How to get a toddler-free weekend:

Just don't be there when Grandma shows up to drop her off!

Of course, this works best if Grandma also happens to live an hour outside of town, your toddler is sleeping in the back of her car, she has only minutes left before she has to pick Grandpa up from work.... and you're hopelessly unable to get out of your office in time to relieve her.

hehehehehehe.

I'm sure when my mother envisioned spending a Friday with her precious granddaughter, taking on a sleepless weekend didn't enter the picture.

I'm pretty sure, when she asked what to do with her at the end of the day.... and I told her "No problem, drop her off at home her Dad will be there".... she believed me.

And the plan would have worked .... If I had remembered to tell him.

Oooops.

Never assume your spouse will be where you expect him to be at any given time.

JUST because he took off work to stay home with our feverish, vomiting son, doesn't mean he will STAY at home with said sick child.

Silly me.

So when my Mom showed up to drop the princess off after a day at the Conservatory with Grandma & GG & Auntie P & Cousin M, the Dad was no where to be found.... not even answering his phone!

Brat.

And with no time left to wait for me, she left to pick up my Dad & head home with my baby in the backseat. I have no idea how my Dad felt about that.... but I'm calling him an accomplice in the kidnapping.

My husband's reaction, upon hearing the news that we would be without our toddler due to his negligance (I'll just forget about my lapse in not informing him here), his reaction was an extremely loud "WOOOOO HOOOOO!!"

(this means we get to sleep in tomorrow!!)

Mwahahahahahahaha.... (this means my parents will be roused out of their sleep by our darling toddler at her regular, evil, early-morning hour)

Plans to drive out to their place and pick her up were pending our figuring out weekend hockey schedules. Saturday (isn't this convenient) is the double hockey line-up, followed by an evening hockey-parents party.... Sunday is the free day.

Seriously? Oh someone is smiling down on me.... I have, potentially, TWO toddler free nights?? In a row??

We could do anything we want! It's so liberating... we could... we could.... Oh shit, who am I kidding.... we have no life.

I think I'll go clean her room... it's so much easier when she's not there undoing each piece as I go.

I know, I know.... the wild life I lead....

Although that parent party could be ALOT more fun with the prospect of actually getting to sleep past 6:00am the next morning ;)

Thanks Mom! :D

Strepped-out

Ah well, we had a good run, but I suppose all good things must come to an end....

I'm trying to remember the last time the kids got sick. It's been ages.... they just never get sick - colds & sniffles and the odd fever, like all kids, but not really sick. I don't even know if I've had my youngest into the pediatrician for more than a well-baby visit.... I probably have - you don't go almost 3 years without getting sick at all but I know it's certainly been over a year since any of my children have needed a prescription for anything.

I know that because they ALL have prescription medication right now - and the pharmacy had to add the "new" insurance to their files.... the new insurance that my husband's company got just over a year ago!

Yep, it was a good run.

Until Mr. Streptococcus found us....

It started Sunday with my younger son complaining of a sore throat.... and he had a fever. He wasn't complaining much - but he never really does. I know by now to pay attention when that one fusses.

I was concerned enough to get him into the Pediatrician Monday morning - where my nagging doubt was confirmed and his throat swab turned up a positive for Strep throat.

Lovely.

Then I picked up my daughter from daycare Monday after work.... and she greeted me with a wide open mouth, pointed inside and declared "My mouth is sick!". Which, I suppose, is two-year-old-ease for "I have a sore throat"

My oldest has been battling a bit of a cough and also pronounced a mildly sore throat when he was coughing.

Perfect.

So this morning included another trip to the Doctor for throat swabs on those two. Hers was positive, his was not - but with two siblings in the house with Strep throat, the Pediatrician decided to err on the side of caution and put him on the antibiotics too.

I'm grateful that he's saved me a third trip back sometime later this week.

