My Own Personal Slave

I remember being the personal slave while growing up. Actually each of us (me and my three Sisters) took turns being the personal slave. My older Sister had the shortest stint, being two years older than me, I replaced her rather quickly. Seven years later my next Sister was born, I was able to pass the torch on to her at the exact moment she was able to walk. Then, another seven years go by and lo and behold her relief arrived!! My youngest Sister was crafty from a very young age. She realized that personal slaves were invaluable and started charging for her services.
$1.00 for a run to the kitchen from the tv room
$0.50 for a channel change on the tv
$0.75 for back massages, that she was very good at!!

Here we are many years later and on a good day, I can count on "J" to be my personal slave :) This doesn't work every day, but on days that he is feeling helpful it definately works to my advantage. Our dogs love to go outside, constantly. "J" now can slide open the patio door and let them in and out. Gone are my days of being disturbed by them all the time, I can now share the annoyance with someone else. If I need a remote or a book off the counter or even something from another room, "J" is there to help me out. I only hope that his help continues on for a great long while, I finally understand why my Dad loved to have us girls running around for him.

A visit to the Museum

I couldn't take the sitting around yesterday. Hubby doesn't get it that our home is my office and when the weekend comes, I don't want to sit around here while he sits on a chair and reads a french book or the paper or whatever. I spend all week cleaning, playing and hanging out, when the weekend comes I want us to head out and do something. I finally suggested a museum yesterday, mostly because we didn't need to go shopping for anything, it was a little chilly for the canal, and we bought the membership and hadn't gone to the Science Museum yet. We packed up and headed off.

It turned out to be quite fun! "J" got to touch and play with everything, he mostly loved all the headphones and phones everywhere. I will say that I was a little disappointed, it has changed since I was a kid and since we used to take "A" there. There didn't seem to be as much to play with and experiment as I remembered. And I was definately disppointed at the space section. There was nothing about the Canadarm, and there were mostly posters and videos instead of the real thing (or replicas) to look at. "J" had lots of fun and had a good nap after, so it meant that he got lots of running around excercise and that makes it worth it hands down.

The farm should have the animals in this week, so hopefully we will go there agian soon and maybe bring "J2"!

Baby Neice has arrived!!!!

After much anticipation and craziness! Baby Neice arrived sunnyside up and a little bruised (her whole face, poor thing), but otherwise healthy and happy. She will be kept in the NICU until her apparent "36th" week due date, which will be Wednesday of next week. She weighed in at 5lbs 13oz and wanted to come a full hour before she did, but had to "wait" for the Doctor to arrive (hence the bruise). I did not get to see her myself as I graciously gave up my visitor's pass for my Mom :). They are only allowed two visitors per day and J2 counted as a visitor. So it was a flip between me and my Mom and well, I can wait. I will be seeing lots of her later on when her Dad goes back to work and we hang out with J2 for a playdate.

First Sleepover (of many I am sure)

The first sleepover went well, despite an understandibly teary J2, who could not understand why his Mommy and Daddy weren't coming to get him. Broke my heart. It took him a good hour and a half to go to sleep last night, not something I am used to "J" goes down and is gone like that. I cuddled and explained that his Baby Sister was trying really hard to come to see him. And that Daddy and Mommy were at the hospital, by my fourth visit he told me to go downstairs as he was alright, bless his heart.

The morning started at 6am, which is later for "J" and average for J2. J2 would have slept longer if our nosey Huskey hadn't gone in and woken him up, but within a few minutes the boys were back to playing with the toys and our day started in happiness.

Oh yes, and Baby SisterNeice is being a little stubborn and has not arrived yet. Not sure what the plan is going to be for today, but my Sister has not progressed through the night so there has been some talk of a section, but hopefully she will progress this morning and that won't be necessary.

Ugggh the waiting!

The not-so Terrible Two

They really arent' that bad, really. They have been having lots of fun today, pulling out every possible toy, over and over and over again. And of course, with my compulsiveness to put toys away when not being played with, I finally caught on that they are just trying to make me work. Now they are happily playing with stuffies, tossing them all around the living room, while I take a few moments for me :)

And now we wait

My experiment was technically cancelled yesterday. Which only means that I don't take the last shot of meds to make sure that I ovulate. That being said, I will still most likely ovulate on my own and I have 5 rather large follicles that will probobly release five eggs. I also have a whack load of extra not as large follicles that heaven forbid, could release as well. We are still in the running to acheive a pregnancy, but now our chances of twins has just been multiplied to chances of five, what is five quintuplets?

