As They Grow Up

The kids have really settled in nicely in Aburg! Kanga got a solo role in the spring play, and tonight we got to hear it! She did so well! I was a good decision to pull her out of theater this year, and frankly they didn't contact us about her being in it again anyway! That's just fine. We didn't want anything to do with that company...

So she sang We're All Made of Stars as Wendy tonight. She rocked it, and the parents and teachers all made a point to tell me. They didn't have to, but she really did a great job. Way to go kid!

 I finally got my baby's birth story published a month ago, and she's already 13 1/2 months! Crap! I have seriously neglected this blog! Oh well.

Let me see...

I continue to be Paleo. And I am now Paleo, not Primal. I have given up dairy as it messes with my body and doesn't do good things to my milk for baby. She is intolerant/allergic/sensitive/whatever to dairy and it's not good.

I am lifting 3x a week, still Primal Blue Print (http://www.MarksDailyApple.com) and feel great!

I am working through PPD (post-partum depression) and have no idea why it is the baby with which I received the most support that I am having these issues! My main thing is rage. Yes, rage. And when I have diary, it is that much worse! I have been taking vervain tincture (from my very own back yard) to combat this, and it works wonders!! I am usually a very patient person, but the PPD has me flipping out all the time. I do my damnedest to keep my top on, and not blow up at the poor big kids, and I am winning the good fight! A main time of rage would be while changing Skylark's diapers. She, like all babies who learn to move, would roll over. This would utterly infuriate me, and I would have to leave a naked baby on the floor and walk away for a few min. Fortunately, it was almost always after a potty so very few messes!

Yes, we are doing EC (elimination communication) again with Skylark. She hasn't mastered it quite like Kanga did at this age, and I fully blame it on me and my PPD. Flarge that. I don't give a Flarge. Yes, Flarge. I have been a horrible potty mouth while working out the PPD, and Flarge is my current exploitative that is kid friendly. So, Flarge that!

Back to EC: Skylark is great when I am out and remember to take her! She will give me signals and we can go through only 1 whoops a day. She is such a happy, easy going kid!

She is still breastfed, and I introduced almond milk at 11mo. She loves it! Once we found out about the dairy, I had to cut it form my own diet, but I also had to figure out what to supplement her's with. I chose almond milk for the calcium, and have been trying to work out how to get the OMEGAs (eggs, fish) into her that are in cows milk. Frankly, there is very little need for dairy.

Let me see...

Monkey is now 10. I'm not a fan of boy-entering-puberty-10. He is a cool kid, but sometimes he is as stubborn as, well me. It gets annoying! I love the kid to pieces, and he still loves his hugs and kisses good night (don't let him know I posted that here!). He now needs to shower more often (and actually wash when he goes in there, not just stand there for a bit), and ya know, it helps if you turn on the shower!

He went to camp for the first time this year! A whole week without my dude! I missed him, he missed me, but he had a great time too. He said he loved everything except being away from me. I told him that growing up is learning to be away from your parents for periods of time and that it gets easier each time. Not so sure how that works for moms. I did okay, but I definitely missed my dude!

Kanga is now 5! Holy crap! She loves to play with her friends and invites them to the park almost daily. She still likes little toys, and we are trying to get her in the routine of cleaning up her room every night. Other wise it looks like a bomb of petshops, lalaloopsies, and ponies has gone off!

She too went to camp! She thought it was an over night camp, but it was a day camp. She had a blast and loved showing me all the things she made. :)

Oh Skylark! As I said, happy kid! Always smiling and laughing! She is already a year! She loves balls, animals, and is slowly starting to sleep longer. Being 11:30, she will be waking up soon! I'd better get this done! *lol* She is walking, and starting to run. She says about 50 words if I actually made a list, and when we went to the Toronto Zoo on the weekend she was amazed! The wonder in here eyes made it all worth while!

Seeing as she will be waking soon, I'll close up for now, and hopefully I can get into some sort of routine as to entries. Not holding my breath though! Good night for now!

We mothers love to share our birth stories. The peaceful ones, the easy ones, but also our triumphs over the harder ones. This birth, my third and final falls under the later. My son's birth was peaceful, and not too bad pain wise until it was time to push. At that point I discovered the miracle that is channeling your energy into that life giving effort, and how pain goes to effort to joy. My older daughter's birth was by far the easiest. I walked between contractions, danced with my husband through them, but never felt pain. My midwife didn't believe me that I was in labour, and when we finally convinced her to check me I was 8cm and we barely made it to the hospital. Left at 5:45, arrived at 6:10, born at 6:25.

