Catalogue of Izzy #12

{Isabel comes over to speak to Mummy and Daddy, wearing a set of gold Mardi Gras-style beads}
Isabel: "I'm going to wear this and be the mother. I'm going to take the babies and put them in line for the doctor."
Mummy: "What happens then?"
Isabel: "If something happens, you don't say nothing." {Isabel scampers off to play.}
Mummy to Daddy: "We need to get better insurance. This hospital is ske-tchy."
Daddy: "Hi Everybody!"



Now, she's treating Orin's apparent broken foot with a princess sticker and dog food. o_O

Project 365 - May 1st & 2nd

Yesterday, we went for a walk in our spring coats.


This morning, I irritably scraped frost off my car (which was moved out of the garage yesterday while we were tidying it and digging out spring/summer stuff).

Let's start things off with some childish fun!

It all started off innocently enough. Isabel received some adorable window decals as part of an Easter gift from a family friend. The set includes this:


Once Isabel forgot about the decals (the shapes all got stored away in a container on her craft desk, but the letters were left out for some reason), things went downhill fast. Dave started things off strong.



I called and raised.


This was less successful than we'd hoped. As a matter of fact, not only has it not deterred people from coming to our door, but there has been an influx of Jehovah's Witnesses and Snake-oil salesmen...I mean, Conservative canvassers.


These guys are like a combination of therapy dogs and electroshock therapy. Everything's all cuddles and purring when you behave appropriately, but at the first sign of deviant behaviour, the "therapists" tear your arms off. Now, THIS is a deterrent.


I imagine a shriveled and angry chain-smoking Peep sitting next to a large green glass ashtray from 1972. Dave pictures an ashtray made of wailing peeps having cigarettes put out on their backs. Neither is all that festive.


Everyone loves a party sheep!


Such good advice for so many!


This gem was Dave's. We feel sorry for Paty. Not only does she have a "pee rash", but she also has parents who can't spell. And this one inspired the one that had me snorting hours later....


This poor fellow was the butt of so much silliness.
Cleatus: "WOOO-EEE! What's that gall-darned smell? Somebody gone dun fertilized thar garden?"
Bobby-Jean: "Heck no! That's just Peety Rash Pa. He ain't dun smelled right for years."
I could go on, but you get the picture.

Project 365 - Mar 22nd to Apr 4th

Once again, I haven't got a pic per day, but given what's been going on, I'm lucky to have gotten anything. I promise I'll pick up the slack.

You know how some kids grab grapes and cookies and crackers out of the cart? Not my kid...he rips hunks off the romaine lettuce to munch on.

This crazy snowstorm kept drifting in and out while I did bus duty. One minute it would be snowing and the next it was so sunny, I wished I had my sunglasses.

Notice the look of disdain and desperation on Mischief's face.

Mmmm....death by pepperoni.

More fun in the playhouse.

Hey, girls....remember this guy?

Rat tail! Oh yeah! Jordan Knight was hot baby!

Thanks to a team effort on the part of Aunt Ruby and mom and Mike, Isabel has her now-beloved doll house. She spends hours happily playing with this thing.

A photo of Orin's first steps.

Wrestling after bath!

Helpin' Mama at work.

Poor tired and sick wee baby.

Some video footage to accompany the photos:

Still playing catch up.