We were aware of the chances we were taking when we started this experiment, but the risk was that we may end up with triplets. I was ok with that thought, but upping the chances to five is just so much more. I am trying not to go overboard with my thoughts, but truth be told is that I have to prepare myself seriously to the fact that a mistake was made and I may have to live with the consequences of it. We will be looking for sponsor's if this happens, you can be sure of that :)

Another day of toddlers awaits me, yesterday was pretty fun, the boys played well with only a few minor incidents. We will have to wait and see what today brings for them. Well, at least I get the practice ;)

Still Waiting

For Baby Neice to arrive! The Dr chose not to induce, but to send her home again with no restrictions. My Sister is hoping with no restrictions she will go into labour properly herself. She is having an Intrauterine Labour, where the baby wants to come, but her body isn't responding properly. This, still makes me nervous. But, hopefully if she walks around for a day or two instead of laying down, things will get moving properly. Heck, I could send "J" to join "J2" and see how it helps ;).

As for me, our experiment seems to have gone bust. Despite expressing my huge concerns on Sunday that they were continuing with the large amount of drugs and that I will have way too many follicles, which would result in way too many eggs, the nurses told me to "trust them, they know what they are doing". Well, yesterday, I got a "sorry we made a mistake" from one of the Dr's. Of course, when I say what are you going to do for me with this mistake, all I got was better luck next time. THERE WON'T BE A NEXT TIME!!!!! ARGH!!! So I am pretty bummed, there is a 1 in 4 chance that we can go ahead, but it really wasn't looking good for me yesterday. I mean, we could go ahead, but we would run the risk of 10 or so embryos! I don't think we are ready for more than twins or at the absolute most triplets. Hubby was worried that somehow we will still end up with four or five embryos anyway, his concerns are real. Despite cancelling, there is still a possibility that my body will release all the eggs on it's own and if that happens, we could still end up with a plethora of embryos on the go. I will try not to hold my breath today as I run through the tests to see where we are at.

Toddler times two!

On this my second day with two two and a half year olds, who are not only cousins, but only a week apart, scares me a little. They will play happily for a while then all of a sudden melt down!!! One wants what the other has, even when they are the exact same toy, and vice versa. I am getting a glimpse, but only just a glimpse of what life would be like with twins, not so bad at times, head splitting at other moments. I love them both though so it's all good :)

My sister had to be rushed back to the hospital yesterday when within 45 minutes her contractions were coming at 3min apart. Thankfully, I am a skilled driver, who did not have to speed (too much) and am creative at parking quickly (handicapped) and at speaking loudly down the halls without yelling ("woman in labour, clear the way) while pushing a wheelchair loaded with sister and paraphenalia. Her hubby arrived a few minutes after us and I left. Phew! Unfortunatley her labour stopped a few hours later and they are currently assessing what to do with her (i.e. send her home agian or induce).

Add to that that I am cooking a roast for my Sister and her Husband at 11am, so I am drooling over a roast and it won't be ready for hours, ack!

J2 (nephew) just wacked J in the head with a butterfly net. Why oh why? All for a guitar. And this is only Tuesday :)

Home for now

My Sis was allowed to come home last night. But, only after they were able to set up homecare to come to the house every day to check on her. She will still be on strict bedrest. We have all been recruited. Mom and I will trade shifts next week making sure she does not get out of bed and watching "J2". He doctor will induce her a week from Wednesday if she hasn't gone into full labour. So that will make it two and a half weeks she will have had to wait. Baby Neice is weighing in at almost 6lbs and according to the u/s looks happy and healthy.

We are well into our fertility experiment. This will be our only shot at this experiment as Hubby's work apparently cancelled coverage for fertility drugs without telling anyone!! So, like our ivf, this will be our only kick in the can. $1000 for drugs for an experiment just cannot be justified in our budget. We only went into this one as we thought we were still covered. So far so good, I have not had any side effects of the drugs and will go for a first round of tests on Sunday to see how they are working (which better be perfect considering the cost ;) ).