 For my younger daughter, my birth was as different as the pregnancy. I gained half the weight, leaned out over all, and was all belly! Everyone commented on how great I looked, how low baby sat, and how big he or she was going to be! I was not prepared for the intense cramping contractions. My son's contractions were like bad period cramps, but these were crazy! I felt them for 2 days at varrying regularity and intensity. We went in to the hospital on Friday, June 22 around 7pm fully expecting to progress and bring home a baby! Baby had other plans, so home we went to wait it out.

At this point it was already 48 hours, but more like my older daughter's labour so not horrible by any means. Saturday morning at 1am I started contracting more regularly, more intense, and again we called our midwife. Again she went home after I was only 2 1/2cm. Saturday we patiently waited for things to pick up, restart, common! But nothing happened, and we figured baby had been getting her occipital posterior position sorted out (our midwife confirmed the frontal fontanel was now at 5 o'clock Friday night) and we were in for the wait again!

Sunday morning, I woke up around 2:30/3am and laid in bed debating whether to get up and move to ease the cramping again setting in. At 3:30am I did get up and started rocking, pacing and timing. 5min, 35-40sec... Not enough to call back the midwife. I woke Matt up at 4am, and he was watching me labour, obviously in more pain than with our older daughter, and asking when I wanted to call our midwife. I had said 5/5:30am, and I stuck to that. I called her at 5:30am.

She came and assessed me by 6am, and I was only 3 1/2-4cm. She noticed that my contractions were intensifying and getting closer though, so we packed up and headed for the hospital. My brother and sister-in-law were down for the weekend, so they stayed with the kids. The plan had been to bring them with us to see the miracle of birth, but also for my older daughter to see that birth doesn't have to be painful. This was not a birth that illustrated that! This was a painful birth, that while it only lasted from 3am-9am was hard work and made me a potty mouth.

We got to the hospital shortly before 7am, and I paced, danced through contractions and tried to keep my pain under control chanting 'down' as hypnobabies had taught me for my older daughter. It certainly moved baby down, and by 8am I was feeling pushy. A check found I was only 6cm, and I was seriously disappointed! With my older daughter I felt pushy, pushed, water broke, and baby.  No such luck this time!

That last hour was awful. I danced but my left calf cramp was still hurting, so I laid on my side for a bit. That made things worse. It helped get a good read on baby who was happy through contractions though. At this point I did my typical every few minutes gotta pee. At one point, I got stuck. I had 5 back to back to back contractions of extreme intensity on the toilet squatting and couldn't get up. Finally a peak passed and I was helped because I was still mid contraction, but we needed to get me up!

Shortly after, my midwife reassessed me to be 7cm, and called the second midwife. When she arrived I consented to breaking my water. Big mistake. It confirmed meconium in the water (three for three) so the respiratory therapy team was put on standby, but it made me need to push and I was NOT dilated enough! I fought my body the best I could to he-he-who through contractions to get fully dilated, but I lost. My midwife tried pushing my cervix aside so I could push, no go. It was a battle of body over will and body won. A lot of 'open your eyes and focus' with me shouting 'no!' and 'you're going to hurt yourself, focus!'

Finally (really only a few minutes but an eternity in that situation), I was fully dilated and given the go ahead to stop fighting the urge. I felt baby's head click (yay occipital posterior), and push I did! 3 minutes later baby was born. She had the umbilical cord around her neck (two for three) but loosely so after a quick slip I was told to 'Push, let's get this baby out!'

Only after baby was on my chest did I ask Matt if it was a boy, which I had thought the whole time, and after being late (like her big brother), labour being tough (like her big brother), the cord (yep, like her big brother), I was surprised (like I said I'd be), to find that there was a little girl on my chest! And a LITTLE girl! 7lbs, 7oz and 19 3/4"! I had fully expected at least 8lbs, but happy, healthy and perfect. :) She got cleaned up by daddy, nursed for an hour, and after a shower we went home! ❤

Well, I had a talk with Monkey. One of 'the' talks. Yes we talked about walking to school on his own. We've talked every once and a while all year about him walking on his own. He likes our walks, and that was part of his hesitance, but we still walk the dog together.

Thursday morning it happened! I hugged him, wished him a good day and off he went. No call from school, so I figured he got there. I've walked him almost every day all school year and it's a straight line, so not yard. I had full confidence in him.

No more bubble wrapped kid. Not that he was at too much of a risk. I let my kids make mistakes and have both space AND independence. ;)

While this is our 3rd child, and I have gotten the necessities off kijiji, I have held off on some purchases knowing people like to give too. I am a registry person (only just stopped registering the kids for Christmas because it wasn't worth it!), so Glider has registries at Cheeky Monkey in London (my favourite baby boutique and for London friends):
View My Registry
And at Babies'R'Us (Toys'R'Us)
Babies'R'Us Registry #60517182

You may have noticed that my annual X-Mas letter is getting later and later. This year I set out to have it emailed by March break. Therefore, I have 2 days to write and edit. It will be out shortly! Promise! :D

By Author Unknown (if you know who wrote it, PLEASE let me know, but borrowed from http://www.addictinginfo.org/2011/11/13/are-you-sick-of-highly-paid-teachers/)

Teachers’ hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work 9 or10 months a year! It’s time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do – babysit!