The only thing that would REALLY deter me from having a third kid is what we are dealing with right now - the CONSTANT barrage of viruses and things when they start daycare/school. We just can't seem to keep up. We all had that TERRIBLE respiratory virus at the end of February/beginning of March...that took each of us about a week (overlapping) to get over.
Late the week before last, just as I was marveling at our entire family being well for a whole week, we all, again in succession, got fevers and various degrees of congestion/sore throat. I am the last one recovering from that and, after being told repeatedly on Thursday how terrible I looked and sounded (despite feeling 1000x better than I did with the last virus, I was feeling on the mend Friday morning.
Isabel projectile vomited at 2am Friday. We cleaned it up and decided that the most sensible thing was to have O go to daycare and me go to work in the morning since I am still #1 when it comes to his care (it comes with the territory when you are breastfeeding) and we wanted to minimize the chances of him getting it, given how serious it could be for him.
Around 7:20am, the call that I half expected and definitely dreaded came. Daycare is closed because her son has the same thing. We know no one locally who doesn't work, so I was now needed to care for Orin. A little too late to call our regular supply teachers, I took him to work in order to tie up loose ends and see if we could get someone off the list. I stayed for period one and Orin was as good as gold (and received no shortage of attention).
Orin fell asleep in the car, so I figured that we'd come home so I could get a few things, eat some breakfast (~10am...so hungry) and he could sleep in the car, thus avoiding infection. Well, when Dave and I talked about it, Isabel seemed fine at this point, we thought we'd done a good job of containing it (used rubber gloves, washed extensively and tried to keep all dirty laundry contained to garbage bags). We decided that so long as we kept them apart physically, we should be alright, so Orin and I stayed home for the day.
At 1:30am, Orin projectile vomited four times. We cleaned up, spent an hour trying to get water into him slowly and monitoring him closely (and packing an overnight bag just in case we needed to take him to the hospital). We thought it was safe to head back to bed around 2:45. While we were trying to get Orin back to bed, something crazy happened with the power (Dave figures it was as a result of a blown transformer or a lightning strike) and it went out. NB Power said they wouldn't get to it until sometime in the day. PERFECT! Beside the regular annoyances from a power outage, no power while on a well means no water pressure, which means no flushing of toilets and no laundry and no handwashing. Did I mention that my tummy was now churning and cramping?
The ending to this story is good though. We've all made it so far without any further throwing up. The power came on at 9am, so laundry is running again. And most importantly, Orin kept himself hydrated and seems just fine after challenging one of the more serious "minor" things that can happen to him.
Here's to an uneventful weekend.

Project 365 - March 8th

Isabel and I had a day together today. I recorded it as best as I could.

We started off the day with Starbucks and some mmmmuffins.

After a little shoe and dress shopping, we hung out at the play structure.

Isabel played Twister with some other children at Chapters' games hour

Waiting for the movie to start.

The little lady is still feeling the effects of that crazy flu we had. She fell asleep in the car after grocery shopping.

I will happily pretend I am Catholic in order to enjoy pancakes during the week!

*clang* Bring Out Your Dead!

If someone had told me to paint the red X on the door sometime early two weeks ago, I'd have been a little better prepared for what we just battled. As it was, we made it out by the skin of our teeth, but we are happy just to have made it. Let me break it down for you.

Tuesday Feb 22 - Daycare provider calls early in the AM to say she is closed due to illness.

Wednesday Feb 23 - Same call. Kids both run low-grade fevers for the better part of the day, but are in good spirits.

Thursday Feb 24 - Daycare is still closed. Isabel wakes up a miserable, whiny mess. She has a really high fever and sore legs, won't eat and is a shivering, confused mess on multiple occasions throughout the day. Orin is still fine.

Friday Feb 25 - Orin's turn. The boy sleeps quite literally half the day. He is still drinking enough water, but isn't eating. He won't sleep on his own (which is usually not a problem) and quite literally sleeps on/snuggled with one of us for the duration of his illness both day and night. Still no daycare.

Saturday Feb 26 - Isabel seems to have improved. She has only a low-grade fever and is in slightly better spirits today. We are hoping this is the end. Oh, how hopeful we were. Orin is still so sick...poor guy.

Sunday Feb 27 - Both children are once again, extremely ill.

Monday Feb 28 - Both children are ill. Isabel is worse than Orin.

Tuesday Mar 1 - Orin is improved enough that I send him to daycare. Isabel is STILL spiking fevers of 103 at random, so I take her to the doctor, who says that it looks like it is still just viral and we should just try to tough it out. Tiresa is starting to get ill....low-grade fever, runny nose and slight cough. By the end of the day, her fever is spiking to unhealthy highs of 103 and 104. When Orin comes home from daycare, it is revealed that his fever spiked again in the afternoon.

Wednesday Mar 2 - Orin relapses, Isabel has STILL not improved and Tiresa is on death's door. Dave stays home with all three of the sickies. It is a house full of whining, moaning and general discontent.

Thursday Mar 3 - Isabel seems to be about 80% this morning, so she is sent to daycare. Dave goes to work and Tiresa keeps Orin home, against her better judgment, because he is still miserable. This made for little rest and Tiresa was wiped and near tears by the end of the day.

Friday Mar 4 - Both children are well enough to go to daycare. Tiresa throws in the towel on working at all this week. Her fever just wouldn't settle and the exhaustion was overwhelming.

Saturday Mar 5 - Both kiddies are 100% (though the tiredness from having been sick is catching up with them quicker than usual). Tiresa is about 60%.

I have never seen a respiratory virus like this. It hangs on for SO long. The weakness and exhaustion resulting from this flu/cold/plague is comparable to what I remember after having had mono. I am glad for my coworkers that I ended up quarantined for the most part because I would hate for any of them to get this over March Break.

