Short Break

I have to catch up on a few things! Back in a week or so.

Things discovered in the car wash:

While waiting in line at the car wash with my muddy vehicle last night, I had the brilliant idea to clean out my purse. Yikes, when did I become such a pack rat?

3 pairs of black gloves
cell phone
datebook
wallet
5 pens
4 lipsticks
Canadian passport
Weight watchers paraphernalia
reams and reams of 50/50 tickets purchased at Hockey this weekend
Novel: Vengeance in Death
green kid’s mitten
decorative RCMP pins for the kids
lip balm
lip liner
3 vials of perfume
a small flashlight
a thick wad of grocery store receipts
tissue

If you could see me, you would see a lot of eye rolling going on. What has become of the minimalist? And what is it with the black gloves?! Sheesh.

A deviation to politics for a moment….

I just want to say I’m disappointed that the Conservative party won the election, but very pleased that they have a minority government. I don’t like Bush and his party and, unfortunately, Harper will be an easy mark for them. Hopefully there is enough balance in the opposition to stop anything stupid from happening.

We’ve made a lot of progress in this country towards choice-women making reproductive choices, adults choosing who they will marry, regardless of gender, that type of thing. I don’t want to see social conservatives backslide in these areas.

Canadian politics are becoming more interesting and the Internet is an amazing tool for staying connected. Fun times.

How about those Tonsils eh?

Today was supposed to be the day of Nicole’s tonsillectomy. But we had to cancel because she got a cold this weekend. We weren’t sure if it would develop into a chest cold or not but didn’t want to risk it. The last time she had a bad cold she ended up having a severe asthma attack and had to spend some time in the Children’s hospital with a collapsed lung. We definitely don’t want to go there again!!

I’ve heard it said before that when you have a child, its like putting your heart on the outside of your body. You’re vulnerable, so easily frightened to death! The first time we experienced that was when Nicole was about 5 weeks old. She got sick, really sick. In fact, she had caught a virus, respiratory synctial virus, RSV. It’s deadly for preemies, because their airways are so small that they basically drown in mucous. Nicole was born six weeks early, so at five weeks was still pretty small, about the size of a newborn.

I had sat up with her on my chest all night because she had this sharp cough that wouldn’t go away. In the morning (Saturday), we took her to my doctor with me because I was sick too. I had a really bad sinus infection. My sister Margaret was visiting so she came with me. The doctor x-rayed Nicole’s chest and said it looked a bit hazy, that maybe she had aspirated some milk or something. She sent us home, both with antibiotics; me for my sinus’ and Nicole, just in case she had something bacterial. The doctor told me to take her to my pediatrician if she wasn’t better by Monday. Well, by later that afternoon, she was still coughing and when I was nursing her I noticed she looked kind of yellow against the skin of my breast. I phoned our pediatrician’s office then got a call back from the on-call doctor. She was really non-committal and basically said to do ‘what you think is best’. If you’re worried, go to the hospital. (I think they assume all new parents over react to everything and don’t want to deal with them!). A bit later, when Nicole was coughing I noticed her going a bit blue around the mouth. That was it, my instinct told me something was really wrong. I told Ron I thought we’d better go, he turned off the supper he was cooking and got ready. We bundled her up and drove as fast as we could to the Grey Nuns, the hospital in the city where she was born. We figured we’d get in fastest at their Emergency since she was already in their computer.