We can get that for less than minimum wage.

That’s right. Let’s give them $3.00 an hour and only the hours they worked; not any of that silly planning time, or any time they spend before or after school. That would be $19.50 a day (7:45 to 3:00 PM with 45 min. off for lunch and plan– that equals 6 1/2 hours).

Each parent should pay $19.50 a day for these teachers to baby-sit their children. Now how many students do they teach in a day…maybe 30? So that’s $19.50 x 30 = $585.00 a day.

However, remember they only work 180 days a year!!! I am not going to pay them for any vacations.

LET’S SEE….

That’s $585 X 180= $105,300 per year. (Hold on! My calculator needs new batteries).

What about those special education teachers and the ones with Master’s degrees? Well, we could pay them minimum wage ($7.75), and just to be fair, round it off to $8.00 an hour. That would be $8 X 6 1/2 hours X 30 children X 180 days = $280,800 per year.

Wait a minute — there’s something wrong here! There sure is!

The average teacher’s salary (nation wide) is $50,000. $50,000/180 days = $277.77/per day/30 students=$9.25/6.5 hours = $1.42 per hour per student–a very inexpensive baby-sitter and they even EDUCATE your kids!) WHAT A DEAL!!!!

Make a teacher smile; repost this to show appreciation for all educators.

This happened YEARS ago (5 this Feb), but I still think of it at times. I went to a friends house to go to a catalogue party. We were staying at her parents, so we were sitting down for supper together. It was the first time I'd met them, so uncomfortable to begin with!

Any way, her mom or dad asked me where my son was for the weekend, and I said he was with my mom. His/her response still has me upset at times, comparing my successes to hers, wondering if in his/her eye I would measure up, etc. S/he said he was my responsibility, not hers.

You all know I go out very rarely, and that was the first time with friends without my son, period. He was 3! I replied that I know that, and I do my best, to which was retorted that maybe I shouldn't be in school because I have other priorities!

Obviously this still bothers me. I have since finished my BA, earned my BEd, AQs, been a successful MOTHER, teacher, and am now starting my own business!

I AM successful, and have always put my FAMILY first! Think before you speak. Words do hurt, and they did not know me one bit.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Cabana Rd E,Windsor,Canada

A LOT has happened since I last wrote! Sorry it's taken me so long to write again! I can't believe it's been over a year!

Loki is a year and a bit, 38.8lbs, adorable and getting to be a very well mannered pup.

Tips is 9, wowsa! He's being toilet trained, and has been healthy cat with no more issues with the crystals this year.


Now us! We moved to a South London apartment at Easter. It got us out of a rut, Korbin away from his bullies (and unfortunately also his awesome teacher), and saw Amberle in Daycare. Korbin did great at Ashley Oaks (it's great to 'interview' schools while supply teaching!) and had another great teacher there. 2 in one year!

He stopped karate in October, things weren't working out. We put him in swimming, and he loved it! He's in level 3 now and swimming full lengths of the pool! :)


Amberle misses her London friends, but also loved making new ones at her 'school.' Her daycare was attached to Korbin's school, which made drop offs in the morning a lot easier! She made new friends, and talked about them at home too.

Korbin started baseball in May, and took to it very well! He only played for a couple weeks though, because ... We moved again!


June 25 and 26, we moved to our new home in Windsor! As Korbin put it, we moved from South London to South Windsor. ;)


It was a chaotic time, as I also had my first LTO (long term occasional) contract, meaning I filled in for a 7/8 teacher from April to June 15. Report cards and all! ;) At least I had a bit of off time to pack!


As I said, we moved June 25/26. School wasn't done until June 29 though! Korbin, Amberle and I camped out in the empty apartment! Matt joined us on Monday and glad he did because we forgot the air pump for the mattresses! We had to come back though, because my class had grad and the kids had school. A move to remember. :)

It's been nearly 2 months now, and the boxes are empty, we're settled in, and we love having our very first very own home!

Korbin has made lots of friends on the street, Amberle has found one too, and even Loki. Tomorrow is my first open house for my new business, There & Back Again.http://www.ThereAndBackAgainON.ca I can't wait to meet interested clients and their children, my students to be!

More later, and hopefully sooner!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Maguire St,Windsor,Canada

<-- Loki coming home

I've had it with my kid being ganged up on! Monkey has had at least one bully every year he's been in school, and this year it has gotten to the point of several kids ganging up on him. He's been telling me that four boys have been choking him, and punching him, and when he went to tell the teacher, they would block him and threaten him that they'd hurt him even worse if he told. AND bribing him! He said that one offered him a bakugan for not telling, another some other toy, and that's just ridiculous! He was to the point of not wanting to tell me because I wanted to know details to tell him principal.

