program that he is now doing at the dyslexia centre. Damon is also receiving extra help at the school, unfortunately it is not the type of program that is recommended to remedy dyslexia, which is upsetting considering how many dyslexic children, who are less fortunate than Damon, could be helped to succeed. (stepping down from the soapbox for now)

Number of t-shirts tried on and discarded onto bedroom floor: 7
Jars of texturizing hair product: 2
Blasts of hairspray: 9
Minutes spent singing into the mirror: 13
Minutes late for school: 4
Finally getting a "Civies/Crazy Hair Day" - Priceless

Happy Birthday Damon!

Damon is growing up much too quickly! Where did my cuddly baby boy go? As much as I want to slow down the hands of time, I must say that he is growing into a really fascinating person. Damon is a strong and active boy on the outside with a sensitive and generous soul. He has a vast memory for facts. He is very artistic, besides being a great artist, he has an eye for art in every day life. And he has an amazing understanding and passion for wildlife. I can't wait to know the man that he will become!

Yesterday, Damon turned 9. We had a very busy day. After dropping the boys off at school we did grocery shopping. Then we picked up Damon and his friend from school and took them out for lunch at a local diner. After lunch, Kira and I made cupcakes at home for Damon's hockey team. We picked up the boys, came home for snacks. Damon had a few minutes to open a package full of goodies from Aunt Gayle and Uncle Lynn.

Then we were off to Damon's hockey practice. He had a great practice and was serenaded by his coaches and teammates in the dressing room. The "music" could be heard down the hallways of the arena complex. Yet another birthday spent at a hockey rink!

Damon really wanted to eat dinner out, and no takeout Swiss Chalet would do. We waited for Matt to get home and at 9:00 we were finally ready to go out for dinner at Montana's. He really wanted to wear the horns, but the singing wasn't as exciting as normal, because by that time at night there was only one waiter working. Damon was satisfied with his solo though.


Then we went home to sing 'Happy Birthday' and let him blow out a candle on his birthday. As you can see from the photo, it had been a long day by then!

Happy Birthday Damon!

Animal School

This movie, while a little bit silly, struck a chord for me.

Winter finally arrived!

I woke extra early today to watch our local news and it's "stormwatch" coverage. By 7 am, bus service for our schoolboard was cancelled, and since I consider myself to be driving a bus, I went back to sleep, thinking I would drive the kids in later once the road crews had a chance to clean up the roads. Patrick woke up at 8 am and turned the news back on. By then the school board had decided to close all schools. YAY! I forbid him from waking everybody up, but by 8:30 they were all awake.

Ice is covering everything, I'm glad we didn't have to drive in this at 8:30 am.

The kids were finally able to build a snowman with what little snow we got on Sunday. Kira calls it a "Snow Kira". Her contribution is the "hair" on the top of the Snow Kira's head. Every good Snow Kira has to have "Kira hair"

Kira Hair

We were getting ready to go to the hockey rink for a couple of the boys games. I was brushing Kira's hair and putting it into a ponytail.

Kira: "I don't like that, I want it to be Kira hair."
Mom: "What is Kira hair? Does that mean you want it down and curly?"
Kira: "Yes."
Mom: "Okay, but I still need to brush it, right?"
Kira: "No! Kira hair is MESSY hair."

Happy Birthday Kira Jane!

It was 3 years ago today that Kira made her grand entrance into the world. She has since proven to be a very determined girl. She can flip from being a living doll, to a tantrumming monster, and then back again, all within 5 minutes. She is alarmingly smart. Her latest phrase is "Thanks Mom, you're da best." which she now says whenever I do anything for her.

As per Kira's orders, she spent the morning shopping at Toys'R'Us. I tried to talk her into many different toys. I was sure she would want a Little Tikes Kitchen, but she said, "Oh, no, that is too big for me!" She selected a small stuffed Dora doll, a carseat for her babydolls, and told me, "I think I already have enough toys, I don't need any more." I asked her if I could buy her a "Birthday Girl" t-shirt from the Gymboree across the road, and she said, "No thank you, I think I already have enough shirts, I don't need any more."

