Kids give you gray hair

March 9, 2010
Originally uploaded by Robin's Nest3

Since Thursday night, Blake's had one of those low-grade fever at night, croupy cough virus thingies that tend to plague us during the winter. This translates to little sleep at night, followed by a strangely energetic kid during the day chasing not-so-energetic parents.

After this went on for a few days, I called up the doctor on Monday to ask if we should bring him in. No high fever, and not all the time, but still. They said to bring him in right away so he could be checked out. (My doctor's office is usually great about seeing kids quickly.) When Blake got home from our sitter's he was not his normal self (i.e. bouncing off the walls). He laid down on the couch so I took his temp and yes, yet another low-grade fever. So I poured some Tylenol into him and we piled into the van for the doctor's office.

I was mostly worried about his coughing as he's had pneumonia twice -- once a winter until now, and he was due. But the doctor, wearing a huge set of eye goggles and face mask...presumably to not catch Blake germs) checked his lungs and couldn't hear any of the "crackling" that pneumonia exhibits. His ears were OK...one was a touch red but no need for antibiotics. But, we did get a prescription for a puffer to help him with the coughing. I opted for a chest xray though, so we whirled out of the office and over to the Xray place to make it before they closed at 6:00.

Blake was feeling pretty bad by this time, and he still had a low-grade fever, even with the Tylenol. So, we got the xray, complete with this cute little bib to protect his manly bits. I called up George and he met us at the xray place so he could get the prescription and I could take the kids home.

I swung into Wendys for some takeout fries as it was after 6:00 at this point, and we headed home. That's when things got a little crazy.

We were about 5 minutes from home when I heard Blake make this strange breathing sound. I looked back, figuring he was choking, but instead found him in a seizure. FREAK. I pulled over and ran around to his side of the van. His seizure had stopped by this point but he was as ghost white and semi-conscious - no resonse, just some eye flutters, Shallow-breathing. Small puke. FREAK. Faith grabbed my cell phone for me and I dialed 911. I knew it was likely a febrile seizure as he'd had one when he was a year old, but FREAK.

I calmly (!) talked to the dispatcher and told her where we were, what was happening, etc. and about 5 minutes later, thankfully, a paramedic was with us. Then, the ambulance showed up. At this point I called George, and all my calmness distintegrated. Do you know how hard it is to give directions when you're balling?

Anyway, we all loaded up into the ambulance, and George actually found us in time to follow us to the hospital. Blake was very groggy and kind of "drunken". Faith got to ride in the back with us too, strapped into an extra seat, and "helped" the very nice attendant named Laura. She was worried about her brother, but soaking in the new experience at the same time.

They whooshed us into the back of the ER and we sat next to a couple of police officers with a parole violator on crutches. Everybody looked fairly relaxed so I decided not to get too worried about the possible convict next to my 2 kids. The cop even took the convict dude's chair and gave it to Faith!

We got a room quickly, and they sent us for another (!) chest xray. The irony of working for a company that provides the technology that would have made it possible for the hospital to see the xray we'd taken about 3 hours before was not lost on me. Kind of ticked me off actually. The very nice ER doc (a stretched out version of the red-haired doc on Grey's Anatomy) told us no pneumonia but he took a look at Blake's ears again and decided they were red enough that he could give an antibiotic. He was looking for an excuse and I was happy he found it. I mean, if your kid has a seizure and they only send you home with advice that you're underdosing him on Tylenol, would have been a little scary. I've never been happier to get a scrip for antibiotics. (BTW, I was following the bottle directions...they are deliberately underdosed, so you may want to look up the proper dosage by weight on the internet.)

The night went OK given that we stuck Blake in between us to keep an eye on him. At one point, he sat up and asked if he could sleep on the floor instead. OK. As I got him out of bed, he looked at me and said, "Where'd my pants go?" It's like he had a little blackout or something. Even stranger, the next day at lunch, we reminded him that he went in the ambulance and he said, "I did? I had a dream about that." OK. So, he was *really* out of it then.

Faith, who is very into patterns right now, wanted to know if we had to worry Blake having a seizure again in 2 years. (He had one 2 and 1 month ago.) God, I hope not.

He's doing fine now, BTW, and other than having what he called "a frog and a dog in my throat" and coughing like a 2-pack a day smoker when he wakes up, it's like nothing happened. But, George and I have the gray hairs to prove it did.

Rocket

Rocket
Originally uploaded by Robin's Nest3

Faith is riding a chestnut colored horse now called Rocket. As per her name, she is much zippier than her previous mounts, both ponies. Texas took his name seriously -- big and broad, and about as fast as a Texas drawl unless. Peanut was zippier but a little nutty (so to speak). Rocket likes to GO, which doesn't phase Faith in the slightest.

On Wednesday, she was trotting along when Amanda started throwing challenges at her. Ride around the ring standing in the stirrups at a trot. No problem! Ride with one-hand on your waist at a trot. No problem! Ride one-handed standing in the stirrups at a trot. No problem! In fact, Rocket improved his trot.