Well, I can't just stand by, so I called his principal on Wednesday after work, and she called each of the four boys into her office. We thought the problem was solved, but on Thursday, five other boys were on him!

The story was that Monkey was digging a moat for their fort, when they decided they didn't want him to. One kicked snow in his face, and when Monkey went to tell the teacher, they all chased him and tried to jump on him. The first one missed, but the second one got him so they all dog piled on top of him. When they finally got off and Monkey was getting up, they took turns punching him in the back! Finally he got to the teacher and they had to stand on the wall. Hardly a severe enough punishment.

I marched him into the Principal's office to tell her what had happened and Matt got a call yesterday that they each had it marked on their permanent records, and had consequences at school. I hope this is the end of it and that things don't get worse because I'm standing up for my kid!

I got to meet a whole bunch of new people last night at the London Ontario Pagans Coffee Social! Dona decided to have an open house to discuss what we could do to get more people out, and tada! A little entertainment, and a little freedom to discuss what they want and the people will come! We even ran out of coffee for what Donna announced is the first time! :) Yay! Definitely had a great time and got to see some friends I hadn't seen for a while!

What a lucky kid! From us, he got a bullet bill (Super Mario) t-shirt, a new gui top, and tickets to Medieval Times (details to follow). From Aunt Fiona and Uncle Andrew he got three bionicles. From Uncle Mike and Aunt Ni-cool he got a ninja motorcycle and King Kong cartoon show. From Grandma and Grandpa Ross he got Mario at the Olympics for Wii. From Grandpa and Grandma Susan he got a trip bowling and a bit of money. Finally, from Nanny and Papa, he got a IOU for some heeleys and new snowpants and a card with some moula from Uncle Drew! Uncle Jason and Aunt Amanda sent him a gift (the lego set right?) with the Christmas bundle too! What a lucky kid!

And the details for Medieval Times!...

I picked Monkey up at 1pm from school on Friday, Feb 5 so we could get in the car and head off to Nanny and Papa's (I had a delightful class that morning by the way!). We got off on schedule and Kanga settled in nicely! As soon as daddy arrived, we were off to Toronto! We took the 403 for the first time, and it was a rather simple drive!

Once we found our parking, we realized we were only a few metres from the entrance! Score! Walked right in, no lines as we were nice and early. ;) We got our yellow knight passes for table 4 and in to the castle we went!

We got Monkey a foam sword and shield right off the bat, and paid for his birthday knighting. That meant that he got a little ceremony, his picture, and his name announced with his birthday in the event! Pretty cool for $20! That was all done by about 6:30 though, and the show wasn't until 7. We wandered around, and went through the dungeon of torture. Not really a Monkey appropriate show!

Time passed quickly enough though, and before we knew it, we were listening to the master of ceremonies introduce the story, and in we went! Yellow got to go first! :) We were seated in the second row, and right at the centre back of the auditorium. I thought it was great! Soon we were being served our soup, and we bought Monkey a yellow flag to cheer for our knight.

We ate tomato soup, roasted chicken (1/2), a rib, 1/2 a roasted potato, and a slice of garlic bread. It was all eaten with our hands and we loved it! For dessert we had an apple pastry, and Monkey's had a candle in it. The show was great, and our knight was very skilled. I won't tell you the story though, you can go see for yourselves! ;)

After the show, and all through it, Monkey kept saying "This is the best birthday ever!" He loved it! Hooray! Once the show was over, Monkey bought a t-shirt and a dvd. He also got the yellow knight to sign his flag. All the characters were standing around the bar to chat and sign things. It was cool!

We headed out and on to Fiona's around 10, and had a nice visit before heading off to bed. In the morning, Andrew and Fiona made us a huge birthday breakfast and had cupcakes too. Monkey thought it was great! After wards, they took us all to Zellers for Monkey to choose a birthday gift (the 3 bionicles mentioned above), and then it was off to Nanny and Papa's to have a birthday lunch and get Kanga!

From the updates, we knew that she had slept well, and all night! I wasn't concerned a bit! Then we found out that our poor little girl had been sick a couple times and needed her bed changed, and a bath to wash out her hair! Poor thing! Nanny didn't want to worry us, and she hadn't had a fever, so Nanny and Uncle Drew took care of her and made her feel better. Luckily she was over that bit of flu quickly! Still not very hungry for the next couple of days, but happy and not throwing up!

We had a light lunch as we got in a bit late, and then had burgers and fries for supper. Monkey was getting tired, and time was flying, so we headed out after a home made cake.

