Birthday Stiches

The phone rings at work, it is the daycare - my heart stops every time. It is Pam telling me that Ethan has a split lip. He split it on some ice and it was bleeding badly for a while, but the ice and the TLC helped out considerably. Pam tells me she thinks we are going to need somebody to look at it, so I finish up at work and off I go to get him.

When I get there, it is very obvious that he is going to need stitches. We head into the Ingersoll ER department for a 2 & 1/2 hour stay (I suppose it could have been worse). We get to the hospital and my kids are talking to every person that walks by them - no one can call them shy that is for sure.

We finally get called into the room to meet the doctor. Ethan tells a tall tale about whether he was part of the ice throwing but finally fesses up to the doctor, but please note that he only threw ice at Jackson's coat, not his face. He finds it crucial to the story to repeat that over and over again. The doctor and Ethan decide that they are going to turn on the big light and put a couple of stitches in, and then Ethan gets cold feet. We endured comments like "no thank you, I don't need a stitch", "I'd like to go home now", "no I don't really want the big light on", "mommy, they are not listening to me", and finally the granddaddy of them all "listen to my words, I don't want a stitch in my lip".

All in all he was a big boy and he admits to daddy later that he did cry because it hurt. He was mad at the doctor because she told him it wasn't going to hurt anymore, and it did. I guess the freezing didn't take as fast as she would have liked. Mommy had to sing Ethan's favourite song "You are my Sunshine" and that got us through both stitches.

The picture to the right has a story as well. Ethan told us when he got home from school that he told Jackson's mom about Jackson throwing the ice at him. Daddy asked him "what did his mom say" and Ethan says "nothing, she just went like this" and made that face. He made this face several times over last night and it was funnier each time.

I am sure this won't be our last trip to the ER for stitches but it certainly was a memorable first.

Racing Stripes

Ethan has picked out his first hair cut all on his own. He was getting his *regular trim* that he has been getting since he was about 12 months old and he tells the hair dresser "you forgot my racing strips". She quickly replies "your mommy didn't ask for racing stripes" to which he replies "she doesn't know that I need them". So we got racing stripes - and he wants to know when Daddy is getting some of his own.....

Secrets........

I am helping Olivia go potty tonight at the restaurant and she tells me she has to tell me a secret. So I lean over really close and she breathes like Darth Vader her hot little breath in my ear for like 15 seconds and then I hear her whisper "I lub you". Then she kisses me on both cheeks like a little European woman and tells me she "lubs" me again. She is just so precious, she melts me. I never want her to grow up.....I know I will miss the sweet nothings that she whispers to me right now.

Olivia and Ethan's Antics Today

The children were put to bed, supposed to be sleeping when I hear a flurry of activity upstairs. I yell up to the kids to get back to bed and I hear the little pitter patter of their feet and then it was quiet. So I check on them when I go up to bed myself and Olivia is in new pajamas and she has picked out new pants for the morning (I put their clothes out in the bathroom for the next day) and she has hidden her jeans in between the wall and her little piano. Ethan has a couple new blankets on his bed and an extra pillow and I think back to him coming downstairs after he went to bed telling me he just couldn't get comfortable. Fortunately, they were both sound asleep.

It has been far too long.....

Here we are, pretty much one year later and I haven't blogged a darn thing over the year. The kids have grown a ton. Ethan will be turning 4 years old in just 16 days. Olivia is now 2&1/2 and acts like she is the same age as Ethan most days. They are in gymnastics and swimming classes now and they just LOVE it. I have made a promise to post at least one story per day....perhaps a story of the past year, perhaps a story of that day. And lots of pictures too!

Ethan's Third Birthday

Ethan was very excited that we had a *date*. We went our for lunch, did some shopping at the mall and off we went to the movies. He was very entralled with the whole thing. Very cute sitting there, giggling at Curious George and eating his popcorn. The lady that served us the popcorn and drinks thought it was very odd that I wanted half Kool-Aid and half water (but my rationale is that he hasn't ever had that and why would I pump him full of sugar and ask him to sit still for an hour and a half?) So we watched the movie and when it was done he asked if we could go to another. So I would say that he loved the experience.