So here we were, on a Tuesday, with the whole family at home. The kids think it's great.... just a nice long extended weekend for them.... Mom & Dad are a little stressed though. Missing work for sick kids isn't good for anyone.

It's my busiest season at work, so Dad called in yesterday and again this morning to accommodate the doctor visits. I finished up around noon today and relieved him so that he could put in the afternoon at least.... and tomorrow will be mine - although only until he gets home from work... I'm going to have to work tomorrow evening regardless.

And then, hopefully, life can return to normal.

It should. Tomorrow will be better.... my younger son will have been on his antibiotics for the required 24 hrs (plus) so that he can return to school and daycare - and his big brother isn't actually sick, despite the medication... so they can both go in tomorrow.

I'll have tomorrow with my baby girl and then she'll be good to go again too.

I'm going to look on the bright side, enjoy the stolen day with my daughter and make the best of my forced time off. Maybe we can paint our nails and find that "missing" Candyland game board (that I'm fairly positive can be easily located under her bed!). Maybe snuggle and watch a movie.... Hey! I could have NAP tomorrow!

Maybe I haven't given "home with sick kids" days their due after all ;)

Birthday Magic

My little man turned 8 last weekend. He waits for his birthday to arrive with more anticipation than any other day in the year.... even Christmas doesn't compare for him.

Maybe it's the "middle-child syndrome" .... but I think, what he craves more than anything, is that one day when the world revolves around him - and he's so genuinely sweet and charming that we try to make it as important a day as possible.

Whatever color cup he wants (ahead of those other two head-strong siblings), whichever seat in the van.... first in line, first one served.... you know - birthday boy all the way.

And the grin he sports all day is worth the effort!

This year, I struggled with what to do for his party.... he wanted to return to the dinosaur water slide park they have a local hotel (we did that last year), but I don't want to repeat birthdays.... I wanted something new (at least to our family) and different - each birthday should be a different memory....

So I chose a magician: Ryan Price Magic.

A comedy-magician, with a show targeted to the 5 to 8 year old set. Eight might be a little old for a magician - but I thought it would be a perfect fit for our 8 year old. His sense of humour is around the 6 year old level and his sense of wonder is delightfully immature for his age.... we have an absolute riot just watching him take in slap-stick style cartoon shows like the bugs bunny & tweety show.... the belly laughs are too much - he gets our whole family going!

It just felt like it would be a good fit..... and it was!

The magician was wonderful! He had the kids laughing the whole time.... and my little man above all! The birthday boy got to be the main assistant in the show and he revelled in the lime-light.... that beautiful grin never left his face and the infectious laugh kept escaping and talking all us adults along for the ride - what a great birthday!

The magician closed out his party performance by creating balloon creations for all the children (it would be an insult to lump these in with the mundane balloon animals we've all seen 100 clowns churn out!). Each one was a work of art taking several balloons to complete.... he made a road-runner and a daffy duck for my boys and the mini-bug bracelet that my daughter asked for.... fishing rods complete with fish on the end of the line, goofy hats in the form of various animals.... they were something to behold!

He also provided all the goody bags for the children. It was the easiest party I've planned in a long time - the guy did it all! And my son was absolutely thrilled with the entire affair - and that was what it was all about, after-all.

I would definitely recommend Ryan Price Magic to any and all looking for a birthday party solution - you won't be disappointed.

As for me, I can't thank him enough for the smiles on my son's face and for making his day the roaring success that it was!

Happy Birthday Love!!

My Golden Boy

My son is GOLD.... or at least his research project is!

They recently had the annual "Project Fair" at school.... I remember these as Science Fairs when I was in school, but over the years they have morphed into a mix of research projects, heritage projects and the ever-rarer, true science displays. There were actually only 2, true "Science Projects" in his entire school.... I guess, over the years, fewer and fewer kids (read: parents) have been willing to go through the rigors of hypothesis, method and.... and whatever else a science project entails - so they've opened up some "softer" categories to keep the volume up at these school displays.