Yesterday (Feb 13) dad and Susan came to take us bowling. We went to Fleetway, which has an attached Dairy Queen, so we had lunch and then hit the lanes! We all did quite well and had a blast! Monkey broke a hundred for the first time, and yes we love the bumpers. ;)

So, I promised some pics of Kanga in her new mitts and of the fort we built! Here ya go. Monkey and Kanga in our rebuilt fort.

The Original Melting

Kanga crawling into the freshly rebuilt fort, and Kanga breaking the freshly rebuilt fort. Monkey wasn't too happy, but I had to laugh! She had watched Monkey and I crash through the melting fort and thought she should try it too! Clearly her new mitts were working! She had such a riot in the fort that day that I had to stay out with her a little extra! We went for a walk to the end of the sidewalk, and then I threw her in the snowbanks a few times. She thought that was the greatest!

We also now have an orange belt in the family. Monkey progressed through the 10 little dragon belts (red, yellow, orange, gold, purple, green, blue, brown, black, black 1st dan) and then joined the black dragon class at the yellow rank in September (skipped red and red advanced due to completing the little dragon program). He chose to take the summer off to try gymnastics, and then went right back to the karate training when school began.

Monkey has been doing very well at school since returning after winter holidays too. His communication book has had little but good comments! :)

And on to illness...Kanga yet again had a bout of bronchitis. Last weekend (January 15,16,17) she started to get a cough. When she gets a cough it tends to quickly get into her chest, and by Monday it sounded like it was going that way, so I took the morning off of volunteering to take her into the walk-in clinic. We were in and out fast enough, but the doctor wasn't very helpful. He asked what was wrong, and I said that she had a cough, and having had bronchitis two times since her birthday (late May early June and in September) I was concerned that it would quickly turn that way again. He said that bronchitis is over diagnosed, and that any chest congested cough is bronchitis. Okay, fine. He told me to just call it a chest cold and not call it bronchitis. Okay, fine. He told me my little girl was fine and not to worry about it. Uh, no.

Home we went, momma unhappy, baby still coughing and her inhaler not doing a whole lot as far as I could tell.

Tuesday I kept her home too, as she was still not better and we'd been up all night between her coughing and just being miserable. I got the vaporizer out at 2:30 and she felt well enough to fall asleep around 4:00. We got a whole 2 1/2 hours of sleep! Yay!

Tuesday night, listening to my poor baby, I decided that if we were up all night again I would be taking her back to the walk-in to get another doctor to take a look at her.

Indeed we were up all night once again, and I had the vaporizer going an hour before bed to make sure the air was moist, got her risers under her crib legs to get an angle so she could get to sleep, and alas! My poor baby couldn't sleep until about 5:30 when she was just too exhausted to keep her eyes open any longer!

Wednesday morning we dropped of Monkey and in we went to have Kanga looked at again. We got the doctor who did her follow-up in June (and prescribed the inhaler after the liquid Ventolin was a pain in the ...) and she was not impressed. She saw Kanga in the waiting room on Monday and assumed she'd been looked after. When she saw my baby she said who let you get so sick! I told her that I brought her in on Monday and the doctor had said she was fine. She looked at the chart and said she'd be speaking with him. Nice.

She then listened to me and my concerns, including that Matt had strep throat on the weekend and that the other doctor hadn't looked in her mouth. Poor Kanga's throat was red and tonsils swollen, her airway was very congested, and she told me that if Kanga started wheezing at all to get her straight to the emergency room... She prescribed her some antibiotic for her bronchitis, potential tonsillitis, and said that if there was an ear infection rather than bothering Kanga more by probing, the antibiotic would wipe that out too. As she hadn't had any fever, I doubt she had an ear infection, but she's all cleared out now!

Anyway, my baby was on antibiotic every 8hrs (so a dose at 2:30 with Monkey's potty break), Ventolin (her inhaler) every 4hrs, and Tylenol for her throat every 4hrs. I gave her Tylenol before we left (I'd given her Ventolin at 7:30 so it wasn't time yet) and we were off to Shoppers! I also needed to get her the bigger AeroChamber spacer as her baby one from a few months ago is too small!

A week later, and she is MUCH better. All that 1st doctor had to do was give her a script so she didn't get so bad. She has a history, we know what is going to happen, and yes, the A word (asthma) was brought up again. Matt doesn't think she has asthma, as he sees kids with the condition all the time, but we will find out either way and it doesn't matter one bit to me. It is a lot more controllable now then it used to be, so she won't be limited if she does have it, and it would seem that it is a seasonal when sick thing for her anyway!