Almost a Valentine's

My younger sister went into preterm labour yesterday!! She is at 35 weeks and her water started "leaking" with mild contractions. They took all day to get her an ultrasound to check out the little bean, so she was confined to bed all day. Then, after the ultrasound decided that she needed to stay at the hospital on bedrest for at least a week to try and keep the baby in for another week. Oh the tears!!!! And I completely understand, it was her first night away from her little guy "J2", who is two and a half. I was able to go in and see her yesterday and "J" and "J2" got to have a playdate at Grandma's house. Which meant I also got to catch up on all my work :)

Unfortunately the hospital is not yet set up with WiFi, so I couldn't even give her a computer to play with. Apparently they are working on it, just haven't quite got there yet, "should be in for your next baby" they said. So poor thing will be hanging out, in bed, all day long. I would be bawling too, but I did remind her to catch up on sleep and reading while she doesn't have to run after a toddler and a new born. Let Grandma run ;) (I did offer too, but Grandma has a visitor who used to be a Nanny so she has back up).

So for now, we will wait for our little niece, hoping that she will wait another week to show up, just long enough so she doesn't have to be in Nicu and can come home to Mom and Dad and her Big Brother.

Hang tight almost Valentine.

Happy Valentine's

Happy Valentine's. I wish you all a day full of Love and Happiness, surrounded by the ones you Love.

My day started at 4:30am, yes, we have moved up a half an hour!! But, I am well rested as I went to bed at 7pm with "J" last night as my head was splitting in two. When I ask "J" the question "Guess What?" he replies, "I Love You". So this morning as I was carrying him downstairs at the crack of dawn or well before the crack of dawn, I asked "Guess What?" and sure enough I got my reply. That is the best way to start Valentine's other than maybe sleeping another half an hour.

I have now been replaced by "Woody" and "Buzz Lightyear" and we are already on viewing number one of "Toy Story". I am starting to think that it was not such as good an idea that we thought it was to pick it up on Saturday. Not sure yet, but I think we will be weening off "Toy Story" sometime today.

Happy Valentine's Everyone

Chocolate, Roses, Hallmark Cards

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. In my heart of being a girly girl, I love Valentine's Day. Just to be thought of with a simple card or flowers (they don't have to be Roses) is truly what I love. Hubby on the other hand doesn't like the fact that there is a day set aside to "make" you show your love. So we will have to see what tomorrow will bring here in our house.

I do want to take a moment to remember one Valentines day a very long time ago (ok, not so long, but twenty years, is that long??). I was in grade 10 and every Valentine's Day you could buy roses and have them sent to your sweetheart in home room. My sister always sent me one, which was really sweet, so I would be thought of even if I didn't have a boyfriend. But, along with her rose, I received a rose from an admirer. All the card said was "I tip my hat to you". I thought I knew who it was from but, he said no it wasn't him. It wasn't until years later that I found out that it was him, and I never got to tell him I knew. It was a great day though, all my girlfriends trying to figure out who it was that sent it.

Since then, I have had many fun filled Valentine's Day's. Some spent working, serving dinners to the love struck or tending bar and listening to the not so love struck cry about being alone. And some being treated to an evening out full of surprises. After "J" came along we started getting together as a family for a Valentine's dinner. Although this year everyone seems to be so busy, that we will just be us tomorrow. But, that is fine with me two, because card or no card, flowers or no flowers, I will be with the two greatest loves of my life. The only way it would be better, is if "A" was here with us too. He misses out, but I'll save him some special chocolate sweet thing for dinner on Wednesday.

Happy Day before Valentine's, may you all be surounded by the ones you Love.

Olympic Fever

I thought it would be fun to watch the opening ceremonies for the Olympics last night. Which were all in all pretty great. I got quite teary-eyed while listening to the speech from the Olympic President, or was it the President of Italy? Anyhow, the speech went on to ask for peace. And for [all athletes to play fair and get along no matter their religion, nationality or the country they came from]. It was great. If only it was so simple to get what we ask for, then perhaps the whole world could live together in peace.

I have to comment on the music, as was brought up by Whoorl, what was with the music while all the athletes were filing in? They were playing some really old funky disco-ish music. I laughed a few times and wondered why on earth they chose those particular songs to sing.

I loved the women carrying in the Olympic flag. Sophia Loren looked gorgeous as always and Susan Sarandon looked amazing and was smiling so beautifully. I felt I was having a proud moment for them, being the first women to carry in the flag.