(And thank Goodness they have, because I'm SO not up for hypothesis, method and .... and whatever else that sounds like waaaaay to much work for me!)

Thankfully, my son chose to do a research project on fossils.

They actually make the parents sign a waiver saying that we give our kids permission to participate.... because, we all know, there's a lot of work involved in projects.

And I'm still trying to decide, at least at the elementary level, just who's responsibility all the work for these projects actually is.... I mean, what child in grade 3, 4 or 5 is actually capable of the hours of disciplined WORK needed to complete a project?

He had lofty goals of doing the internet research for his fossil project, but when you sit a 9 year old in front of a computer and hit "surf", it's not long before the boring reading involved with "how fossils are formed" quickly dissolves into watching youtube videos of dinosaur combat....

And so the "research" only happens with mom or dad in constant attendance - driving the searches and pointing out information that should be printed or saved for reference.

And putting the project together? Oh my. I felt like a slave driver.... "here, cut this out.... what color do you want this picture on? Are you going to use this or that? .... I don't CARE if you're bored - this isn't MY PROJECT!!"

Procuring the materials to build the Diorama, actually typing the words for the backboard, making the appointment to meet with the museum paleontologist regarding our "fossil" that he wanted to display.... these are all tasks that fall on the parent of the eager project fair participant.

But there's a lot riding on the kids too:

A huge part of the score with a project is the child's display of knowledge on their subject matter. The judges grill the kids.... seeking explanations of what various words mean, why they chose certain elements for their display, why they chose their project, what they learned... etc, etc, etc....

So we role-played questions, cleared up any confusion he had on various bits of information included in the display and crossed our fingers. Not that a ton of luck was needed for this particular child of mine.... I mean seriously - they're giving marks for talking?? He's so in. If there's one thing my son excels at, it's talking, hands down. Talking and talking.... oh, and did I mention he loves to talk? Good grief.

And so all his hard work paid off, and he proudly walked out of that gymnasium with a Gold ribbon AND and invitation to the regional project fair in April!

(which should be so much easier on all of us because the project is already DONE - thank God!)

A Denny's breakfast to remember...

A friend of mine was mentioning that Denny's plans to give away free Grandslam breakfasts to everyone who comes in between 6am & 2pm tomorrow (whoa, talk about deep pockets!)

I'm trying to fathom how many people all the restaurants in the United States, Canada & Puerto Rico can mill through in those 8 hours. Minus the one lonely restaurant in Cali that decided not to play along (doesn't that make them look like the scrooges?) I can only say that you couldn't pay me enough to be a server (or cook, or busser) in any of them tomorrow! Those poor kids....

And I'm just thinking how much more exciting it would be if Denny's were a restaurant I could eat in.... but alas, they've long since been scratched off my list of acceptable dining establishments. And before you go thinking I'm some sort of "breakfast snob", I'll tell you it's for very good reason!

When we were living in Ocala, I LOVED Denny's breakfasts.... we didn't go very often but I loved the rare visits. And I'd been seeing their new advertisements for those amazing-looking breakfast skillets and working on a severe craving for a while, so my husband took me out for "breakfast" on the way home from work one afternoon....

I was soooooo looking forward to my skillet.

Until the server set it down in front of me.

Now, during our time spent in Florida, I had become used to some of the simple differences in local lingo and the minor confusions it could cause - for instance; I knew better than to order iced tea in a restaurant unless I wanted to be puckered up at the first sip.... it's called sweet tea down there (just because we, in the north, know iced tea is sweet, doesn't mean it shouldn't be spelled out elsewhere).

But no where had I ever come across "over-easy" being confused with "raw" when talking about eggs.

I kid you not, when the lady put the skillet in front of me, the whites of the eggs on top were still CLEAR. Nothing easy about that.... except maybe my stomach trying to flip... that seemed like it was going to go pretty easy (thank God it was still empty at that point!).