The kids are getting bigger, and so they are moving more in their beds! Soon I'll need to be making Kanga some sheets, and this pattern is awesome! I'm going to put it in action as soon as I can get some time and some money for fabric. :)

I also made some adapted mittens on a string/mitten shirt for Kanga. She refuses to keep her mitts on, and while making a fort today this was a big problem. She was having a great time for about a half an hour, and then she just started screaming, and between the bit of snow on her hands and the bit that got into her mitts, I couldn't get them on. Matt took her in and decided to make some hot chocolate.

Anyway, we now have the base of our fort started (photos tomorrow), and Monkey and I worked for about an hour. After the yummy hot chocolate I went upstairs and measured (with Matt's help restraining) Kanga's arm span and grabbed some scrap polar fleece. I had some left over leopard print so it'll match her jacket! It's a strip and then folded over to cover half of her arm. No snow up the arms either! Once done (double layered with some pink) I strapped them on and sure enough she couldn't get out even without her jacket on! I think this will work perfectly! No thumbs, but at 20mos (so very close) she doesn't really need them! It'd just get in the way, and we don't use them in her mitts anyway. I'm excited to see how much longer she stays out tomorrow once she stops fighting the mitts!

If I missed anything in the title, then sorry, but it has been a while again!


1. Work:
I have had a relatively consistent work load since getting that call October 19th-ish. I get at least two days of work a week, and have met a wonderful teacher who calls me in regularly. For professional, student safety, and privacy reasons I can't disclose any names or locations, but I really enjoy his grade 8s. They're a great bunch of kids who strive to achieve rather than slumping off their work! It's great!


2. Earrings:
Ms. Kanga has learned to take them out. This started in September, and wasn't really an issue. I'd just put them back in and we'd be fine. About a month ago, I believed she'd eaten one. I found her earringless and one chewed. I could not for the life of her find the other. I got some gloves, fed her plenty of prunes (which she eats like candy) and off we went. Several movements later I had still not found it and concluded she must not have eaten it, but mentioned it to the dr at her 18mos checkup anyway. We came home with an x-ray req and that night while changing Monkey's sheets I found the missing earring! YAY!


She still takes them out, but I now know she's not going to eat them, and more often than not she hands them to me. Sometimes I am missing a back, but for now she's wearing a cleaned up pair of my old studs that are quite difficult to take out. I'm looking into getting her some labret studs (flat back and screw on ball) so she can still have her pretties but I don't have to worry about her taking them out! ;)


Yule:
As many of you know, I am a practicing pagan of the Correllian Nativist Tradition. That being said, Yule is the time of year when we mark the changing of the seasons. The Old God Cerunous, passes into the dark, and the Mother Goddess gives birth to the Young God. For this reason, the colours of white (Maiden Goddess and birth) and red (Mother Goddess) are used to decorate the Yule tree and domicile.


I also purchased our first live Yule tree this year. Unfortunately it will not fit my master plan. I started out on a 10 year plan of purchasing one young potted Yule tree per year for 10 years (to start with). In the spring, the tree will be planted with the ashes of the previous year's Yule log to fertilize it. After 10 years, the tree should be of appropriate height to be harvested and light our home to repeat the cycle. Well, I didn't notice that the Alberta Spruce I bought was a dwarf. This means that it grows exceptionally slow (about 2"/year) and will never be more than 6". That might be tall enough if I can get under it right to the ground to harvest, but we will see! 2"x10yrs is 20" on top of the already 20" in height. That would not be a very tall tree! Anyway, I'll just have to get a proper sized tree in the spring to fertilize with the ashes from our Yule log, and buy a harvested full grown Yule tree for the first year!


As to our festivities, on Monday the 21st, we woke before the Sun to open gifts. The kids each got an activity tray, 3 neopets, and a movie/game. Monkey got Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction, and Kanga got Dora Saves the Snow Princess. Then Monkey also got a Bilibo Pixel. It's a cube with interchangeable button like sides in six colours. This way, Monkey can make up as many games as he likes and it's all in a neatly (40% off) packaged sack. It also came with a few suggestions to get him started. As always there was also a book to go with it all! :) Kanga's other gifts were a stuffed lavender scented puppy, and a Crayola colour wonder Dora pad. The colour wonders are the markers that only colour on the colour wonder paper and nothing else. Great for little ones who want to use markers, but also enjoy colouring themselves! Matt gave me some jammie pants and an iTunes card, and I gave him a palm wallet and an iTunes care. Korbin gave me an "I love my mom" photo frame, and Matt a TimsCard (for TimBits!). We also had a family gift of Harry Potter Year 6 (gah! can't remember the name right now!).

After opening gifts (stockings included some mommy made chocolates so Monkey could eat them too), Monkey and I went out on the porch (as the Sun was rising) and said thank you to the Goddess for giving us back the God to warm the Earth again for Spring, and then it was off to Donna's! We hung out for the day (quietly as Rod was sleeping) and then had a pot luck dinner. I brought sweet potatoes...mmm!