I’m eternally grateful to the admitting department at the emergency that day. We were ushered right in. By then, Nicole was barely conscious. A nurse measured her blood oxygen level right away and said ‘that can’t be right, the machine must be off’. It was 49%. She scurried off for a new machine and, thankfully, brought a respiratory technician with here. They immediately measured again to confirm the low reading and started her on oxygen. There followed 3 or four hours of inhaled meds, and tests. I was so scared and so incredibly pissed off at the nurses too, every thing they did to her made her scream. (I realize in retrospect that maybe screaming was a good sign but it sure didn’t feel that way!) I couldn’t figure out why the hell they had to stick a probe way up up her arse to take her temperature when we’d already told her what it was and the ear one would have given just as good a ballpark figure. But no, she had to do the bum thing twice, and get her screaming both times. Then there was the nose and throat swabs, the xrays (in a contortionist’s contraption of course), the blood work. That was a joy, those two techs were so anxious trying to get their needles into veins the size of threads on a subject who was screaming the whole time. Ron was right with me, through the whole thing; stoic, and just as scared as me. I’m beting it was harder for him. At least I was nursing so they kept pushing Nicole back into my arms, to try to get me to soothe her. My memories are clouded, it was so tense and frightening. At one point I came close to telling one of the nurses to fuck off (shocking behaviour for me to even consider!) Nicole was arched back, screaming, and the nurst kept grabbing her head and trying to get her to latch on my breast and telling me like I was an idiot, ’she’ll calm down if she suckles you know’. Fuck, I still get upset at that. Do you think I wouldn’t have given anything, ANYTHING, to have her latch on and calm down? I was just slightly on edge you could say.

Finally, they thought she was stable and we waited for an ambulance to come and take us to the University Hospital. They have a pediatric ICU there and wanted us to be on site in case she took a turn for the worse. I remember the ride in the ambulance. Nicole was strapped in her car seat on the gurney. I was sitting beside her. Ron had brought the oxygen tanks then left to get our car and meet us at the other hospital.

I’ll never forget the feeling of relief it was to be at the Stollery, with her hooked up to the oxygen and monitors and knowing she was going to be ok. It was there that Ron and I finally relaxed enough to let it all sink in and realize how close she had come.

There followed almost a week of treatments. Being the ‘cow’ I stayed there on a cot beside her crib. Ron and Margaret visited as often as possible. She screamed and cried a lot and her colic really got started in earnest. There followed three months of endless crying, but that’s another story! For now, we were safe and on the mend. It was enough.

******

One little happy update for mom. Nicole and Grant both played in the hockey tournament at Bruderheim this weekend. The Josephburg Flyers kicked butt! Grant was so proud because he scored a goal.
They don’t keep track of the scores at the initiation level and everyone gets a trophy at the end. Perfect. The kids played well and had a great time.

Meet Casper

I had put a picture of Casper on my previous blog, which was shortlived, so forgot that he hasn’t met many of you. There seem to be a few, soft hearted ladies out there who fear that I shaved to poor dear boy down into a shivering, quivering mass of pathetic poodle. Not so. He still has plenty of hair. And, you may not know this but he’s not allowed on the couch. He’s giving me that dignified yet affronted look of a Poodle caught in the act!

Update: For P&T, a bit of poofiness,

May I direct you somewhere interesting?

I really enjoy visiting the blogs on my blogroll (see the sidebar on the right). They all offer something different. Some humour, some education, some perfume and mostly just the cameraderie of the blogosphere. There are a lot of great people in the world (something you may not discover if you just watch the TV and read the paper!)

I don’t have too many interesting things to tell you right now and want to point out to you a very interesting blog…that of l-girl ‘We Move to Canada’.

I started reading her blog last year and enjoyed following the process of deciding to leave the USA, where to emigrate to, why Canada, the mechanics, etc. I’ve continued to be devoted to her blog because its brilliant! Seriously, there are so many interesting things on her blog about Canada, being Canadian, being American, our politics, their politics, its great. As we’ve been gearing up for our election I’ve been spending more time on Canadian blogs…this is one you don’t want to miss.

Bon Voyage!

Okay, here’s something to ‘chew’ on :-)

I first saw this poem by Michael Ondaatje on the Fragrance board. Maybe because I’m scent obsessed it appeals…but really, its so evocative and sensual, I don’t know how a person could NOT like it. Surprisingly, if you google this poem, you will find several sites where there is heated discussion about what it means, the roles of women and men, etc. I spent some time reading that than just walked away…enjoy it for what it is:

The Cinnamon PeelerIf I were a cinnamon peeler
I would ride your bed
and leave the yellow bark dust
on your pillow.

Your breasts and shoulders would reek
you could never walk through markets
without the profession of my fingers
floating over you. The blind would
stumble certain of whom they approached
though you might bathe
under the rain gutters, monsoon.Here on the upper thigh
at this smooth pasture
neighbour to your hair
or the crease
that cuts your back. This ankle.
You will be known among strangers
as the cinnamon peeler’s wife.