Grandpa Bob called to wish Kira a happy birthday and she sais, "Thank you, happy birthday to you too!"

After lunch, a parcel arrived from Aunt Gayle and Uncle Lynn. Kira loves her Furby and is telling them thank you in this photo. She was delighted with the coins taped to her card too and immediately said, "Oh, great, now I can buy my own treats at the hockey rink."

We picked the boys up from school and Kira had a little nap. Then we dropped Patrick off at a teammate's house to be driven out of town for an away game. Then the other kids and I took Damon to his team practice. Once again, Kira spent a birthday at the hockey rink.
Finally at 8:30 we got home and met up with Grandma Sue. The kids unwound to Dora the Explorer's Fiesta music.

Kira loves soup and asks for soup many times a day. It was no surprise when she asked for Chicken soup for dinner, so we made a Chicken Stew in the crockpot. I made some dumplings (which didn't turn out so great in a crockpot). For dessert we had a much requested "Strawberry Cake", which was a cake and icing made with strawberry puree. It was full of strawberry sweetness, and I'm having a hard time keeping Damon out of the extra frosting. It didn't turn out as great as I would have liked, but Kira was pleased with it and loved blowing out her candles.

She is looking forward to her family party with her cousins. We are having a birthday FIESTA!

Feliz cumpleaños a ti

Feliz cumpleaños a ti

Feliz cumpleaños Kira

Feliz cumpleaños a ti.

I hate school!

Why? I have to look at these sleeping beauties, knowing that I have to wake them up to drive their brothers to school.

This whole "education" thing had better be worth it. LOL

All of us

Here we all are with Grandpa Bob and Grandmama (Great-Grandmother).

Happy Girls!

Hanna is enjoying her visit with her great grandmother.

Puppy love

They make my heart melt. They are both so angelic when they are sleeping.

December 27th

At 7 am, Matt and I (not to mention the 3 little ones piled in there too) were lying in bed talking, when we heard a smashing sound. I ran downstairs to see what had happened and when I looked toward the living room, I saw Charlie make a dash out of the room and then I saw this:


Sadly some of our favourite ornaments were broken, namely the 2 glass balls with Patrick and Kira's names on them. I normally leave the tree and decorations up until after the Epiphany. But since Bob was here and was driving home that morning, I took the opportunity to pack up all of my ornaments and send them home with Bob. We are trying to get any excess stuff out of here before we put our house on the market, and I'd like to keep the breakables at Bob's house instead of in a trailer in the back of Matt's shop.

Boxing Day

Here are the kids with their cousins and their Aunt Marni. Aunt Liz just handed out "candy kebabs" and the kids are pretty excited. Thanks Liz!

Christmas Day

The boys woke up before Kira, Hanna, Daddy and I, so they waited patiently until 8 am when we let them wake up Kira too. Patrick was the most excited kid in the house!

Kira woke up in no mood for stockings.

Surrounded by opened stockings and gifts, here is our tree on Christmas morning.

Campbell couldn't wait until it was late enough to call Grandma and get her to come over and watch Jack Sparrow with him.

Happy First Christmas Baby Hanna! And look at the beautiful quilt that my friend Kathy made for her. It is so soft and warm.

Hanna and Grandpa enjoy some quiet time amidst the chaos.

Kira fell asleep before the Christmas dinner was served.

Campbell looks on as Grandpa tries to set the watch that Aunt Gayle gave him.

Cameras, glitter and lights! Puck loves Christmas.

Christmas Eve

The girls are ready to go to Grandma's house.

Patrick is admiring the heap of presents under Grandma's tree.

Here are Campbell and Kira with Cousin P waiting for presents to be opened.

Trying to pose 8 children in a group shot - SCARY!

This is as good as it gets. Hopefully Mike got a better one that he can e-mail me.

Hanna is sick of the constant media attention.


Kira loves her mermaid doll.

Damon opening his gifts.

Cousin P snuggling with Hanna.

Campbell and Cousin T jump in for a group shot.

After getting their pjs on, Hanna gets some hugs from Cousin M too.

Smiles

Just catching up with a Hanna-smile.

Mommy's babies

Campbell and his clone-sister.