4. Christmas:
Christmas Eve we headed over to Wayne and Olwyn/Papa and Nanny/Matt's parents to begin our Christmas traditions. Kanga was in a mood unfortunately, so she and I stayed back while the rest went to the Christmas Eve service. When they got back, we hung out, and chatted. Other years we put up the tree, but this year it was already done!

Christmas morning, we woke up Monkey, and the kids and Matt opened their stockings. After they let me sleep in a bit (Kanga does NOT sleep well in other places the 1st night) I got up and opened my stocking. Then it was breakfast cake time before digging into the tree. :) This year I made soap for every one. I made lavender, milk and honey, calendula tea tree, and aloe oatmeal. I found neat little boxes to put them in and wrapped them in tissue paper so they could keep drying. Soap is best aged at least 5 years, and optimal at 10 years. Home made soap is no different, but will last a lot longer as it doesn't have any chemical alterations other than the necessary soaponification of the olive oil. It seemed to go over well!

Monkey got some comfy jammies, reindeer book, and battle ship from Dad and Susan. A StarWars telescope and books galore from Nanny and Papa. Clothes galore, a toque from Roar of the Rings, and a dinosaur cart action player thingy from Mom and Ross. He was spoiled again and he loves it! He also got gifts from a few of my friends. :)

Kanga got some comfy jammies, a horse cart, and a soft bowling set from Dad and Susan. A dancing Dora and books galore from Nanny and Papa. Clothes galore, a toque from Roar of the Rings, and an baby surprise Cabbage Patch Kid (a baby girl!) from Mom and Ross. She too was spoiled and is loving her gifts, and she too got some things from my friends. :)

5. New Years:
HOME ONLY! :D We decided again this year to stay home and just chill out for New Years. Kanga stayed up until about 9, which is quite late for her, and the boys played Wii. I played Wii Frisbee golf with them but had to miss a few holes to take Kanga to bed. Matt did quite well for me! ;)

After that we put in Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone to begin our Harry Potter Marathon. We only got through the first two that night, so I watched four more yesterday.

Yesterday, the boys were playing Wii, or maybe Ratchet and Clank...I don't remember, but I told Monkey he needed to take a bathroom break, and halfway up the stairs he started crying! He's a tough kid, so I thought this was really weird and called Matt up. We had no idea, but when we couldn't settle him down stairs Matt decided to take him to the ER. Originally he was going to take him to University, but he decided to take him to Victoria just in case because they have the children's ER and facilities just in case. They left around 3:30pm, and while they were away, I got calls from mom and Wayne. I'm not one to announce anything before I know what's going on, plus I didn't want to worry anyone, so I didn't mention it.

On their way out the door, I told Matt to keep me up to date so I wouldn't worry to much. I didn't get any updates though! At 7:30pm when they finally got home, Matt told me that he'd forgotten his phone. It turned out that he likely had a tortioned testicle. A good thing we took him in. If it stays tortioned and undecended too long he'd need surgery to remove it. Luckily, on the way to the ultrasound, something in the way Matt was carrying him 'fixed' it. Monkey actually said to Matt "Dad! It's fixed!"

Like a good mommy, as soon as Kanga was in bed I headed outside to shovel the foot of snow off of our parking spot. Then I watched it, both waiting for the boys to get home, and making sure that my spot didn't get parked in! I hate it when I shovel my spot and others steal it! It happens too often, but not last night.

~*~*~*~
Well, I think that's it for now! Thank you so much everyone for all your generosity and hospitality. I had a great holiday, and hope you enjoy your soap! :)

That may seem rather strange to many of you, but really, it doesn't matter how much or how little we have, we still need more, don't have any, and can't figure out how to get the accounts to balance! I am frustrated because I have been getting very few calls to teach, and this really puts a stress on the family. Matt's not working as he's finishing his practical in Windsor and working hospital shifts. That makes it hard to see us let alone figure out where to slide in a shift at work! Therefore, I'm the sole income and I haven't had one!

Today that is changing. I worked today! First time in nearly a month, but I decided I need to think differently. As odd as that sounds, it seems to have worked. I was going to bed planning out the next day as we all do, but I kept saying to myself, "if I don't get a call then..." where as last night it was, "after work I need to..." and "I need to do ___ before I go to work". I got a call at 6:45 this morning! And what a great school it was! Grade 8 has become a niche for me, and while a lot of people think I'm nuts, I rather enjoy the 7/8s! I hung out in the staff room and snagged a half day for tomorrow too! Hopefully I can stop hating money and go back to ignoring it! :)

As most of you will know, September 8th was the first day of school. Some boards went back earlier, and Monkey's cousin was one of these unfortunate students. We got off to a grand start for grade one though and Monkey has a terrific teacher. They've made cupcakes to illustrate their birthday calendar (which he couldn't eat so she brought him cake in a mug the next day)! They've mixed yellow, red, and blue playdough to discover colours! And most importantly in my mind, she is supportive of our efforts to have a great year!