We went home to his birthday party, which he thorougly enjoyed as well. He had a smile on his face ALL DAY. Don't you just love days like that - perfect bliss in his world. It was wonderful. When asked his favourite part of the day was "walking around with mommy".



First - here is a picture of the cake. Please don't laugh TOO hard.....


Olivia opening up *her* present. There was a little pony inside a bunny purse....


Shall we say *patiently* waiting to open his presents....


Balloons, balloons, balloons....not sure why we got present as this was the biggest hit all day!


New dinasour present his step-grandmother sent him....


*Blowing* up balloons....


The cake coming out.......


Black icing makes for funny faces and MESSES....

March 13th - Picture Perfect Day

We ran some errands in the morning and then we went out for lunch. The restaurant that we picked at the last moment ended up having *kids eat free* on Sundays so that was a bonus. Then we drove home and when we got back to our neighbourhood, Liv had fallen asleep, so Ethan and I got out on the corner and walked around the neighbourhood, visiting all the models homes. He was quite the little customer in each place, talking to the real estate agent and shaking their hands on the way out. Then we walked home and got Daddy and Olivia outside. We played in our yard for about 1/2 hour and then we decided to go hiking in the woods behind the ponds. We went hiking for about two hours before returning home. We crossed streams on logs and walked through mud and tracked some deer and just had fun in general.

We had so much fun. The kids should have been right tuckered out when we got back. But they were raring to go, running about right until 8pm. If only we could bottle that energy - we would make a MINT!

Dr. Jeckyl and Mr Hyde syndrome.

Tell me how it is possible to go from being a perfectly well behaved little angel to the DEVIL in less than 30 seconds....

Here is a perfect example:

Today she was sitting in her rocking chair, reading a book to her baby. Everything seemed good and under control. I go into my bedroom to check on Ethan who is watching TV on my bed. About ten minutes later, she says "uh oh" which is NEVER a good sign. I go out to the toy room to see that she has ripped some backing off her puzzle blocks. Not the end of the world, yet not great either. She got a stern talking to and a time out. Once her time out was over, then she had to come and sit with us on the bed, so that she didn't find herself getting into trouble again. She was hugging me and loving me (read: feeling guilty) and then she was rubbing Ethan's back and being all sweet. She doesn't really like to watch TV so I was watching to make sure she wasn't getting to bored as I typed away on my laptop (was doing some work) and she starts hitting my mouse and keyboard. I told her/asked her nicely three times to stop. Nothing but evil little grin and ignoring. Then she was warned her of impending spanking resulting in spanking delivered. Then she took a fit and I mean a FIT. She realized it was not doing her any good so she kicked my computer and told me I was bad.

Let's just say I wasn't impressed

Converation Tonight

Daddy: Ethan, do you have bigger feet or smaller feet than Mommy?
Ethan: U, I have smaller feet than Mommy, but I have a bigger penis!
Mommy: Ethan, Mommy doesn't have a penis, she is not a boy, she is a girl.
Ethan: But Daddy has one, just like me, but Mommy, she doesn't have one.
Mommy: That's right Ethan, you and Daddy have penises. Mommy and Ia (Olivia) don't.
(cut to Olivia yelling PENIS and pointing you know where)
Ethan: Where IS your penis Mommy?
Mommy: Well girls don't have penises honey, they have vaginas.
(cut to Olivia yelling out GINA!!!!!!!!!!)
Ethan: Yes, that's right you and Ia have v-gina, no penis like Daddy and me.

Adventures....

We have been taking the kids to this place called "Adventures on Wonderland". I will have to remember to bring my camera some day because I just can't believe how wild they are when they are there. Last weekend they progressed from the Wee Ones (toddler room) to the Big Kids Room. There was tunnels and slides and a ball pit. The only thing that slowed both kids down was the cargo netting tunnel - the brakes were certainly put on.