I had to send it back. I mean seriously?? And the server didn't even apologize or raise an eyebrow. She acted like it wasn't any big deal - like maybe they routinely have people order (or at least serve people) raw eggs?? RIGHT.....

Then before long she brought back the skillet with nicely cooked, over-easy eggs on top and all was right with in my world. And it WAS good..... at least the first few bites. But as my meal progressed and I got a little deeper into the food, I noticed that the potatoes seemed a little damp.... kinda soggy....

I shifted stuff around a little with my fork only to discover the pool of raw egg juice at the bottom of my skillet. They hadn't done anything more that flip the majority off and slapped the cooked eggs back on top of the same potatoes.

I just about lost what breakfast I'd eaten up to that point.

I don't even have words for how disgusted I was or how awful the staff at Denny's were.... and feeding raw eggs to the public?? WTF is up with that?

My husband would've blown a gasket if I'd have let him.... but the polite little Canuck in me abhors a scene... so I just let it go.

We didn't finish our meals, we just left the restaurant.... and to this day the mention of that chain causes a little bile to rise in my throat - My family will never eat there again.

So, for everyone about to enjoy a free breakfast on Denny's tomorrow - just a word of advice: When they ask you how you want your eggs, don't confuse them with difficult things like "sunny-side" or "over-easy".... just try telling them COOKED, and it may turn out alright.

Words to live by

"Trying to clean your house while your children are still growing is like trying to shovel the walk while it's still snowing"

And better still:

"From a wish list that includes children, sanity and order, you get to pick only two."

I heard that.

Life through his eyes

My oldest and I had a really cool meeting with the director of Paleontology at our provincial museum today. He had agreed to meet us and hopefully identify a fossilized bone we dug up from the temporarily exposed lake bed at our cottage a few years back; when we were moving exposed rocks out of our swimming path.

Very neat. Although my son was disappointed that it's not a dinosaur, I think this it's pretty cool that we have a bison tibia that could be up to 10,000 years old....

*************

I had to stop in at my office on the way downtown for our meeting and left him sitting in the car while I ran up. I left it running for him (he knows to lock the doors and not communicate with anyone on the outside.... and my office is in a predominantly geriatric community - so no need to call CFS!). It's still pretty cold here and I didn't want to turn off the heat for the 10 minutes I would be gone....

But I was curious to find him with the window down when I returned. He was holding a small screw driver set from the glove compartment up to the side mirror of the van.... slowly pressing it closer and then drawing it back again - intently studying the reflection.

At the questioning look on my face he looked up at me and said "What? I'm just trying to see if objects in the mirror are really closer than they appear! And yeah, they are."

I couldn't help chuckling to myself as he raised the window and replaced the screwdrivers in the glove box.

He's so fun :)

We Need a Rock Star!

I have to admit it: I'm jealous of my American friends.

It's not often that I notice the differences between the life I lead and those of my friends South of the 49th. Some negligent little things; like some stores we frequent or other mundane trivialities - the odd difference in laws and such.... but never anything Earth-shattering.

And rarely (if you exclude the weather at this time of year!) do I find myself wishing I could trade places with them - I usually love my life up here.

But I have to admit, after yesterday, I'm more than a little envious of where they're at.

I read the transcript of Obama's speech and all I can say is WOW.

He is so cool. And listen to the people! Check out those crowds!

You have a rock star for a President!

The masses cheering for a politician? Applauding and reveling at his every word? Whoa....

I'm trying to imagine what it would be like to have a visionary sitting in the most powerful seat in the land. What it would feel like to be governed by a person who inspired, who commanded faith and hope from everyone he touched....

What must it feel like to live in the most powerful country on Earth in a time that will, more likely than not, be looked back upon as a turning point in history....

We're so jaded about politics and leadership up here that people just don't even care anymore. Most Canadians *might* be able to tell you the name of our current Prime Minister and that's about it. Only half the population bothered to vote during our last election, and even then, only slightly over 30% of them voted for him.

