Catching up

Okay, so it's been awhile since I last posted, and a lot has been happening. I'll try to bring you up-to-date with the highlights, but unfortunately we've misplaced the cord to connect our camera to the computer; so this post will be without pictures. If I find the cord, I'll throw up some pictures in another post.

1. Ultrasounds

E and A both had ultrasounds done at the local children's hospital at the end of May, in a continuing attempt to figure out what's causing their fevers. We had prepared them for the ultrasound with lots of talk ahead of time about what would happen. And, in fact, when we arrived there was even a fight about who got to go first. Yeah, well, that didn't last. By the time we were in the examining room, neither wanted to submit to the torture, and we had to hold poor A on the table while the technician did the work. And she a strong one (A not the technician). :-) Actually, after the first few minutes, when she realized it didn't hurt (I guess mommy and daddy's word on that wasn't believable) she settled down and was fine. And then when it was E's turn it was okay because she'd already seen A go through it.

They weren't allowed to eat anything before the ultrasounds, but we had plied them with Popsicles to try to ensure they had full bladders for the ultrasound... but not too full that they had to pee. It's a delicate balance with three year-olds, and in the end A peed before she hit the exam room, but then had to pee again during the ultrasound. And I had to take E out to the washroom mid-way through the ultrasound because she just absolutely could not hold it any longer.

2. Mennonite Relief Sale

Right after the ultrasounds, we had lunch and hit the road for southern Ontario for our annual trek to the Mennonite Relief Sale.(http://www.nhmrs.com/) Saturday was a beautiful day and we enjoyed filling up on pork on a bun, fresh donuts, and apple fritters, with about 20,000 of our friends. :-) Tragically, for the first time ever, we missed out on the strawberry pie. It was sold out by the time I made my way inside the arena.

3. E's dentist appointment

E had a visit to the dentist in early June (A had an appointment awhile ago, did I blog about that?). She did fantastic. Not only did she sit in the big scary chair, but she even let the hygienist check her teeth, clean them, floss a bit, and put some fluoride on them. And she even helped out by handling Mr. Slurpy (the hose-thing that sucks up the water out of your mouth when they spray it in to rinse). And then, when the dentist came in, she let him have a look too. (A, at her appointment, was happy to hear about what goes on, and play with Mr. Slurpy, but wasn't willing to let them do anything to her other than a quick "count" of her teeth.) When E was finished she was allowed to pick out three toys from the treasure chest. I helped her find three, but really she wanted one thing in particular and that was it. (A small, squishy, gel-like blob that doesn't do anything.) So, while I talked to the hygienist to try to coordinate the next appointments of A and E, she went back to the treasure chest and put the other two toys back. Never mind that A came back from her visit to the dentist with a toy for her sister and brother too.

4. B's dedication

The next weekend my mom and dad came for a visit to be here for B's dedication at our church. Those of you who attend our church know what a fiasco that was. For everyone else, lets just say there was lots of running around at the front of the church when we were supposed to be standing still and listening. I'm sure everyone in the pews were thinking that we should never have gone back to China for a third child, because clearly we are having trouble managing the first two (and now the third). :-)

5. Another weekend of travelling

Last weekend we hit the road again for southern Ontario to be there for the milestone birthday celebration of a good friend of ours. (Happy b-day, K!) This trip also coincided with Field Day (a fun day in the small village I'm from), so we took in a bit of that while we were there, and won the prize for having made the longest trip to get there. And it really was the 'longest' trip... we hit Toronto traffic on the way down, and what used to be a 5.5 hour trip for DoT and I before we had the kids, turned into a 9 hour drive.

Before we left on Friday morning, the girls got their hair cut. In spite of the fact that they both insisted they wanted short hair "like B's", I only let them cut off about 2.5 inches. When I'm able, I'll post pictures.

Of course, all of this was complicated by the fact that ALL the kids had fevers over the weekend. E's started Thursday evening, A's started Friday evening, and B's started Saturday. On the up side, there were no seizures this time. I felt like I was giving meds constantly though... the girls were getting Advil/Tylenol every three hours and B got thrown in there too from time to time. (His fever wasn't really too bad.) Plus, we have a heavy medication schedule for the girls now since we took them to a witch doctor Naturopath in early June. We take a whole bunch of different medications/supplements which means that basically I spend most of the day running after them with spoons full of stuff trying to get them to down it. (Sorry if I've offended any strong believers in Naturopaths. Take comfort in the fact that if this all works and gets rid of the fevers, I'll be the biggest convert to the benefits of Naturopathy in history.)

The girls stayed home from daycare yesterday, but are back today and we're trying to get back into our regular routine.

I think that about covers the highlights of our last few weeks. Like I said, I'll try to post some pictures soon. And maybe even another blog post.

K..

New Duds

This weekend we had a (too short!) visit from Auntie 'Em and L.B. And they both brought fabulous new clothes for B. Here he is sporting them...

P.J.'s from Auntie 'Em (we know Grandma M., particularly, will appreciate these)



And a beautiful hand-knit sweater from L.B.



Nice.

K.

Cool commercial

Hi all,

I just saw this on another blog site I check out every now and then. Regardless of where you stand on the whole pro-life/pro-choice debate, I think you will appreciate this from an adoption perspective...



Oh yeah, in case you noticed something is different... I thought it was time for a change. Hence the new look to the blog.

K..