Project 365 - February 27-28th

My weekend has been chock full of sick and sleeping babies. So that's what you get.

Project 365 - February 25th

Bus duty on a Friday night in a blizzard. I know you are jealous!

Project 365 - February 23rd

My poor baby was exhausted by the time I got home this afternoon. Both little ones had fevers and his was getting the better of him.

Project 365 - February 2nd, 3rd, 4th & 5th

Today, Orin had an ultrasound of his kidneys and bladder. This is a typical monitoring procedure for little guys with NDI. They are monitoring for damage due to the quantity of water he is drinking and the potential dehydration that can occur. It is a bit of a milestone.

Gung Hei Fat Choy!

Just a pen, right? No. There is no such thing as "just a pen" to those of us who use them regularly. We have favourite inks and favourite grips and weights and favourite features. This pen is from a friend's company and I love it. It isn't just a black pen or even a multi-ink pen. One of those little levers controls a mechanical pencil!!!! I don't think I can adequately express how happy this makes me.

The kids having a great time in the fancy carts at Home Depot

Project 365 - February 1st

My space at work is coming together. I've got most of my decorations and functional stuff organized and in place. I think I am ready for the influx of students and insanity tomorrow (assuming we don't get a snow day).

Project 365 - January 31st & Attn: Fredericton Drivers

Another combo post!! Aren't you lucky!!

So with my being on maternity leave for a year, very seldom did I have to drive during peak hours, so I didn't deal with other drivers in nearly the quantity I do while working. Remembering the joy of dealing with other drivers was an unexpected "perk" of my return to work today. As a direct result of my recent dealings with my fellow motorists, I have developed this far-from-exhaustive list of requests and suggestions for my friends behind their respective wheels.

• You see that little stick jutting out from the left side of your steering column? When you flick it up or down, lights on the front and back of your vehicle flash, indicating that you will be turning. I know that you've been advised of this little tidbit before, because, as a child, I heard my mother teach a similar lesson, using somewhat more colourful language.
  
  
• Right-of-way is your friend. It prevents accidents and keeps traffic flowing. Learn it, love it. By the way, just because you are turning left does not mean you have to wait for all of the other traffic at the four-way stop to clear out before going. Just sayin'.
  
  
• And while I appreciate your attempts to recreate your childhood dream of joining the circus as a tight-rope walker, I would appreciate it if you didn't straddle the white line into my lane while living out your imaginings. You use your lane; I'll use mine and we'll all get where we are going without my needing to hire the team from CSI to hunt you down through analysis of the paint transfer left behind after you side-swipe me in your ugly taupe car.
  
  
• If you can't park, you can't drive. I think this is reasonable. No matter how amazing you are at conducting your vehicle, if you can't manage to leave it somewhere in a sensible and respectful fashion, the fact that you can get it there is a moot point. I'm talking to you Mr.I-drive-a-GIANT-Hemi-powered-pickup-so-I-can-park-across-as-many-parking-spots-as-I-want. Those of us who had to drive around for approximately ten minutes in order to find a spot in the movie theatre parking lot salute you and your douchebaggery.
  
  
• Finally, you may be following too close if I can't see your headlights in my rearview mirror, but I can see you picking your nose, despite it being dark out.

Project 365 - January 18th & 19th

Getting my school stuff out of storage.

Orin trying out some toys at daycare during our visit today.

Slightly obsessive...

I am, that is. When I get it in my head that I love or want something, sometimes, I fixate so strongly on it that it becomes an obsession.

My newest one? My hair in my profile pic --------->

This was achieved by using a cone-shaped curling iron. I am obsessed with finding one now. Locally, they seem nearly impossible to find. I've found one on the internet: Le Angelique, but the reviews on it are only so-so and I know that because my hair is thick and heavy, I need an iron that will heat up quite hot.

Anyone else have any suggestions?

Project 365 - January 9th

Isabel and I enjoying hot chocolate after a bit of sliding.

Project 365 - January 6th

My newest candy addiction is peanut M&M's. I have been eating them nearly every evening off and on since September. The largest bag you can get here is 525g (18.5oz). When we went to the U.S. most recently, I was puttering around the the food section, looking for Dave's Twinkies and came across this beauty! 42oz!! More than TWICE AS MUCH M&M's for the same price!!! I am in heaven.

Project 365 - January 4th

Looking like a GAP ad for hoodies

BONUS PHOTO!