Nice guy and all, but an Obama he ain't.

In fact, we're so hungry for something inspiring that we've paid more attention to your political scene than our own.

I'd bet money that 95% of the Canadian population couldn't even tell you when our Prime Minister may have been sworn in.... and even the 5% wouldn't remember where they were or what they were doing at the time.

But our News outlets were bombarded with Obama's inauguration yesterday: Live on the radio, taking time on every news station, filling my morning paper to the tune of 14 pages of coverage in a special "collectors edition".

Even the three clowns trying to overthrow our government last fall didn't get as much attention. How's that for jaded?

Obama taking the helm has probably, overnight, erased 90% of the Anti-American sentiment built up over the past 8 years, both here and in other countries abroad - it's amazing, really how quickly one man could do that.

I hear him talk about "rebuilding America" and remembering where you came from....and all the inspiring ideas and plans for the future...

And I'm thinking "I wanna do that!" .... and I'm not even American!

I wish he had a Canadian-born brother.

Seriously. We're long overdue for a rock star up here.

So congratulations to you all. And to Obama: Good Luck, there's more than America pinning their hopes on you....

Because really: "So goes America, so goes the world."

(pssst... does that kind of make him our president too?) ;)

Catching up....

My time is slipping through my fingers.... one day spins into the next and I feel like I've never accomplished enough - that there just aren't enough hours in a day to do everything with a pressing need to GET DONE.

So once again I have sadly neglected my blog - not making the time to preserve my day to day for future consumption, reflections and contemplation. Not that I haven't wanted to blog... but when laundry time is relegated to 1:00 am because sleep time is the only time you've got left to sacrifice, blogging just doesn't become a priority.

Even though lots of thoughts worthy of blogging filter through your head when the house is still and quiet. If I just had the energy to go with them....

************

So a catch-up on me & mine:

I did get that tire fixed on the van... and took the old girl on one last road trip. My oldest son and I travelled to an out-of-town tournament together. We stayed the night at a hotel with a pool and everyone had a blast - the kids in the pool & the parents on the deck. It was a fabulous bonding time for the group.... despite the decided A$$-whupping by those country teams - what is it about country hockey that just knocks the city kids on their butts?

Harumph.... I suppose if we had nothing else to do either.... ;)

But the weekend was great. It was a rare opportunity for my oldest and I to spend an extended period of time alone.... and not only was it nice to get a pulse on where he's at in his world, a time to connect a little deeper, it was also a welcome break from chasing all three!

(It's OK to pity my poor husband a little here.... stuck in the city with our younger son, in his own hockey tournament, as well as our toddler and his elderly mother.)

************

I GOT MY NEW VAN!!!!

And I'm loving it! I'd post a picture but my blog & I have been in a long term disagreement over whether it will, or will not, on any given day, allow me to post pictures in a normal format or not - and I just don't feel like doing battle today.... so I'm not even going to try.

************

The weather finally broke! We're actually going through a (probably mercilessly short) period of unseasonably warm weather now.... things are thawing and melting.... a water bottle left in my car overnight didn't even freeze yesterday!

And people are out in droves.... there's only so much "cooping" a body can take - and the unrelenting weeks of -40 to -50 with the wind chills was just overkill for everyone around here.

We were certainly ready to roll when the heavens cooperated and gave us a break on the temperatures: We spent last Sunday up at my parents' home on the canals by the lake, and we took my husband's snowmobile with GT Snow Racers to pull behind for the kids. It was so much fun for them to be able to spend a few hours playing hard in the snow.... I got some fabulous pictures of the day.

Then that day of fun culminated in our adventure on the way home.