Wet Weekend

This weekend was the last weekend of the Tulip Festival, so we decided to get out and take in the tulips. Of course, Saturday morning was the best opportunity for us, and therefore it poured rain at that time. But we went all the same. The kids were all set in their rain suits, so the rain didn't bother them one bit. (And I can't tell you how many people commented to us that they wished they had suits like that too.) DoT and I don't have raincoats, so we got plenty wet. (I actually went out and bought a raincoat since this happened.)

Here are a few pics... (it's funny that the pictures don't show how hard it was raining)







Mmmm.. popcorn. It didn't get too soggy.









After checking out the tulips, we went to the small midway just next door. The kids had spotted it on the way in, and I don't think there was any way we were going to get out of there without a trip to the merry-go-round.

All the kids enjoyed the little train ride...



But only A was brave enough for the merry-go-round...



Have a great week!

K...

Rants

Okay, enough is enough. What is wrong with retailers these days? Was it always like this and I was blissfully unaware? Or has the race to be the first out with the new season or holiday gotten out of hand? You know, every year, just after Thanksgiving, I would hear people starting to complain about how the stores were setting up their Christmas displays and it was only October. But I didn't care... I love Christmas and the sooner I start seeing the decorations the better.

But, apparently consistency in my views is not something I strive for. Because this week when I was shopping for sandals for the girls, I found out the I've missed sandal season. Yes, believe it or not, on May 11th when I was looking for sandals, thinking we may need them in the next couple of weeks, I was told that "sandal season is over". Okay, maybe in the hot, sunny climates of the southern States, but for heaven's sake, we live in Canada! We have had maybe one or two days when my kids could have worn sandals so far this year... and I think I'm being generous here. I don't really think there have been any days yet where we could have been in sandals. (Because, as everyone knows... you don't wear socks with sandals!) But, alas, apparently I have missed sandal season.

And it's not just about the sandals. A couple of months ago, when I finally surrendered to the fact that my children's stomachs were hanging out of the bottom of their shirts and I really needed to get them some larger clothes, guess what I found in the stores then (in February/March!). That's right. Sun dresses, tank tops, Capri's and shorts, hats, sunglasses and bathing suits. Okay, so I know some people may be lucky enough to be heading south for a vacation in the sun at that time of the year, but surely not the majority of us. Where were the long sleeved shirts and pants? Apparently, we were into the summer season then.

And don't even get me started about the limited choice I already have in clothing because I am not willing to dress the girls in pink or purple all the time. When I went into Kiddie Kobbler on Monday I saw a display of about 40 different pairs of sandals for girls. About 37 of them were pink. Same thing everywhere else. I got to the point where I was walking into stores asking the sales clerk to bring me any sandal (boys or girls) that wasn't pink and was available in a 7.5 or 8.0. And as of today the girls are still going to be wearing running shoes, or going barefoot, all summer long.

Of course pink shoes would probably match their ensembles of choice these days...

Oh yeah, they like it...

Update

I should have known better. I used to know better. There was a time when I never would have pronounced us to be 'out of the water' or 'past the worst of it' or anything remotely like that, which would have required fate, or the cosmos, or whatever, to decide to knock that stool out from under us and put me 'back in my place'. But obviously, I forgot that lesson somewhere along the line. "Surfacing from sick week"... what was I thinking?

So, less than 12 hours after posting that blog entry, we were back to being a sick house. E's flu which had been gone (so we thought) for two days, was back. It only lasted a bit more than 24 more hours and, if I hadn't learned anything from the retribution to my last post, I would say that she's healthy now. But I'm not making that mistake again.

Of course, as soon as E's flu symptoms went away, A started with a fever. Great. So, that means that I'm running on very little sleep since then, since I'm up constantly through the night checking her temperature and, whenever it is high, spending hours with a damp cloth on her head trying to bring her temperature down. We were successful with that and the alternating Advil/Tylenol cocktails... for about a day. And then, yup, she had another seizure - yesterday afternoon. It was a mild one, or so our caregiver tells me. It happened at the daycare, and of course by the time DoT and I got there, it was long over. On the one hand, it's good it happened at the daycare, since I didn't see it, and I'm definitely less freaked out this time than I was the last time. (Although still a bit freaked out.) But, on the other hand, our caregiver assures us that this time she didn't stop breathing and so it might have been good if I had seen it, so I could quit worrying about the not breathing part. Anyhow, she hasn't had any fever medication for about 6 hours now and seems fine, so hopefully we're done with this fever and we're good to go for about another six weeks. Of course, I would never say that we're over it, or even suggest that I was thinking we're over it... at least not without knocking on every piece of wood furniture in our house. :-)

The playhouse that was ordered at the baby shower I went to last weekend has arrived and is being delivered to us (by our lovely friends who hosted the shower) tonight. Hopefully DoT and I will be able to put it together tomorrow. I'm sure all the kids will be anxious to have it set up, so we'll see what we can do. Neither one of us is the handiest though, so we may need to wait until Grandpa G comes for his next visit. :-)

Sorry, no pictures with this blog entry. Maybe if we get the playhouse set up soon we'll put a picture of that on the blog.

Also, for anyone who would like to have pictures from us that they can download and print (yes, I'm thinking of you, Cheryl M), send me an email and I'll add you to the list of people who can access our Flickr photos. We're starting to upload pics to Flickr (but we're not going back in time, so don't even bother sending us a request for a pic you saw in the past) so others can access them too. But I'm far too paranoid to make our Flickr account open to just anyone, so it's by invitation only. Send me a note and I'll add you.

That's it for now. Have a great weekend everyone!

K..