Fun with Photobooth

Holiday Rundown

December was a wild ride with lots of events, guests, food, festivities and fun! If we play the numbers game, this is how the month would look:

• 11 human guests, the longest stay was 28 days and the shortest was 2 hours
  
• 6 furry guests, same visit lengths as their human counterparts
  
• A handful of "disagreements" between furry friends - only a couple resulted in flying fur
  
• 3 trips to the vet, one of which had us taking Ivy to a dignified and graceful exit from this world
  
• 2 days of heat pump installation by a really professional company - they were a pleasure to work with (Degree Technologies)
  
• 3 batches of shortbread
  
• 3 doctor appointments, all with SHINING reviews
  
• 2 performances by a little lady (dance class recital and preschool Christmas concert)
  
• 1 GoogleChat in which the soon-to-be new in laws were introduced
  
• 3 nights of Shadows Over Camelot (I was a successful traitor 2 of the 3 :D)
  
• SO MUCH good food, including a huge turkey dinner and a few nights of delectable cheese.....there was other finger food too, but mostly cheese ;)
  
• 3 delicious breakfasts
  
• 3 cans of Awesome
  
• Innumerable thoughtful gifts, including, but not limited to, my mother-in-law's helping with the housework in a huge way, my sister-in-law's leaving me her much-coveted circle scarf, my new MacBook Pro from my dear husband and my son's showing me just how healthy he is and convincing me he will be fine when I go back to work :)
  
• 7 inches of snow AFTER our green Christmas
  
• 1 3-year old who is absolutely smitten with her grandparents, aunts and uncle
  
• 3 indoor/outdoor cats who are likely just recovering from a serious bout of cabin fever
  
• 1 visit from Santa that injected a bit of magic into all of our lives
  
• Many nights of unbathed, over-tired children - all of which were worth it to be able to share the holiday with our families :)
  
• 3 sliding afternoons, followed closely by hot chocolate, of course
  
• 1 very handsome Christmas tree (good call, honey!)
  
• 1 batch of peanut butter balls
  
• 1 viewing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (SO glad to have seen this - thanks mother-in-law!)
  
• Over 200 photographs of everything from Cricut crafts to cookies, from my first baby performing on a stage for the first time to my second baby standing on his own
  
• More than I can count craft projects from school, daycare and home
  
• 7 Christmas specials from my childhood that have now been introduced to my little girl
  
• 1 seriously fast bum scooter who kept us all on our toes (the boy can cover the length of the living room in about 10 seconds)
  
• 4 batches of chocolate chip cookies
  
• 38 Christmas cards sent to loved ones near and far
  
• 6 blog posts
  
• Dozens of repetitions of "the hippopotamus song".
  
• 1 tooth NEARLY cut through the gum (it has been bulging and causing symptoms for a few weeks now
  
• 7 people with sniffly noses or fevers thanks to some crappy little flu bugs and allergies
  
• 1 last minute road-trip to the US to pick up a few things
  
• Many hours spent alternating between a pink princess dress with high heels and nudity by our little furnace girl

That about covers it. If I think of anything else, I'll write an update :)

UPDATE (thanks to Dave)

• A tableful of candy
  
• An unknown number of illicitly acquired jellybeans
  
• Thousands of Santa sparkles in the house and yard
  
• 2 runs with the snowblower to clean out the driveway (and my friend still had to park practically on the road when she and her daughter came sliding)
  
• ~70lb of cat litter
  
• 11 silly hats, 6 racing penguins and, inevitably, a few missing cracker prizes

UPDATE (via Courtney in the comments)

• about 15 trips down the stairs to lug Lily the wanna be cat-ambassador out of the basement
  
• 25 Tassimo Coffee disks
  
• Lots. And lots. of Tea.

More from the Creative Mind of an Unemployed Educator

Not for long, admittedly...I am back to work on January 31st, but until then, you lucky folks get to endure the absurd things that my mind puts out there.
Last night, we watched the first two episodes in a British mini-series called Misfits , which is about a group of young offenders who acquire super powers as result of being caught in a very curious storm.
This morning, at breakfast, my father-in-law handed me the pancakes in such a fashion that demonstrated his amazing thumb strength (his hand was upside down in comparison to how most of us would have picked it up, resulting in his thumb being on the bottom of the plate and taking the better part of the weight). When I commented on this, making light of it, the others chimed in with comments about his "super strength." This fleshed out in my mind to a "superpower." Not only are his thumbs superstrong, but they also summon people from miles around. People are uncontrollably drawn in his direction as soon as he sticks out his thumb in order to hitchhike. Really a very useful superpower....for a hobo.