One brand new van, carefully pulling one very expensive toy on a trailer behind.... until a locking clip on the trailer hitch release came off (how is this even possible?).... and the brand new van went over a large bump in the road.... and the trailer came right off the vehicle.... and the safety chain broke: setting the trailer free in a shower of sparks (quite the show!) to careen off the road and firmly bury it's nose in the ditch packed with snow.... with enough force to snap the rear restraint on the very expensive toy and launch it off the trailer and further into the ditch.

Where, miraculously, it landed upright, completely unharmed, on top of the bank.

Wow.

The whole thing took less than a minute. But what a minute!

When our heartbeats returned to a slightly more normal range, we jumped out of the vehicle to survey the damage to our new van.... only to find that there wasn't any. Not a dent, not a scratch.

Then we went to inspect the snowmobile - which also survived unscathed.

Wow again.

I can't believe our good fortune.... somebody was certainly looking out for us.... so many things could have gone wrong here: The trailer could have hit the back of the van.... or hung on by the safety chain and sent the van (filled with my 3 children, grandmother and MIL) into a spin-out crash. Or the entire contraption could have flipped - shattering my husbands beloved sled into a shower of debris on the highway.... or worse, taking us out with it!

But no. For some reason, my husband decided to load the single sled in the center of the trailer to go home (rather than the one side it has normally travelled on - whether our 2nd sled was on the trailer with it or not). If it had been on it's usual side, we're certain it would have flipped when it came off the van - destroying the sled, if not the trailer too. Instead, the trailer stayed upright when it came off the van and rolled off into the ditch.

We also normally have a metal restraint bar locked through the front of the skis on the sled.... but for the trip home my husband chose to pull the sled further up on the trailer and install the bar behind the struts (is that what the arms that come down from the machine and attach to the skis are called - or am I displaying my ignorance here?). Had it been installed "normally" the sled would have suffered huge damage: The skis would have been torn completely off, or the whole trailer may have upended when the nose hit the dirt under the snow.

As it was, the tie holding the rear of the sled snapped with the force of the impact and, with no metal bar inhibiting the skis, the sled slid harmlessly off the front of the trailer, resting easily on the snow.

Wow, Wow, Wow.

There was no hope of getting the trailer out and inspecting it in the dark though.

So with only 8 kilometers to go to the city, my husband drove the sled home and we followed in the van. Laughing with relief of our good fortune and enjoying the new game of "racing" and keeping sight of Dad as he zoomed through the fields and ditches alongside the highway.

When we went back, in daylight, the next morning to dig out the trailer, we found that it too had survived with no noticeable damage (outside of the shorn electrical chord - the end of which was still connected to the back of the van). Once we took the time to carve out the ice and dirt from the inside of the nose, we were able to tow it home with no trouble.

That was worth taking a few minutes to write about.

***********

So that's me in a nutshell. Slogging through my busiest season at work, keeping up with two boys in hockey, chasing my toddler and entertaining my elderly mother-in-law during her extended stay in our home.

I hope to be back sooner than last time!

And my mantra until then?

"Sleep is for the weak!"

The Adventure Continues

So I got a lovely phone call from the tire place this morning.

My tire is not "fixable", there is a puncture on the sidewall and the tire needs to be replaced. $239.51 for a brand new tire, all because the city couldn't be bothered to plow a main thoroughfare.

I'm so pissed.

When I drove to work this morning I looked carefully at the stretch in question. Not only have they not bothered to send a plow down there, I counted no less than 9 places where other vehicles have either hit the ditch on the south side of the road or spun up over the boulevard like I did. All in a stretch only a couple of blocks long at most.

Unbelievable.

So I filed a claim with the city today. I will be submitting my bill for the new tire. I even took the time to take pictures of the ice wells and all the skid marks and blown out snow banks where other vehicles have suffered a fate similar to mine.

I also called their emergency line to report dangerous conditions and contacted the office of the city counsellor for this ward. Obviously complaints from the public aren't making anything happen, so maybe a call from him can get a plow on the road.

What a pain in the ass for a vehicle I'm only going to own for less than a week more.

Grrrrrrrrr.