Fun to watch, although sometimes I have to turn off the "protective mom" voice in my head and just go with it.

The curse of a talking 3 yr old

I had to hit the bank with the kids today, complete with a trip to a real live teller. This went pretty well even though Blake is nursing some sort of mild fever/coughing bug. He sat on the bank counter and asked repeatedly whether we could go home but there was no screaming or crying, so I counted this as a win.

However, when the nice bank teller leaned over to sign some paperwork for me, we got a nice look at his modest bald spot. Blake looked at him, then turned to me and said, "Mommy, he doesn't have enough hair." Then he said it again. And again. Thinking quickly, I pretended Blake said, "He doesn't have enough there." and told him, "Yes, he does have enough money for us." But, I'm pretty sure the cover-up was in vane. 

Blake talks...and talks, and talks. A lot. Loudly. To pretty much anyone. George would say this comes from my side of the family, but I'm pretty sure both of our gene pools contributed. Faith talked a lot too at this age, but just to us. In a store, she would whisper in my ear about someone's bald spot. Did I mention my children were opposites? (Which completely bites in the parenting department as almost everything I learned with Faith has to go out the window!)  

But, Blake does have a cute way of saying things that makes him sound 3 and 33 at the same time. When I ask him to come to dinner when he's watching Little Bear (his favourite show), he'll say, "Couple more minutes Mom." When he wants to say up later, he says, "Just a few more minutes", complete with a hand gesture and tilt of the head. And when I close his bedroom door at night, he always says, "Just a no Mommy", followed by some last ditch request to drag out his bedtime a couple more seconds. I thought "just a no" was his interpretation of "just a moment", but it turns out that it's a hybrid of our sitter's common phrase, "Just so you know". Apparently I didn't.

Of course, none of these tops his love of saying, "Holy craaaap!" Loudly. Repeatedly. I have only myself to blame for this one. We are ignoring this particular phrase in hopes that it will die a natural death. Here's hoping it's not replaced with something worse.

Olympic hangover

March 2, 2010
Originally uploaded by Robin's Nest3

Olympic fever reached a pitch on the weekend as we watch two final gold medal curling games, and, of course, the greatest hockey game in the history of Canada. (No, I was not born in 72, so I'm claiming this one.)

We had friends over to watch the game and enjoy the spirit of the occasion (i.e. beer, wings, wine, chips). Luckily, the kids were all outside building a monster snow fort when the US tied it up with 24 seconds left. They would have learned a few new vocabulary words.

I couldn't actually watch the overtime -- too much stress-- so I just listened until Crosby scored THE GOAL. Let the celebrations begin! (Although, Karen pointed out that the men should have a tea party at center ice, just to make a point.)

The Vancouver Olympics were amazing in all kinds of ways. In our house the highlights and low points:

> Explaining luge, and that someone died on the track to Faith
> Watching a stunning opening ceremony -- and rewatching it with Faith
> Listening to everyone cheering for snowboard cross and ski cross (some of it from my deathbed from the stomach flu)
> Watching the death-defying half-pipers with the kids. How did Shaun White do that?
> Virtue and Moir winning ice dance. Breathtaking, and athletic.
> Trying to figure out why Jeannie Becker and Brian Mulroney were talking about sports. What the?
> Curling!
> Cross-country skiing - I love a sport where they go until they collapse from sheer exhaustion.
> HOCKEY!! GOLD!! x2
> Watching the closing ceremonies with Faith -- explaining all the bands/singers to Faith. She's making a list of what she wants on her IPod.

What will we do now with all this free time? I guess it's back to the Family Channel (don't ask!).

Olympic fever

February 27, 2010
Originally uploaded by Robin's Nest3

It's hard to believe that the Olympics started two weeks ago and are ending tomorrow. I bought the fabled Olympic mittens two weeks ago Saturday, before they became such a hot commodity. Nothing like a showing on Oprah to ramp up the frenzy. Two people asked me where I got them as I was getting lunch at the deli on Friday!

We spent the evening watching Martin win men's gold in curling, as well as basking in the replays of the golds and bronze medals we won today.

Tomorrow, we'll be glued to the TV watching the hockey finale. Here's hoping for gold number 14!

The finished fireplace

The finished fireplace
Originally uploaded by Robin's Nest3

Yes! It's finally finished...well except for a little bit of touch-up paint that the (most excellent) fireplace installers are coming back to do. The marble hearth went on yesterday and we love it!

Brian and his guys did an awesome job finishing it for us (Brian suggested the marble and the tile), considering it was his first fireplace. We like it when he experiments on us...he did our pergola for us as well.

It was too good to last

February 22, 2010
Originally uploaded by Robin's Nest3

I thought we might escape winter without getting out the snowblower again. But, it was not to be. We were supposed to get about 10 cm this afternoon, plus freezing rain. Yippee.