A vacation is grand isn't it! We went camping Friday to Sunday, and then up to Glen Miller (in Quinte West, just outside of Trenton) Monday to Friday.

Camping:
We went up to Conestogo Lake and had a wet and wonderful time. We checked in on Friday and had great weather. Our across the way neighbours announced ever so kindly that it's supposed to rain all weekend, and we refused to believe it until we saw it. Unfortunately we did.

Saturday morning, we went to the playground by the lake again, and planned to go to the beach after lunch. We went back to out camp site, and as lunch was cooking, the sky began to darken, and the wind began to pick up.

At about 1:30 the rain began. No swimming, but rain dancing an option! :) We crawled in the tent, and Kanga had a nice nap. 4:00 she woke up and the kids watched a movie (2? I don't remember) on the portable DVD player. Then Monkey and I played checkers, then he played with Matt. Then he wanted to play with me again, and as it was supper time, we had a decision to make. I voted to go into Listowel to get McDonalds as we could use some time out of the tent to stretch out legs. Not real camping I know, but necessary for 4 people in a tent all afternoon.

In we went and found a new movie. When we got back the DVD player wouldn't go, so we listened to Harry Potter for a bit until the kids fell asleep. We roasted some marshmallows in the rain first, and that was fun. Matt kept the coals hot all day just incase the rain stopped for a campfire.

It stopped raining sometime in the night, and we woke up dry although I can't say the same for the air mattresses and tent floor! We got everything packed up, and then I used a towel from the swimming bag to mop up the floor as best as I could. We were on the road by 8 to my surprise! Apparently Matt figured that when Kanga woke up at 6:30 we should all just get up and going! Makes sense, but early start! :)

Kanga didn't sleep too well, and thus didn't sleep on her air mattress (playpen didn't fit), she slept better the second night and was a daddy suck both nights. I slept great! I went to bed when I was tired, and didn't have the option of a TV to drone me to sleep (other wise known as keep me awake with the flickering screen), so I fell asleep soundly and only had Kanga to distract me. Love it!

Stop 2 Glen Miller!
I ♥ Glen Miller and I'll say it till the cows come home, or rather I get there and am happily living in my cottage like home, with my big back yard and the river to lul me to sleep. Okay, I have set my heart on a certain property, that will not be mentioned after this because my husband thinks I'm crazy for telling people (read 2) and getting my emotions involved.

If you've read or heard of "The Secret" however, you will understand that I believe in positive thinking bring you what you need and want. I went up there with the thought in mind to live in a certain area, and this property happened to be there. I will think positively that it will be mine! :)

Anyway, the vacation! I always love going up to visit Matt's brother as they have such a wonderful place. A nice home, a big back yard, and the canal right across the street. Forest in the back yard, conservation area within walking distance, and 2 great puppies! Not to mention they're great company! ;)

Monday we arrived a little before supper around 3 I think. We hung out, caught up and got everything set up for the week. We hit the beds early, and I slept wonderfully although Kanga was again not sure of her surroundings. Daddy suck once again. It was weird to have Monkey downstairs in the basement. This is the first time that he has had his own room to sleep in while we visited. Usually we break out the air mattress (always in the trunk for sleeping convenience) but this time he got to sleep in his cousin Jessica's bed, while the rest of us hunkered down in Zack's room (thanks!).

Tuesday we hit the beach. It was Amanda's only day off and we had a wonderful time. There was a great shallow area on the bay that they showed us, and Kanga was doggy paddling. Yes she was swimming on her own a little bit. She would crawl until she couldn't any more and then go a bit further before she sunk and I had to grab her up again. She thought it was the best! Not so great at back floats though and the panicked look on her face was only there the first time she sunk. Then it was a great game! What a kid!

Monkey went swimming with Matt and Zack, and Jason for a bit. Then he came in to play with Kanga, Amanda and I. Monkey had a riot playing with the big kids and once I convinced him to swim with his t-shirt on because we forgot his swimming shirt, he was good to go!

Wednesday, Matt, Monkey, Kanga, and I went to the airforce museum to check out the new planes that they were working on. They have done a lot of work in there! Monkey loved looking at the planes, and Kanga hung out in her Mei-Tai baby back pack style!

Thursday we hiked over to the "big rock" and Monkey got a huge kick out of it! Kanga back packed it again and fell asleep shortly after we got to the park. I don't think she saw the big rock! :) Oh well, we had a great hike and then headed back to chill out some more.

Friday we headed back home again. I miss it already. The closer we got to home, the more I wanted to turn back. Oh well, the count down is on!