I could hardly glance at you
before marriage
never touch you
- your keen nosed mother, your rough brothers.
I buried my hands
in saffron, disguised them
over smoking tar,
helped the honey gatherers…

When we swam once
I touched you in the water
and our bodies remained free,
you could hold me and be blind of smell.
You climbed the bank and said

this is how you touch other women
the grass cutter’s wife, the lime burner’s daughter.
And you searched your arms
for the missing perfume

and knew

what good is it
to be the lime burner’s daughter
left with no trace
as if not spoken to in the act of love
as if wounded without the pleasure of a scar.

You touched
your belly to my hands
in the dry air and said
I am the cinnamon
peeler’s wife. Smell me.

Not much to report here…..

I had a great weekend doing nothing* so am tired and dragging my butt around at work. Somehow, doing ‘nothing’ entailed far too much alcohol and far too little sleep…perfect.
I had an idea for a long and maybe interesting post but have no energy for typing it so will have to make do with short and dull.

*Nothing:

Friday night-had a great time watching Seabiscuit with the kids. Awesome movie-I’m still horse crazy after all these years.
Saturday-cleaned the house and shaved Casper. Shaving Casper is about a three hour endeavour and results in piles of fluffy white hair everywhere. Had a nice long chat with my brother David about his dyslexia (didn’t realize he had it-how did I miss that?)
In the afternoon I took the kids to Trudy and Jason’ place for a hockey party. Jason has just built a rink in their front yard. Gawd, it was total chaos. Trudy is crazy and invited all the kids to stay for a sleep over. Ours came home with us but about 5 boys stayed over….I saw them next day at hockey….big, big bags under the eyes!!
Sunday, the obligatory 10 million loads of laundry. Then, since Ron had hurt his back moving plywood around we decided to have an ‘easy’ day so we had a fire in the fireplace, and played some games with the kids. We took them to play their hockey game, and Ron and I (and Casper) spent the rest of the evening in front of the fire.

Casper likes to curl up in front of the fire and cuddle. Kyah always stayed as far away as possible…she was boiling all the time.

It’s not all brain candy of course….

Here is a book I finished recently: Overcoming Dyslexia, a Scientific approach.
Why? Well, I am suspicious that my dear daughter might be struggling with this. There is a lot of this affliction in my mom’s side of the family and it is known to be hereditary. Mostly I notice that, for a really smart and inquisitive kid, Nicole is having a hell of a time learning to read. We mentioned this concern to her teacher at our meeting in November and she was relieved to not have to bring it up, because she noticed the same thing.

This book is a pretty interesting resource and I’m glad our library had it but the best news is that the school district has a new ‘Early Literacy Intervention’ program and have asked if we will let Nicole participate in it. Absolutely!! They will be spending extra time with her every day on reading. We are working on it at home too. I honestly think there are only two important things she needs to learn in school; to read and comprehend and to get along with people. Everything on the road to success is built upon these two things.

I think we’re already making some progress and I hope it continues. It breaks my heart to see her frustration and reluctance when its time to practice spelling and reading.

Have any of my readers ever dealt with dyslexia? I know a few of you are teachers and several are bookworms-any thoughts to share? Thanks

One of those days….

I had one of those days. I had to get up pretty early because I had a 7:30 meeting and, to get the kids up, fed, and out by 7 is pretty challenging….especially after a night of them up and down like yo-yos. I was tired, and blearily got ready to go before they were up. Luckily I caught the first big mistake of the day….burdgundy coloured lip liner on my eyelids….I was wondering why I looked like I had been up all night drinking. Yikes.
So, the second mistake, I caught when I got to work and had a break from my conference call. Yeah, my underpants were on inside out. Some days as person is just impaired, you know?

But there were two really high points to my day… 1) my much coveted and long awaited set of 23 JD Robb books arrived (like I need more books to stuff in my closet). and 2) my dear friend Nancy (who really isn’t just an old friend but is also a current friend) actually posted a comment on my blog. Now, I feel like things are happening at Mother Hen’s Place!

You ever put lip liner on your eyelids? Or am I the only makeup loser around? (Guys are exempt from this question, unless they routinely wear eye or lip liner). Whatever.