The best part was watching them scale a wall and go down a slide on the other side that is STRAIGHT down. I think Mommy was experiencing FAR more fear than either of her children. Ethan and Liv were allowed to go through the yellow tunnel on their own, through the maze, up the wall and down the slide - no help at all from mommy or daddy. It was incredible to watch them explore and take chances!

Olivia's story

Here is the sad thing - I should have started one of these when I got pregnant with her, as I have to say, that whole year seems like a big blur. I remember that I once again found out I was pregnant on a baseball night, as Jeff was on his way to ball when I took the test. We were a little freaked out, as Ethan was not really very old at the time. We started to do the math and realized that the kids would only be 15 months apart. This is what we wanted....I can honestly say there has been many a days where I have thought "what the hell was I thinking?". Of course, I likely would have thought the same thought, even if the kids had four years between them.

I immediately went into three months of headaches, serious morning sickness and early swelling. There was no gestational diabetes this time around, although I was tested for it a couple times (I tend to get VERY big when pregnant), no placenta previa and no other complications until the very end. It was very busy to have a toddler that had just barely stopped breastfeeding to growing a new one in my belly. Ethan did not walk until a week before Olivia was born. This was a bit taxing on Mommy to say the least, as he is NOT a small child.

The last month, I was put on bed rest as I was having spells. Everybody kept telling me over and over how big I was, and how big the baby was going to be and how big I was....it got to be a bit much somedays I tell you. I went through much angst over whether to have a VBAC or not. I ended up booking the section, and as murphy's law would have it, I went into labour the night before the date of the c-section. With no induction or anything. That was quite a relief and I was thankful that this was fate talking to me and telling me it was okay to have her naturally.

Well, I was in labour for the whole day, got the epidural, was doing quite well with the contractions. Around 6:30pm, it was time to push. I was so thrilled. I did the first couple of pushes and then was asked to stop because the baby went into a bit of distress. They hooked up a monitor to her head and we changed my position and away we went again. Time to push. Well I was pushing for about 15 minutes, and Olivia crowned, Jeff got to see it and everything. Then there was a noise in the hallway, nurses and doctors running yelling "stop pushing, tell her to stop pushing". Everytime I tried to push Olivia out, she would stop breathing. It was because she was sunnyside up. The doctor tried to reposition her when I was pushing, but then it became too risky to push due to the distress of the baby. Forceps or C-section.....well you all know my choice. C-section. For some reason they turned off my epidural while they were getting the delivery room available, which left me fully dilated, in full labour under strict instructions NOT to push. I was in quite a bit of pain, not able to move about fully and had to wait over an hour due to some delays......it was horrible.

Then the surgery happened. They got Olivia out of my womb, we were thrilled to find out we had a baby girl. They wisked her away and she didn't come out of the neonatal room for over ten minutes. It didnt' matter how many times I asked what was wrong, they wouldn't answer me, until I started to get really agitated and my vitals signs really got out of whack. Then they finally told us that Olivia didn't breathe on her own when she first got out, so they were monitoring her and she had to stay under a heat lamp to make sure her lungs were good. We have long since found out that there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with her lungs.

Everything ended up being just fine and I came home the next day with my beautiful baby girl, and that is where the fun really began as I had a newborn in the house, a toddler who had just learned to walk and I was recovering from surgery......I ended up having a migraine for three months after she was born (which turned out to be a bad sinus infection) and half my face was paralyzed from something called a Bell's Palsy as I caught an infection from the epidural.

Read me a story please....

So Grandma and Ethan were reading stories one afternoon, and Grandma was needing a break, so when Ethan pulled out the next book for reading Grandma tried to convince Ethan that he could read the book himself. Ethan said "no, this one is too hard, I don't know the words". Grandma told him that she really thought he could do it, so he begrudgingly opened the book. He started to read his story, with his little finger following along the words "this book says that Mama knows all the words and she is going to read me this story".