And today we won our first Gold Medal!! YAY!! Jennifer Heil won gold in the women's moguls. Great Job Jennifer!! And the Women's Hockey team won their first game 16-0 against Italy. (I do feel sorry for the Italian Ladies, but it is their first year and they got to play because they are the host team. They played a good game and looked like they were having fun).

Will continue to watch the games and hope that the Men's Hockey team can ignore the silliness out there surrounding the Gretzky's and play hard to win. Go Team Canada Go!!

leaps and bounds

It has taken "J" getting sick for me to sit back and reflect on how much he has changed and grown since last summer.

He keeps telling me he is "OK" every time I wipe his nose or take his temperature. He seems to understand that I am a little more concerned about him when he is sick as opposed to days when I let him run free and not follow with a tissue.

He is having more independant play, for which I am greatful. He has started to have conversations with his action figures. The Rescue Heroes are his favorite right now, so he plays with them and tells them to put out fires and rescue. It is so adorable to watch, I feel as though I have waited a long time to see independant play.

We also had Thomas, James, Edward and Percy all lined up at the table being served yogurt! "J" took the yougurt out of the fridge himself, grabed a spoon and started feeding all his friends. Now if only I could get him to eat his yougurt too, then we would all be happy.

He also fell in love with his "My First Leap Pad" we got on sale after Christmas and decided to wait a bit to give it to him. We broke it out last Friday and it has been a hit ever since. It is like his own "game" but instead of a video game it teaches him things. It isn't his first "Leap" product, he has the alphabet centipede and an alphabet tablet, but this one tells stories and he just loves it. Now we need to buy another book or two, maybe a Dora one :)

Having his first cold in a year hasn't been so bad after all, he is just starting to catch on to the fact that after two days it hurts to wipe your nose. And Hubby is definately a sickie too, but I can only take care of one at a time, so he gets leftovers, poor guy. So far so good, I am not sick at all, but am getting ready to start my fertility experiment, so it should be fun.

Fever gone

Thankfully the fever left yesterday after another night of playing "steamroller". At least Hubby went to "A"'s room so "J" and I had the bed to ourselves to not really sleep. Yesterday we had a sick day. We didn't go out and we had lots of juice and movies. And a NAP!!!! Phew, I didn't know how I was going to make it through the afternoon when all of a sudden "J" fell asleep. So of course, I did too :)

Last night was completely back to normal, "J" stayed in his own bed and slept right through. Even if right through is until 4:45am, I was much happier with that than not sleeping all night. This morning he looks much better and hopefully his runny nose will only last a day or two, hopefully. Will definately go out today at least for some fresh air and a change of scenery.

Now, I will wait until Hubby wakes up as he was grumbling about being sick on his way to bed.

The Napless Wonder with a Fever

I feel terrible that I have been absent this past week. I have been dealing with "J" no longer napping and readjusting my work schedule. All of a sudden "J" just stopped napping. He went from two hours every day to not! And he is not sleeping in any later (except today) than usual so I am wondering how he will continue to function without twelve hours of sleep. There were a few exceptions when he would fall asleep in the car and I would transfer him to his bed, but just as I was shutting his door he would be wide awake and on his way downstairs again. He did have a nap on Saturday, but he stayed up late that night so it was cancelled out.

I used to do a large portion of work during his naptime, it was basically half my day's worth, so I have found that I am falling behind. I was able to work for a couple of hours last week while "J" played with his trains, but he isn't always in the mood to let "Mommy work". So I will have to see if I am able to keep this up or not.

Then, the fever started. Last night around midnight "J" climed into bed with me a fell asleep. At first I thought it was morning, but when he fell asleep I realized that it was still night. I reached over to pick him up and transfer him back to bed when I felt his tummy and he was burning up. I waited until he woke up (20 min) and gave him some medicine. Two hours later, he fell back asleep using my knees as a pillow and putting his burning hot feet on my neck. But, he was asleep and stayed that way all night. It was me that had a hard time hetting back to sleep, I didn't want to move him for fear of him not falling back to sleep, and Hubby kept trying to push me back over on my side of the bed. I was a human sandwich! Tonight if we have a recap, I will go sleep in "J"'s room with "J". The fever stayed at bay until 4pm when it came back. "J" was asleep by 6pm and hopefully will be better in the morning.

I have wonderful cake photos to post, but will have to wait until the morning :)

Smokey Blue Martini

For Danigirl's party!!!